ICONS & “ORTHODOXY”
(Monday, March 10)
Yesterday we celebrated the Sunday of Orthodoxy, which commemorates the triumph of the 7th Ecumenical Council’s teaching on icon-veneration, after a long period of struggling against “iconoclasm” (an attack or battle against holy images), which had again flared up after this Council. Why is icon-veneration inherent to Christian orthodoxy? Because icons remind us of who and what is normal for our faith and life, lest we forget. It’s easy to forget, especially in our troubled times, when the abnormal seems to be triumphing over our Christian normal from the highest positions of power, and even taking pride in its unorthodox, brutish ways. But let’s consider some other aspects of iconoclasm.
To be an “iconoclast,” or to attack holy images, means to attack the human being. It is through and by human hands that holy images are created, in order to memorialize (or not forget) and share the salvation that faithful human eyes have seen, and how they saw it. Icons are, after all, works of art. They manifest and “pass on” (or “tradition”) both the physical and spiritual faith-experience of our ancestors in the Church, going back to the prophets and the apostles, who through their eyewitness testimony forged communion with those who believed their testimony. “That which we have seen and heard we declare to you,” says the Apostle John, “that you also may have communion (κοινωνίαν) with us; and truly our communion is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ.” (1 John 1:3) While the Apostles mainly evangelized through the spoken and written word (which also “incarnates” God’s will and love for us, and is thus also an icon), further generations of believers also began to depict their eyewitness testimony not only through words, but through other kinds of works of art, namely, holy images, so as not to forget what and whom these generations had seen, heard, believed and loved. It was as natural and as human as us keeping photos of people, places and events dear to us. But, differently from a lot of our photos, when it comes to apostolic tradition, the words and images passed on to us also remind us of what is the norm, the “canon,” of faith, lest we distort it through forgetfulness and thus lose touch with, or communion with, the One who both physically and spiritually reveals Himself to us through Tradition.
This “canon” or norm, of Whom we’re reminded through icons, is vital for helping us stay on the path of “Orthodoxy.” It is a path, I’ll repeat, – a path and a process to which we are called, rather than an identity we automatically possess, because we go to an Orthodox church or do or say Orthodox things. The word “Ortho-doxia” comes from two words, which together mean the process or path of becoming “straightened out” (orthoi) or made “upright/straight/correct” in our thinking, believing, expecting, and glorifying (in) our Lord and the new life He is always leading us into, through our cross-carrying journeys. It’s important to keep our eyes on the prize, so to say, whenever our trials and tribulations might drag us off the straight and narrow path into fear, anger, resentments, or indifference to God, His image(s) in our neighbors, and other manifestations of beauty in our world. Thank You, Lord, for Your icons in our midst, and may they help us today to stay human and beautiful, when things get ugly.
