March 27th - John of Damascus, hymn-writer, defender of icons
John is generally accounted "the last of the Fathers". He was the son of a
Christian official at the court of the moslem khalif Abdul Malek, and
succeeded
to his father's office.
In his time there was a dispute among Christians between the Iconoclasts
(image-breakers) and the Iconodules (image-venerators or
image-respectors). The
Emperor, Leo III, was a vigorous upholder of the Iconoclast position. John
wrote
in favor of the Iconodules with great effectiveness. Ironically, he was
able to
do this chiefly because he had the protection of the moslem khalif (ironic
because the moslems have a strong prohibition against the religious use of
pictures or images).
John is also known as a hymn-writer. Two of his hymns are sung in English
at
Easter ("Come ye faithful, raise the strain" and "The Day of Resurrection!
Earth, tell it out abroad!"). Many more are sung in the Eastern Church.
His major writing is The Fount of Knowledge, of which the third part, The
Orthodox Faith, is a summary of Christian doctrine as expounded by the
Greek
Fathers.
The dispute about icons was not a dispute between East and West as such.
Both
the Greek and the Latin churches accepted the final decision.
The Iconoclasts maintained that the use of religious images was a
violation of
the Second Commandment ("Thou shalt not make a graven image... thou shalt
not
bow down to them").
The Iconodules replied that the coming of Christ had radically changed the
situation, and that the commandment must now be understood in a new way,
just as
the commandment to "Remember the Sabbath Day" must be understood in a new
way
since the Resurrection of Jesus on the first day of the week.
Before the Incarnation, it had indeed been improper to ****tray the
invisible God
in visible form; but God, by taking fleshly form in the person of Jesus
Christ,
had blessed the whole realm of matter and made it a fit instrument for
manifesting the Divine Splendor. He had reclaimed everything in heaven and
earth
for His service, and had made water and oil, bread and wine, means of
conveying
His grace to men. He had made painting and sculpture and music and the
spoken
word, and indeed all our daily tasks and pleasures, the common round of
everyday
life, a means whereby man might glorify God and be made aware of Him.
(Note: I
always use "man" in the gender-inclusive sense unless the context plainly
indicates otherwise.)
Obviously, the use of images and pictures in a religious context is open
to
abuse, and in the sixteenth century abuses had become so prevalent that
some
(not all) of the early Protestants reacted by denouncing the use of images
altogether. Many years ago, I heard a sermon in my home parish (All
Saints'
Church, East Lansing, Michigan) on the Commandment, "Thou shalt not make a
graven image, nor the likeness of anything in the heavens above, nor in
the
earth beneath, nor in the waters under the earth - thou shalt not bow down
to
them, nor wor****p them." (Exodus 20:4-5 and Deuteronomy 5:8-9) The
preacher
(Gordon Jones) pointed out that, even if we refrain completely from the
use of
statues and paintings in representing God, we will certainly use mental or
verbal images, will think of God in terms of concepts that the human mind
can
grasp, since the alternative is not to think of Him at all. (Here I
digress to
note that, if we reject the images offered in Holy Scripture of God as
Father,
Shepherd, King, Judge, on the grounds that they are not literally
accurate, we
will end up substituting other images - an endless, silent sea, a dome of
white
radiance, an infinitely attenuated ether permeating all space, an
electromagnetic force field, or whatever, which is no more literally true
than
the image it replaces, and which leaves out the truths that the Scriptural
images convey. (One of the best books I know on this subject is Edwyn
Bevan's
Symbolism and Belief, Beacon Press, originally a Gifford Lectures series.)
C S
Lewis repeats what a woman of his acquaintance told him: that as a child
she was
taught to think of God as an infinite "perfect substance," with the result
that
for years she envisioned Him as a kind of enormous tapioca pudding. To
make
matters worse, she disliked tapioca. Back to the sermon.) The sin of
idolatry
consists of giving to the image the devotion that properly belongs to God.
No
educated man today is in danger of confusing God with a painting or
statue, but
we may give to a particular concept of God the unconditional allegiance
that
properly belongs to God Himself. This does not, of course, mean that one
concept
of God is as good as another, or that it may not be our duty to reject
something
said about God as simply false. Images, concepts, of God matter, because
it
matters how we think about God. The danger is one of intellectual pride,
of
forgetting that the Good News is, not that we know God, but that He knows
us (1
Corinthians 8:3), not that we love Him, but that He loves us (1 John
4:10).
(Incidentally, it was customary in my parish in those days for the
preacher to
preach a short "Children's Sermon," after which the children were
dismissed for
Sunday School, and the regular sermon and the rest of the service
followed. What
I have described above was the Children's Sermon. I remained for the
regular
sermon, but found it a bit over my head - a salutary correction to my
intellectual snobbery.)
In the East Orthodox tradition, three-dimensional representations are
seldom
used. The standard icon is a painting, highly stylized, and thought of as
a
window through which the wor****pper is looking into Heaven. (Hence, the
background of the picture is almost always gold leaf.) In an Eastern
church, an
iconostasis (icon screen) flanks the altar on each side, with images of
angels
and saints (including Old Testament persons) as a sign that the whole
church in
Heaven and earth is one body in Christ, and unites in one voice of praise
and
thanksgiving in the Holy Liturgy. At one point in the service, the
minister
takes a censer and goes to each icon in turn, bows and swings the censer
at the
icon. He then does the same thing to the congregation - ideally, if time
permits, to each wor****pper separately, as a sign that every Christian is
an
icon, made in the image and likeness of God, an organ in the body of
Christ, a
window through whom the splendor of Heaven ****nes forth.
<><><><>
Whoever will come after Me, let him deny himself. (Matthew 16:24)
"Take heed not to foster thy own judgment, for, without doubt, it will
inebriate
thee; as there is no difference between an intoxicated man and one full of
his
own opinion, and one is no more capable of reasoning than the other"
-St. Francis de Sales
The blessed Alexander Sauli, a Corsican bishop, always asked others advice
in
the affairs of his diocese, not trusting to his own opinion. He considered
himself ignorant and totally unfit for the duties of his office, though he
had
been a famous professor of theology and director of St. Charles, and had
even
been called the ideal of bishops.
(Taken from the book "A Year with the Saints". March - Mortification)
Bible Quote:
15 And when he had made, as it were, a scourge of little cords, he drove
them
all out of the temple, the sheep also and the oxen, and the money of the
changers he poured out, and the tables he overthrew. 16 And to them that
sold
doves he said: Take these things hence, and make not the house of my
Father a
house of traffic. (John 2:15-16)
<><><><>
Prayer
Confirm our minds, O Lord, in the mysteries of the true faith,
set forth with power by thy servant John of Damascus; that
we, with him, confessing Jesus to be true God and true Man,
and singing the praises of the risen Lord, may, by the power
of the resurrection, attain to eternal joy; through Jesus Christ
our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy
Spirit, one God, for evermore.
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