Icons are Dynamic Letters of Love between God and Man

Icons are Dynamic Letters of Love Between God and Man

Most people see icons as being a Window into Heaven: a visible means to contemplate the Divine. From this point of view the goal of the iconographer is to free himself/herself from all earthly cares so that God might use his/her skills for the greater glory of the Church taking on the role of teacher and defender of the faith. But icons are much more than just a mere window. They go beyond being windows into Heaven because the term window connotes something which is looked into/out of. The concept of an icon being a window, gives the idea that God and the saints are somewhere far off, and can only be glanced at from a distance.

God and the saints play a very close and personal role in the daily lives of the faithful. God interacting in our lives when supplicated with a humble and contrite heart is not something that comes as a surprise, but is something Orthodox Christians have faith in and trust is happening. Likewise, the saints are not just holy people who lived 100+ years ago and have been honored by the Church. Rather, they are our brothers and sisters in Christ who are glorified in Heaven. Many of the saints lived in the same communities we do, helped found the churches we attend and have played a personal role in the lives we have led and through their prayers can intercede for us in a very personal way to God. They are our friends who love us, and want more than anything to see us striving for sainthood, just as they did.

Christianity is about having a loving relationship with God. God is not merely our creator, He is our friend and indeed the great lover of man. Icons are a primary way that we as Orthodox Christians communicate our love for God. Our temples are full of icons. We venerate them, kiss them and bow before them. The love we show is not towards the icon itself, but because the love we show to the icon is transferred to the saint or feast being depicted. In this sense icons are a dynamic letter of love of God for man and man’s love for God. They are a visual depiction of the saints, their lives, the Gospel and events of Church history. They are in fact a visual history of God’s love for man. The icon speaks of the glory of God which has manifested itself throughout history. They teach us of God’s love for man and call us to contemplate its role in our own lives. They also teach us of the faith of the saints and challenge us to lead similar lives.

The Holy Mandylion of Edessa, known as the Icon of the Face of Christ not Made by Hands, is at first a very simple image: the face of Christ on a towel. Contemplating the icon we see several very important things about it. It is an image of Christ’s face, the human form that he took at the Incarnation. The Incarnation was a supreme act of love on God’s part, because he became man in order to redeem man from sin. The love of God contained in this icon takes a further meaning, because Christ sent this icon to St. Abgar King of Edessa who was suffering from leprosy. St. Abgar loved Christ enough to send his servant to summon Christ. When his servant found the Lord was unable to come with him to meet St. Abgar, he was not satisfied with the Lord’s reply, and insisted Christ go to meet St. Abgar. Our Lord was so moved by the faith of Abgar, that he pressed a towel to his face which left the imprint of his face on the towel. When Abgar looked at the face of Christ on the cloth he was healed of his illness. In this act of giving the Holy Mandylion to Abgar, Christ also gave us and sanctified holy iconography. In this way, theicon is a profound letter of God’s love for man. This same icon is also a letter of man’s love for God, and a testimony to the power of faith in God.

The icon of the Theotokos with Three Hands also clearly demonstrates this idea. The icon might at first seem distorted because in this version of the Theotokos of Hogeditra she has three hands. As you read the story behind this icon you see it is filled with God’s love for man and man’s love for God. St. John of Damascus was a great defender of Orthodoxy and Iconography. Because of his defense of Iconography and great literary style, the Muslim caliph of Damascus removed St. John from his post of chief councilor and ordered his right hand to be cut off at the wrist. St. John asked fervently for the Theotokos to pray that his hand might be healed, and it was. The caliph was then convinced of the goodness of St. John and offered to restore him to his post, but St. John chose to retire to live out the rest of his life in a monastery. The third hand was then added to the icon of the Theotokos Hogeditra to thank her for the restoration of his hand. Thus the icon speaks not only of St. John of Damascus’ love for God and also of God’s love for his servant; but also shows the dynamic nature of iconography.

The icon of the Theotokos of Tenderness is also a prime example of how icons are dynamic letters of love between God and Man. The Theotokos deeply loves her son, willingly and freely accepting the call of the Angel Gabriel at the Annunciation to do the will of God. She stepped aside of her own fear so that God could do his will in her life and in doing so her womb became more spacious than the Heavens. She gave birth to Christ, raised him and loved our Lord as any Mother would love her child, and it was her heart that was pierced when Our Lord was crucified. Through all of this she had a deep and abiding faith in her son, our Lord, but more than this, she also had a relationship with him. Mary, through her life, has given us a prime example of living a life of faith and obedience to Christ. This is evident as we pray before and contemplate the icon. Look at her face; it is one of deep tenderness and love. She loves Jesus because he is her son, because he is her Savior, our Lord. She was there to watch him take his first steps as a small child, to witness him teaching the elders in the temple when he was twelve, to see him perform his first miracle, to watch as they crucified her son, and there 2 days later to learn of the resurrection. Praying before the icon the human mother of Christ quietly tells us of her role as the Theotokos. She summons us to the same faith and love of Christ that she had, and to a relationship with him. The icon of the Theotokos of Tenderness is a letter of her love for her son, Our Lord Jesus Christ.

Likewise, the Icon of the Theotokos of Tenderness is also a letter of God’s love for man. Jesus loves his mother, and you can see him warmly embracing her in the icon. It is not just his mother whom he is embracing, but all of humanity as well. In the icon, Mary is the mother of Jesus, but she also symbolizes all of humanity. Jesus willingly took on human flesh because of his love for us, that he might redeem us from sin. He was born a baby, as every person is, and grew up the same as all of us. He learned from his mother and learned to love her deeply. He was obedient to her in all things, just as he was obedient to the will of the Father, that he might redeem mankind. The icon of the Theotokos of Tenderness is a profession of the Incarnation, and the Incarnation is a profession of God’s love for man. Therefore, the icon is a profession of the relationship Christ had with his mother, and of the personal relationship which he desires to have with all of humanity.

Let us now contemplate on how the icon differs from a photograph or painting. Photographs and paintings are stagnant: they tell you the story of a set point in time. Icons, on the other hand, summon you to a relationship with God, to listen for his still small voice. Some icons help us learn from the lives of our brothers and sisters in Christ, the saints. As we ask the saint in the icon to pray for us, God uses the icon to speak to us. Properly praying before an icon should eventually bring the Orthodox faithful to the point where they are able to silently contemplate the icon and allow the icon to speak to them. This has happened in the lives of many saints, including St. John of Damascus, and to many other Orthodox Christians throughout the centuries, including myself. It is not something to be surprised with, but rather something to be expected.

A further revelation of the dynamic relationship of the icon can be found in the famous Old Testament Trinity by St. Andrei Rublev. Each of the persons of the Trinity depicted in the icon is engaging the others in a dynamic bond of love, which is so encompassing that it calls those who venerate it to contemplate it and join it. The icon beckons us to a relationship with God, not a stagnant one, but a dynamic life changing one. The icon tells us that God is love, and that he not only wants us to join in his bond of love, but that he warmly invites us and calls us to join in. This warmth and invitation is not cold and static, but rather it is dynamic and engaging. A deeper look at any other icon will reveal this same message, but Rublev’s Trinity is a prime example of this.

The relational aspect of the icon tells us of a relationship between God and man. The Holy Mandylion tells us of Abgar’s faith in Christ, who he never met. The Theotokos with Three Hands tells us of St. John’s willingness to sacrifice his life and limb in order to preach the Gospel. The Theotokos of Tenderness tells us of the loving Mother/Son and Creation/Creator relationship between Mary and Jesus. Rublev’s Trinity reminds us that God is a communion of love. These icons do more than just tell us about these relationships. They call to us, proclaim the Gospel, and invite us to enter into and have the same types of relationships with God. The icon stands as both a witness and a beacon, transcending both time and space, and moving past being mere windows into Heaven. It proclaims to us the glory of the Gospel, and compels us to live lives worthy of that same Gospel. The icon truly becomes a dynamic letter of love between God and man.

Put in purely modern terms, icons give man a place to meet God face to face, much like Skype and Facebook do. Skype and Facebook differ from traditional websites which are dynamic to a certain extent in that you can move freely about the site but do not interact with others who are using the site. On Facebook you are free to personally interact with other members of the site and on Skype you are free to speak to other people face to face, even though you may be thousands of miles apart. Both of these are truly dynamic, they allow users to interact with each other in a very personal way through use of the internet. Icons are the same way. They allow man who is on earth to interact with God and the saints in Heaven in a very personal way by giving us a place to meet them face to face and a place to offer our prayers and thoughts before God and the saints.

It is because icons are dynamic letters of love that go beyond the realm of pictures and ordinary art that we say icons are written. Iconography translates as “icon writing,” but there is more to it than that. The iconographer’s role of defender and teacher of Orthodoxy is enlightened, becoming a key player in the creation of the letter of love itself. The iconographer is also taking on a spiritual role of inviting the Orthodox faithful to enter into a relationship with God and the communion of the saints. By freeing himself, and humbly submitting to the will of God and the Orthodox Church the iconographer allows God to use his artistic skills for something which is greater than art. It is because of this theosis of the artist that the role of the iconographer is so highly esteemed and protected by the Church.

The very act of creating an icon is a symbiotic relationship between God and man. To say an icon is painted is accurate because most of the time icons are painted with brushes, and painting is how most iconographers refer to the process which they use to create an icon. Most iconographers that I know do not say “it is time to go write,” they say “it is time to go paint.” Likewise, to say an icon is written is accurate for the above mentioned reasons. Icons faithfully pass on the Gospel and teachings of the Church from one generation to the next with very little deviation in content. And yet, neither of these terms is complete because neither term adequately describes the relationship between God and the iconographer. God is an incorporeal being and does not have a physical hand. The majority of the time he does not just pick up a brush and paint an icon. Granted, there have been some wonder working icons that have just appeared, such as the copy of the Mandylion Not Made by Hands that was miraculously produced in the 5th century or the Kursk Root icon which just simply appeared; but most of the time God chooses to use man to create icons for him. However man is not able to paint the icon without prayer and the guidance of God because the whole being and meaning of the icon takes its form in prayer. Without prayer the icon is just a picture of a religious subject done in an abstract Byzantine manner. Thus the creation of an icon is a symbiotic relationship of love between God and man.

In a practical sense, what effect do these dynamic letters of love have on the life of an Orthodox Christian? The icon gives us a concrete meeting place of God, in much the same way the Orthodox temple does. God is a mystery to us, and He is very hard for us to understand. Thus icons of Christ and the saints give us a concrete place to go in our daily lives where we can reach out to God and meet him face to face. Further, the icons of the saints make real to us the saints who they portray. The icons make the saints real to us in the state which is enlightened by the grace of God. It shows matter in its transfigured state and not as we see through normal vision. The skillful abstraction of the scenery in iconography further assists in this depiction of the transfigured state. Scenes are not depicted within closed walls because the sanctifying action in the scene is outside time. The inverse perspective which puts the converging point of the icon in the heart of the viewer does this as well, by reminding us we are peering out of time and into eternity. In making the saints known to us in their state of enlightenment they also beckon us to live lives worthy of the same enlightenment. Finally, the icon expresses truths about God and the saints that man can not understand in words, but which we do understand on a pre-verbal level. None of us understand the nature of the Trinity, yet seeing the icon of the Trinity we know that what we see is true. Likewise, it is incomprehensible that Mary became the mother of God, and that her womb became more spacious than the Heavens. Yet seeing the icons of the Theotokos we believe that she is the very mother of God.

The old saying is that a picture says a thousand words, and this is as true of the icon as any other form of art, and yet the icon goes beyond any other form of art in its ability to communicate. Art is stagnant, icons are dynamic. Iconography depicts things which man can barely understand in words alone, but nonetheless has faith in. The icon communicate teachings and ideas that might otherwise take entire volumes to write and does this in a way that is easy to understand while at the same time visually pleasing. It brings us face to face with God and the saints, both liturgically and in everyday lives. It beckons us to lives worthy of sainthood. It teaches us about God’s love for man and man’s love for God and gives us a concrete place to meet God. It does all this in a way that is engaging, dynamic, and often life changing. The icon goes beyond being a work of spiritual art and is in fact a dynamic letter of love between God and man.

©Copyright 2018 Michael Goltz. All rights reserved by Author.