We live in a sensual world that hunger and thirsts and aches
for miracles and for supernatural phenomenon.
It is as if there is a void inside of us all. But if we live in a
physical world then how can we long for the supernatural? The two things do not seem to be
complimentary but rather they seem contradictory don’t they?
Here is what I mean by that.
Senses are of the physical world.
They are tangible, measurable and understood by all who have eyes to
see, ears to hear, and tongues to taste, noses to smell and bodies to
touch. On the contrary, miracles and
supernatural phenomenon are not tangible but are unexplainable and most
probably understood as being more spiritual than material or physical in
nature.
So what is the answer? Do we just continue to stuff our face
with food and drink? Do we keep reaching out for sex and creature comforts? How
are we to stop feeling so empty and unfulfilled? The answer is in the
question. We long for fulfillment of
physical and spiritual because we have been created as physical and spiritual
persons. The senses may seem to be just
physical aspects to our humanity but if we are body and soul then their effects
must be felt within both.
St. Anthony called the sense the doorways to our souls and
in fact wondered how much images affected our hearts and souls to either order
them rightly or disorder them. In fact
scripture tells us in Luke 11:34 “The lamp of your body is your eye. When your
eye is sound, your whole body too is filled with light; but when it is diseased,
your body too will be darkness.”
In todays world we see that people are searching, longing
and hungry for more than just food to satiate their taste buds or movies or
music to delight their eyes and ears. We
are all searching for something beautiful.
The double rainbow guy on YouTube demonstrated an unadulterated response
to seeing something profoundly beautiful and but even more than that they was
given a glimpse into the spiritual reality that it “meant” something.
Paul Evdokimov, a Russian theologian that believed all
people should have an icon in their homes.
He wrote that “if mankind aspires
to beauty, it is because we are already bathed in its light; it is because
mankind by nature thirsts for beauty and yearns to see the Face of God.” I agree with him that we thirst for beauty
and yearn to see the face of God.
It is my opinion that the double rainbow guy yearns to see
the face of God. In fact I have often
shared with youth that very same video.
Before I have them watch the video I ask them to imagine his reaction to
seeing this beautiful rainbow was the reaction of Adam when we awoke in the Garden
of Eden and saw Eve for the very first time.
After they stop giggling, a quiet
hush comes over the group. I think the
girls are in awe of feeling that someone could look upon their feminine
goodness with such joy, such appreciation, wonder and excitement. They boys are looking around with new eyes
and thinking to themself; “Is the gift of woman something more spectacular than
I have previously thought?” When we
become desensitized to the beauty around us, we must find ways in which to
re-encounter it. Icons are one example
of how to do this.
The double rainbow guy responded in a way that I could
imagine a human being responding in the first encounter of being in the
presence of a living icon. Eve was
“written” in the image and likeness of God.
Her body revealed something about God to Adam and in their meeting he
understood his own body in an entirely new way.
We are made in the image and likeness of God. The difference is that we have not yet been
transfigured. I have met some people
that radiate Christ, like an icon. This
is of course the goal and what ultimately attracts people to Christ, we we act
as a living monstrance and radiate Christ to all those around us.
But what is an Icon?
Simply put an Icon is sacred art that is also theological in that it
literally (not figuratively) teaches the doctrine of the Catholic Faith in
regard to the person or persons it is “written” about.
Author Michel Quenot writes “ An icon is certainly not the
image of a discarnate world-in the sense that it would refuse creation. Rather,
it is the image of a world transformed, transfigured, rendered transparent by a
spiritualization which embraces the entire cosmos.”
So our choice is to understand personhood as the
corporealization of the soul or the spiritualization of the body. Icons chose to reveal the latter. Icons’s write this truth. I say written because Icons are said to
written and not painted. In fact, years
ago an iconographer had to get an imprimatur of his work to make sure it was
free from doctrinal error lest someone would be led astray. That is how precise an icon is.
Iconography actually means to “write an Icon”. Icon’s are more than just pictures or
paintings; they are theology in color.
The person creating or commissioned to the do the icon was usually a
monk or priest trained in the canons and rules of iconography.
There are many aspects that distinguish an icon from other
kinds of sacred or even secular art.
There are also certain specifications and criteria that set icons
apart. Because an icon is a language
and it speaks truth about the sacred mystery that its image contains there is
no room in the image for the artist to insert his or her interpretations. This is one of the most important things for
us to remember.
The clothing style, colors, postures, gestures, geometry of
the image, in fact every aspect of the icon is held to a strict and unyielding
set of rules to ensure that in the end the icon will reveal the invisible
existence of the world beyond our material senses. An icon makes visible the invisible and it
is for this reason I believe it is the pictorial language of Theology of The
Body.
Leonid Ouspensky, a Russian iconographer wrote that “the
task of the icon is to guide every emotion as well as our reason and all the
other faculties of our nature towards Transfiguration”.
In fact that is a major component of icons. They reveal the transfiguration to us in a
way we can receive. It is gentle,
non-judgmental and inspires us to greatness beyond our comprehension. That’s the beauty of it, you do not have to
understand it to receive from it.
We may not be aware of why the image both seems to draw us
in and repels us but in fact it is making visible the invisible reality of the
journey that we are all on. We are being
called to what all Saints have done before us, Embrace Our Greatness. We are to embrace the Holy Spirit, to allow
Him to permeate, penetrate and transform our hearts and in doing so we will
emanate Christ to all those around us. If images can open our hearts and bypass
intellect and reason then perhaps we should surround ourselves with images that
enable our hearts to be made flesh rather than to harden them like stone. If you don’t have an icon in our home, pray
to the Holy Spirit and ask Him to bring you one.
St. Paul writes in
Romans that “all creation is eagerly waiting for the revelation of the
sons of God” (Rom 8:15). All creation
means that the entire material world, the cosmos even time itself inherited our
human destiny, which was tainted by original sin. Then it must be true that as Christians we
have an obligation to help liberate all of creation from sin and evil.
Michel Quenot states in his book “The Icon” that “It is our
task to spiritualize the matter we use every day to help further restore all
creation to God. “(Eph 1:9-10)
He is not talking about making them idols. Our contemplation, love and worship is
reserved for God and God alone but icons permit us to contemplate beauty and
incarnation which of course draws our attention to the creator God Himself. Icons speak of the incarnation. They make visible the invisible reality of
the supernatural; they reveal God came in the flesh. In fact most iconographers first icon that
they write is that of Jesus Christ as He reaffirms to them that God was made
flesh. This is the entire premise of an
icon.
The Muslim world understood this so well that it became
their reason the Muslims destroyed icons during the iconoclast period. They viewed Icons as images of God, which was
against their religion. It should be
stated that Icons really are an image of God as the Shroud of Turin ( the cloth
covering Jesus Christ in the Tomb which then captured the image of his body at
the time of resurrection) was the template used to create the first Icons of
Jesus Christ. Jesus say’s “whoever sees
me sees the father”. There is a great
mystery in the incarnation and how Christ made visible the invisible and icons
reveal this same mystery.
Not all images make visible the invisible however a true
icon can. How can an icon make visible
something that is invisible? It is because an icon is Eschatological. This is from the word “Eschaton” and speaks
of where we as human beings are headed.
We will one day be resurrected and reunited to our glorified bodies and
so in a real way an icon is revealing a person that has been so permeated and
penetrated by the Holy Spirit that the light of truth and God shines from
within them. We see the entire person,
body ad soul radiating from an icon.
That is why there is no external light source like we see in traditional
art. The focal point of the piece also
draws our attention to a bigger theological truth rather than to an
object.
Icons reveal persons not objects or bodies. In today’s world we are moving more and more
to seeing people as objects of use. Nicholas
Gogol wrote that “When souls start to break down, then faces also degenerate.”
We are no longer seeing the person in front of us. What is beautiful about icons is that they
are revealing how God has given us “personhood”. Personhood is that dignity of being unique
and unrepeatable persons. There is no
one like another and our person will exist for all eternity. Our personhood is also male or female. Our bodies make visible that invisible
reality and are inexplicably tied to it.
Death was never God’s plan for human beings. It was sin that disordered our human nature
and so an icon reveals the transfigured person.
This is our destiny. We are
called to become new creations in Christ.
God was made flesh and in this flesh given a face. We belong to him and his gift of self has
given us freedom from being faceless.
Our identity then, is from Christ.
In a world where most peoples identities are so flawed and in need of
restoration, icons draw us to the reality that no one is faceless. If we continue to move towards a world that
seeks to remove the face and the person that is revealed there, we will lose
our identities. We see this happening
already in secular art and even photography.
Why is it that artists used to paint portraits so regularly while now we
see animals or objects instead? That
has even translated to photography. Many
people no longer get professional portraits done. It may be that today’s art is reflecting a
world in crisis. If this is true, then perhaps icons are a language of truth,
life and love that our wounded world is in desperate need of discovering.
Icons speak to us. They
speak truth, life and love. The reveal
to us the entire person yet we see them without corruption. It is as if we are seeing the human being yet
we are seeing their transfigured bodies filled with the Holy Spirit, thus the
light that shines from their faces and bodies as well as by seeing their
enlarged eyes or foreheads (filled with wisdom permeated by love) etc. There can be exaggerated size to the senses
for the exact reason with the exception of the ears, as the ears no longer need
to listen to the sounds of this world.
When a person views an icon and sees the person faced
towards them, their frontality attracts the viewer and in fact begins to open
them to the existence of an interior life.
Icons then, bestow a grace of receptivity. Like a plow opens a field, they open the
earth to receive the seed, which is the word.
Icons seem to be a means from which the Holy Spirit can flow through to
all in its presence; all that is required is for someone to look upon it
There is another aspect of an icon that speaks of an
eschatological aspect. This is the fact
that many times the laws of geometry, proportions or even gravity may not apply. That is usually because icons seek to
manifest the heart or the essence of the objects, animals, mountains, buildings
or even people that it is capturing to better express their meaning and the
meaning of life. In fact the icon is not
just seeking to express the theological truth or meaning of a person it is to
incarnate the spiritual presence of that person.
Monk Gregory, a famous Iconographer said “Only a picture
that has a face looking at us and human face transfigured by divine grace has
the right to be a holy icon.” This was
why he said the eagle used in the Gospel of John couldn’t be used as an icon or
image of St. John but only a symbol.
Icons are not symbols. They are
doorways that we can move toward them and that the person in the icon can move
toward us. It is a spiritual movement
but movement nonetheless.
What we look at does affect us and can open or close our
hearts. Iconography is a unique form of
art that not only opens our hearts; it transforms them with truth, life and
love. Once we understand the basics of
what an icon is we will explore the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe to discover
the truth, life and love that is “written” there for the Church of the 21st
Century. It is a message of hope,
battle, of healing and of Mercy. It’s
message has been waiting for the Church of this century to discover it and we
have never needed it more than we do now.
Our lady of Guadalupe’s image on the Tilma, which I call the
Icon of the New Eve and the Shroud of Turin, which I call the Icon of the New
Adam, are two icons that were not “written” by men but “written” divinely. If we can receive spiritual grace by being
in the presence of icons, how much more will receive from an image not painting
by man but written by the finger of God Himself?
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