Today is the triumph of Orthodoxy. On this First Sunday of Lent in 842 A.D. the iconodules—our “right believing” forefathers who upheld the Apostolic Faith, celebrated their victory over the heretical beliefs of the iconoclasts, the “icon-smashers.”
Now, if there’s one charge we Orthodox hear more often than any other from the Protestants it’s this: “You worship icons.” Of course, it’s at such times that we as Orthodox have the opportunity to explain that for us, worshiping icons would be blasphemy and heresy; that while we venerate and greatly honor the holy icons, we only worship God the Holy Trinity.
The greatest object of veneration in Israel was the Ark of the Covenant, which God directed the Israelites to appoint with pure gold and decorate with images of golden cherubim, (Exodus 25:18). No Israelite would even think of worshiping the Ark, but they held the Ark in holy awe and fear. The Ark contained the holiest objects of Israel’s veneration: the rod of Aaron and the Tablets of the Ten Commandments. But just a few chapters later in Exodus 32, we read that the Israelites were worshiping a golden calf. That is what we truly call idolatry, but the regard they rightly showed the Ark, we recognize as veneration, which gives glory to God.
The holy icons, the Gospel, the cross itself are objects of Christian veneration precisely because they direct us and inspire in us worship of the Holy Trinity. When we see an icon of Christ, we know that He is not some mythical being, but rather the Lord God Himself who became incarnate on our behalf, to enter into human nature as man and defeat our sin and death as God. We can depict Christ iconographically, with great honor and in accordance with Holy Tradition because of and in affirmation of the historic reality of the Incarnation of the Word made flesh.
Likewise, we depict the Saints who have triumphed in the life of Christ precisely because of the reality of changed lives, of deification, growth in holiness that Christ God brings us by virtue of His Incarnation. Our veneration of the holy icons testifies the reality of faith. When we gaze upon an icon of the Holy Theotokos or any of the Saints of the Church and venerate them, we affirm the reality of Christ God’s work in them and through them to God’s glory.
And so, for us as Orthodox, the holy icons are more than holy ‘pictures’ and they are never “religious art”: our Fathers in the Faith, countless of whom lost their lives in martyrdom to uphold the Apostolic, Orthodox Faith, rightly understood that without the holy icons, the fullness of the historic reality of the Incarnation would be lost, the affirmation that the Word indeed became flesh and “dwelt among us” and raised up fallen Adam, would come to be understood in increasingly twisted ways that would threaten our faith, our healing, our salvation in Christ.
Our Orthodox forefathers rightly understood that if the icons of Christ, His Saints, and His miracles were lost, the reality of God’s glorification of His Saints, as depicted in the icons of these holy men and women in their deified states, would also be lost.
Those who gave their lives to uphold Orthodoxy, celebrated the victory of the Orthodox as God’s protection of His Church. The battle against the iconoclasts was the last of a five hundred year struggle to uphold the Orthodox Faith against those who would change our faith and thus commit heresy. Each of these heresies tried to alter the Faith of the Apostles, the Orthodoxy, we still profess. The restoration of the icons brought with it the end of struggle against the Gnostics, the Arians, the Nestorians and iconoclasts—they were all defeated in that 7th Council!
In this way, we truly affirm that the Feast of the Triumph of Orthodoxy goes to the very heart of our belief in Christ and our salvation. All other triumphs of our faith stem from this truth: “Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death by death,” as we’ll sing at our joyous celebration of Pascha. It’s because of Christ’s incarnation, death, burial, and resurrection, that we’re here today worshipping Him, participating in His life so that with Him, we too may be conquerors over sin and death.
The holy icons proclaim this truth: God is glorified in His Saints—in men and women turning from sin to Christ God, finding healing from sin-sickness, and by God’s grace, becoming the men and women He created us to be: full of life, joy, discernment, having rediscovered our first beauty.
It’s a wonderful testimony to God’s provision for His Body the Church, His beloved bride, that this Sunday of Orthodoxy happens to be set upon the pre-existing Sunday on which we remember Moses and the other faithful Saints of the Old Testament. A fuller meaning is here revealed:
“The great cloud of witnesses” (Heb. 12:1), which St. Paul reminds us of today, are paraded around the church. We testify through them to the truth of man’s redemption through Christ and only through Christ. Every icon of a Saint testifies to this redemptive work of God in us: redemption from a life of sin is real, healing is real, a new life is real, love and joy are real, salvation is real, the Kingdom of God is real—we see this reality no clearer than in the faces of the Saints, who worship God and pray for us in Christ God’s near presence as they continue to glorify Him and testify to the truth of the Orthodox Faith.
Truly, as St. Paul proclaims to us today, “we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses!”. If people want proof of God’s existence, reality, and relevance, they need look no further than the lives of these Saints, whose number is too great to count.
We Orthodox today are their progeny— “working out our salvation with fear and trembling.” We do so spurred on by their witness and intercessions on our behalf. The days of battling new heresies may have come to an end; there are really no new heresies—just newly recycled ‘cardboard models’ of the originals. But Orthodoxy does face new challenges as our forebears did of old.
In our own day, we’re challenged by growing relativism, secularism, nihilism, the ‘new-morality’—all of which threaten the faithful proclamation of the “Faith once received.” Many modern religious groups are experimenting with new forms of worship, props, ‘dumbing down,’ changing the definition of marriage, of what chastity means, of who Jesus is, doing away with the idea of sin without curing the disease.
We don’t compromise the truth, who is Jesus Christ; we keep the Faith. Why? Because our faith is not an idea, a philosophy, or even a theology; it’s communion with the historic Jesus and life with Him and in Him. We’re participating in eternity, the Kingdom, which begins now in His Body, the Church. We don’t shape the faith; the faith shapes us through our relationship with the Truth, Jesus Christ.
Our God is the God, Who was, and is, and is to come (Rev. 1:8, 4:8, 11:17). He it is who ordered the images of cherubim meticulously depicted on the Ark. Our worship as the New Israel, the Church, is in continuity with that of the faithful in Israel and the first Orthodox who worshipped God, the Christ-believing Jews in the synagogues, the persecuted faithful in the catacombs, and the faithful in the basilicas and cathedrals, chapels and churches who kept the faith through the centuries. Our faith and veneration of the icons is in continuity with all these faithful who kept the Faith proclaimed once and for all— “to all people, at all times, in every place” (Vincentian Canon, 5th century).
Yes, new threats have arisen in every century: the twentieth century saw more blood shed and millions more Orthodox killed by godless atheists and communists. We, for our part, stand here today to bear witness to the Truth of Christ to a people tossed about by “every wind and doctrine” (Eph. 4:14), a people in great need of the hope, faith, and love of Christ—the fullness of life with Him.
For love of God, love of neighbor, for love of those who will come after us, “let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our Faith.” The Saints cheer us on in this race of faith! And so, we pray with them…
Thou art infinite in Thy divine nature, O Master;
in these latter days Thou accepted the limitations of the flesh.
By assuming our body, Thou accepted all its weaknesses.
Therefore we make images of Thy form;
We venerate them, having Thee in mind.
We fall down before Thee in love;
By so doing we follow the tradition of the Apostles
And are given the grace of healing.
—From the Stichera Verses for Great Vespers of the Feast
Fr. Robert Miclean
Holy Archangels Orthodox Church
Sunday of Orthodoxy
Sunday, 24 March 2013
Epistle: Heb. 11:24-026, 32-12:1
Gospel: John 1:43-51
