| |
The expectation of the Old Testament prophets and righteous people for the coming
of Christ.
The Incarnation of Christ and His presence in the Church, in history and in our
lives.
The joy of the Church in confessing, proclaiming and glorifying Christ.
O Lord, who loves all people,
the Church rejoices in You,
her Bridegroom and her Founder,
for by Your divine will You have
delivered her from error and by
Your precious Blood You have
betrothed her to Yourself.
The fulfilment of the expectations are expressed in today's Gospel reading.
Phillip, having found Jesus, goes on to find Nathaniel and tells him,
We have found the one whom Moses wrote about in the book of the Law and
whom the prophets also wrote about. He is Jesus and Nathaniel upon recognizing
who Jesus was confesses, you are the Son of God! You are the king of
Israel.
This has been the confession of our Church, this is its teaching, this is its
faith.
The Sunday of Orthodoxy marks an historic event in the life of the Orthodox
Church the restoration of icons as an important way of living and expressing
the Christian faith.
Icons have two special meanings:
Firstly, they remind us how real our salvation is! The living Christ, our risen
Lord, is the same as Jesus of Nazareth who took on flesh and blood, became
one of us. His Mother and all the Saints were also real people like all of
us.
Secondly, they remind us that we all belong to one family the family of God
and that God achieved a triumph over sin and evil for us, that the gates of
Paradise have been opened, that God became man so that man be become god ?
like, divinised, that matter is sanctified and becomes spiritualised.
Just as we express our faith by means of bread, wine, water, oil, music and
other symbols, so also we express it through icons. Icons are symbols, they
are windows to the heavens. They seek to make the invisible visible, they seek
to teach and to inspire. Icons are not worshipped, they are venerated. When
we show respect to an icon, it is because of the person or event portrayed
in the icon
As Orthodox, we find it natural to show the appropriate respect to the icons
of Christ, of the Theotokos and of the Saints. There is however one icon that
we so often neglect the icon or the image of God in our fellow man. It is paradoxical,
almost contradictory, that we can show respect to an image of a person on wood
and yet neglect to respect the living image of God in every one of our fellowmen
that we encounter daily.
Let's not forget that the Lord Himself cautions, whatever you do to the least
of my brothers, you do to Me.
Let us use this as a guideline, on this the Sunday of Orthodoxy, as how Orthodox
we truly are in our dealings with others.
Father Petros
If you have any
questions about this Website email the Webmaster:
._.
|
