Icons Speak: Their Message PDF
Preview Icons Speak: Their Message
ICONS SPEAK: THEIR MESSAGE Introducing the Twelve Great Feast Days of Orthodox Christianity through the written and the visual Gospel (the Bible and Icon) emphasizing their meaning for us today Anthony M. Coniaris LIGHT & LIFE PUBLISHING COMPANY MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA Light & Life Publishing Company PO Box 26421 Minneapolis, MN 55426-0421 P: (952) 925-3888 F: (888) 925-3918 Copyright © 2012 Light & Life Publishing Company All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the written permission of Light & Life Publishing Company. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews. The use of electronic books is subject to all terms and conditions of their license agreements and to copyright provisions. ISBN 978-1-933654-37-9 TABLE OF CONTENTS FOREWORD 4 A PRAYER RECITED BEFORE PAINTING AN ICON 5 CHAPTER ONE 8 CHAPTER TWO 20 CHAPTER THREE 27 CHAPTER FOUR 37 CHAPTER FIVE 47 CHAPTER SIX 63 CHAPTER SEVEN 70 CHAPTER EIGHT 83 CHAPTER NINE 94 CHAPTER TEN 101 CHAPTER ELEVEN 115 CHAPTER TWELVE 127 CHAPTER THIRTEEN 143 CHAPTER FOURTEEN 158 CHAPTER FIFTEEN 171 CHAPTER SIXTEEN 182 ADDENDUM - Saint George 194 ADDENDUM - Ladder of Divine Ascent 198 Notes 205 FOREWORD The great power of the icon is the power to remind. The Holy Fathers of the Seventh Ecumenical Council decreed, “The icons remind those who pray of the icons’ prototypes and, through gazing upon the icons, the believers lift up their minds from the images to the prototypes.” This is why Orthodox Christians venerate icons—praying before them, lighting candles before them, kissing them, setting lamps before them, and censing them. If icons were merely “artistic depictions,” all of this veneration would be criminal idolatry and sinfully absurd. Why? Because only God deserves such honor. Thus, the icons are venerated because, through their prayerful use, the believer ascends from image to proto-image (prototype). As the Fathers of the Seventh Ecumenical Council wrote, An icon remembers its prototype. Thus, in one beholder it will awaken in the bright clarities of his conscious mind a spiritual vision that matches directly the bright clarities of the icon; and the beholder’s vision will be comparably clear and conscious. But in another person, the icon will stir the dreams that lie deeper in the subconscious, awakening a perception of the spiritual that not only affirms that such seeing is possible but also brings the thing seen into immediately felt experience. Thus, at the highest flourishing of their prayer, the ancient ascetics found that their icons were not simply windows through which they could behold the holy countenances depicted on them but were also doorways through which these countenances actually entered the empirical world. The saints came down from the icons to appear before those praying to them. These words express the purpose of this book: to make the great feast days of the Orthodox Church come alive through the study of the icon of each feast, together with its scriptural text. Almost all the icons in this book are biblical icons whose reality is grounded in the revealed word of God. It has been said that in Orthodoxy the year is defined by feast days. For this reason, this book will study the great feasts of our Lord (and a few others) in order to better acquaint us with the basic tenets of our Orthodox faith. The Fathers of the Seventh Ecumenical Council said about the icon that “What the word says, the image shows us silently; what we have heard we have seen.” A study of the scripture text combined with a prayerful study of the icon and the meaning of each feast will yield, by God’s grace, a feast for the eyes, the heart, and the soul. In this sense, all icons are miracle-working, and all can be windows and doors into eternity. There are those who object that the second commandment (Ex. 20:4-6) prohibits all imagery. Yet in the holy of holies, God’s throne in Israel’s midst, the mercy seat had a cherub on each side. Moreover, the ark of the covenant in the holy of holies contained the relics (or icons) of Israel: the pot of manna, Aaron’s rod, and the tablets of the Law. After the Son of God became man (the Incarnation), the image or icon of Christ became in the East a confession of faith in the reality of the Incarnation, which Vladimir Lossky calls “the supreme theophany.” It must be noted that iconoclasm (the movement to remove icons from Orthodox Churches) did not arise among theologians but was imposed on the people by the Byzantine emperor Leo Isaurus. He issued a decree in 726 A.D. forbidding the veneration of icons. Many notable Church leaders of the time came to the defense of icons. But the emperor declared himself “Caesar and High Priest” and chose to ignore the bishops. St. John of Damascus spoke out against imperial claims over the Church. He wrote, “We will obey you, O emperor, in those matters that pertain to our daily lives: payments, taxes, tributes…But as far as the government of the Church is concerned, we have our [i] bishops and pastors who interpret the ordinances of the Church.” The Feast Days of our Lord to be considered in this volume include: 1. The Anastasis (Resurrection) 2. The Falling Asleep of the Theotokos 3. The Pantocrator Christ 4. The Nativity 5. Icons of the Theotokos With Child (the Incarnation) 6. The Annunciation 7. The Transfiguration 8. The Raising of Lazarus 9. The Entry Into Jerusalem 10. The Ascension 11. The Hospitality of Abraham (Trinity) 12. The Crucifixion 13. The Descent of the Holy Spirit (Pentecost) 14. Theophany, the Baptism of Jesus 15. The Presentation of Christ in the Temple 16. The Mystical Supper Addendum 17. The Icon of Saint George 18. The Icon of the Ladder of Divine Ascent Essentially, this volume includes the Dodecaorton of the twelve major feasts of our Lord. Added to the Dodecaorton are the icons of the Feast of the Falling Asleep of the Theotokos, the Hospitality of Abraham, and five of the icons of the Theotokos With Child. A PRAYER RECITED BEFORE PAINTING AN ICON Gennadios Limouris O Divine Lord of all that exists, Thou hast illumined the Apostle and Evangelist Luke with thy Holy Spirit, hereby enabling him to represent thy most Holy Mother, the Theotokos, the one who held Thee in her arms and said: “The grace of Him who has been born of me is spread throughout the world.” Enlighten and direct my soul, my heart and my spirit. Guide the hands of thine unworthy servant so that I may worthily and perfectly portray thine icon, that of thy Mother and all the saints, for the glory, joy and adornment of thy Holy Church. Forgive my sins and the sins of those who will venerate these icons and who, kneeling devoutly before them, give homage to those they represent. Protect them from all evil and instruct them with good counsel. This I ask, through the intercessions of thy most Holy Mother, the Apostle Luke and all the saints. Amen [ii] BRIEF THOUGHTS ON SACRED ICONS Icons serve a purpose to the extent that they can assist us in becoming icons of God. We are like darkened pieces of glass through which the light of eternity passes only dimly, but through ascesis, God’s grace cleanses us so that in the words of St. Paul, “But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord” (2 Cor. 3:18). The much enlarged eyes are fixed on the transcental world. The fine lips lack all sensuality…they are singing praises. The nose is merely the finest curve, the forehead broad and high…to emphasize the preoccupation with contemplative thought…. The full face establishes communion by plunging the gaze into the eyes of the spectator…(Paul Evdokimov). What the words of the sermon are for the ear, so icons are for the eyes (Fr. Paul Florensky). In iconography, the events of salvation are not interpreted historically but expressed mystically and embodied liturgically; they interpenetrate with one another. They become a witness to the “different way of life” which has broken through the bounds set by corruption. They invite us to a spiritual banquet, here, now (Archimandrite Vasileios). Icons can depict not only God becoming man but also humanity becoming God (Dr. Gennadios Limouris). The Incarnation justifies the icon. To strike at the icon is to strike against the Christological doctrine of the Incarnation. The inner reality (of the icon) is “Taboric,” spiritually illuminated. There is never a source of light in an icon. Light is its subject; you do not illuminate the sun. We can say that an iconographer paints with the Taboric light (Paul Evdokimov). What the iconographer seeks to present in the icon is not human nature but deified human nature—the transformed person. Leonid Ouspensky never understood iconography to be a mere art, not even a “religious” art, but a way to proclaim the Gospel (Dr. Constantine Scouteris). Luther tolerated the images as an illustration. Calvin accepted only “historical scenes” of a general nature. For Protestants…there is no such thing as preaching through art, because art has no real significance (Paul Evdokimov). What the book tells us in words, the icon tells us in colors, and makes it present to us. (The Council of AD 860 ) Icons are not fundamentally intended to satisfy the inner human search for beauty, rather, to arouse repentance and compunction (Dr. Constantine Scouteris). They (icons) do not reveal themselves to us at first sight. It is only gradually after a patient, prayerful presence that they start speaking to us. And as they speak, they speak more to our inner than to our outer senses. They speak to the heart that searches for God (Henry Nouwen). A religious picture is an altogether different thing from a liturgical icon. The one is the creation of someone’s artistic talent, the other the flower and reflection of liturgical life. The one is of this world. It speaks of this world and leaves you in this world. The other brings you a simple, peaceful and life-giving message, coming down from above (Archimandrite Vasileios). Luther said, “Christ’s Kingdom is a hearing Kingdom, not a seeing Kingdom” (Luther’s Collected Works, Weimar, 51 p. 11). In Orthodoxy God’s Kingdom is both a hearing Kingdom and seeing Kingdom. St. Gregory of Nyssa writes that, “every person is the painter of his own life, and choice is the craftsman of the work, and the virtues are the paints for reproducing the image.” “Christ is the icon of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation” (Col. 1:15).
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