Brethren, Peace and Good to you in our Lord Jesus Christ. I was asked the following question by a dear Orthodox Christian sister in a forum I participate. I want to share both the question and my answer with all of you:Posted on 02/28/2012 10:31:29 PM PST by Teófilo
Brethren, Peace and Good to you in our Lord Jesus Christ. I was asked the following question by a dear Orthodox Christian sister in a forum I participate. I want to share both the question and my answer with all of you:
…with your suggestion of discussing what happens when we venerate holy icons, and given that we agree that to venerate the icon is to draw near to the person in the image, then the question remains how does drawing near to Christ, the Theotokos, and the Saints affect us.
I’ll be brief for a change. I think that becoming holy is to become fully human and that when we become holy, we are able to take off the masks we present to others, the masks of our pretenses, of the ideals promulgated by our Pagan culture. We are able to show ourselves to others as who we are, in all of our depths, in the reality that God meant us to be from eternity.
The iconographer recognizes this fact; he or she has the gift to see the holy ones as they truly are now, shining with inner light in eternity. With economy of form and movement, the iconographer captures the inner depths and the outer symmetries of the holy one who is now fully what God intended him to be.
The iconodule or “icon venerator” (you and me, I hope) recognizes that we are meant to be subjects for a future iconographer. We need to reflect the Glory of God in Jesus in ourselves, by being the man or woman God intended us to be from eternity, before sin marred us. Our duty of sorts is to be a subject for an iconographer and through the exchange, to become examples for others to emulate.
That’s why icons appeal so much to me, why I treasure and venerate them, and become closer in the Body of Christ to those whom the icon re-presents to us on earth.
Paragraphs are your friends....
Can you kindly please make paragraphs, I can barely read it. Thank-you and God Bless. :)
Again, a gentle but FIRM reminder in correction: Catholics DO NOT WORSHIP any satues or icons.
Thank-you and God Bless you for this excellent article.
Do you know what makes for idols: power, money, possesions, control of others make for idol-worship.
These Eastern Christian icons DO NOT.
An artist depicting two Aaronic priests bowing before the Ark of the Covenant is not an authority for claiming that this actually took place.
Your opinion.
It is only the opinion of the artist that Aaronic priests bowed before the Ark of the Covenant as per that rendition.
The second commandment is crystal clear. Don’t make a graven image or likeness, don’t bow to them or serve them. This is the only commandment God says He will punish future generations for violating.
When reading the postings in this thread in regads to the sad divisions among Christians, no wonder non Christians look at the Christian faith with disdain. The divisions among Christians must stop.
At a time when the Eastern Christians in the Middle East are coming more under attack and during the Christian Lent, a time of Christian spiritual renewel, icons point to the direction of Christ and of God.
If one is conscious of not praying to icons, how can it lead to idolatry?
As Christian, we are not obligated to follow Hebrew norms of liturgy and worship, although we can say with conviction that all of ours are intimately connected to the former in word and action. The Catechism of the Catholic Church clearly states:
2129 The divine injunction included the prohibition of every representation of God by the hand of man. Deuteronomy explains: “Since you saw no form on the day that the Lord spoke to you at Horeb out of the midst of the fire, beware lest you act corruptly by making a graven image for yourselves, in the form of any figure. . . . “66 It is the absolutely transcendent God who revealed himself to Israel. “He is the all,” but at the same time “he is greater than all his works.”67 He is “the author of beauty.”68
2130 Nevertheless, already in the Old Testament, God ordained or permitted the making of images that pointed symbolically toward salvation by the incarnate Word: so it was with the bronze serpent, the ark of the covenant, and the cherubim.69
2131 Basing itself on the mystery of the incarnate Word, the seventh ecumenical council at Nicaea (787) justified against the iconoclasts the veneration of icons - of Christ, but also of the Mother of God, the angels, and all the saints. By becoming incarnate, the Son of God introduced a new “economy” of images.
2132 The Christian veneration of images is not contrary to the first commandment which proscribes idols. Indeed, “the honor rendered to an image passes to its prototype,” and “whoever venerates an image venerates the person portrayed in it.”70 The honor paid to sacred images is a “respectful veneration,” not the adoration due to God alone:
Religious worship is not directed to images in themselves, considered as mere things, but under their distinctive aspect as images leading us on to God incarnate. The movement toward the image does not terminate in it as image, but tends toward that whose image it is.71
-Theo
PING!
Good detailed presentation.
Thank you! Glory be to Jesus Christ!
I didn’t say you worshipped the icons;you are not supposed to kneel in front of them or pray in front of them. They are not even supposed to be used in worship.
So Deuteronomy means nothing?
Just praying in the presence of icons is a form of idolatry.
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