Hospitality of Abraham

Tags

Holy Spirit, Icons, Old Testament, St. Ambrose, Theophany, Trinity

Modern Orthodox Christians will recognize this icon as an icon of the Trinity:

More properly called The Hospitality of Abraham, it depicts the three angels sent to Abraham to inform him and his wife Sarah that they were to have a son. Abraham, personifying hospitality, provides the best meal he is able to offer.

Ancient witness usually only sees Christ in these three angels, as represented by this witness of Eusebios of Caesaria (Evangelic proof 5,19 LGF 27, 208):

The visitors who were hosted by Abraham are leaning on a table; the two of them are on each side of it, while the one seated in the middle surpasses them in authority; may he be the Lord that was foretold us; our Saviour, to whom even the ignorant show respect, by hearkening to the divine words

Note how the central angel is dressed in the same colors normally found on Christ and how the central angel is blessing a chalice. This, therefore, is understood to be a prefigurement of the Divine Liturgy, where Christ is the High Priest.

A more proper (and a New Testament) icon of the Trinity is this one:

More readily known as the icon of Epiphany, the feast is also called by Orthodox Christians Theophany — which means the appearance of God. It is the first time in Scripture where God explicitly reveals Himself as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Note the first verse of the apolytikion of Theophany:

Lord, when You were baptized in the Jordan, the worship of the Trinity was made manifest.

Intriguingly, however, St. Ambrose makes this observation in the Introduction to the second book of his treatise On the Holy Spirit:

But neither was Abraham ignorant of the Holy Spirit; he saw Three and worshipped One, for there is one God, one Lord, and one Spirit. And so there is a oneness of honour, because there is a oneness of power.

Thus, St. Ambrose gives witness to a similar Trinitarian interpretation of the Hospitality of Abraham that modern Orthodox Christians do. I would have to do more research, but this is the oldest such witness that I am aware of.

Bible Study Notes: Sunday of Orthodoxy

Tags

iconoclasm, Iconography, Icons, Kingdom of Heaven

It is the first week of Lent, which means that this Sunday is the Sunday of Orthodoxy — the celebration of the restoration of the icons to the Churches after the end of iconoclasm. This week’s Bible Study was small, short and focused on how the Epistle (Hebrews 11:24-26, 32-40) and Gospel (John 1:44-51) Readings speak to the Orthodox Church’s understanding of icons.

We primarily focused on the last verses of each pericope:

And all these [holy ones of the OT], though well attested by their faith, did not receive what was promised, since God had foreseen something better for us, that apart from us they should not be made perfect. — Heb. 11:39-40

Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man. — John 1:51

In order to truly appreciate how these two speak to each other, one much look to the Greek of St. John:

ἀμὴν ἀμὴν λέγω ὑμῖν, ἀπ᾽ ἄρτι ὄψεσθε τὸν οὐρανὸν ἀνεῳγότα, καὶ τοὺς ἀγγέλους τοῦ Θεοῦ ἀναβαίνοντας καὶ καταβαίνοντας ἐπὶ τὸν υἱὸν τοῦ ἀνθρώπου.

A more literal translation looks like this:

Truly, truly I say to you: you will see heaven — the one that has opened — and the angels of God — the ones ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.

Note the subtle difference in tense suggested by the participles. Nathaniel cannot see what already is; however, unlike the holy ones of the OT, for whom the heavens were closed because Christ had not yet become incarnate, Nathaniel is capable of seeing these things. He need only put away his attachment to earthly things (as suggested by his political understanding of Christ as merely the King of Israel), open his eyes and see the reality of the Kingdom of Heaven in Christ Himself.

The Orthodox Church understands icons as windows that allow us to glimpse what already is —  heaven is open and angels are descending and ascending upon the Son of man. The reality of the Kingdom of Heaven has entered into the world through our Lord, God and Savior Jesus Christ and is available in Him. We need only open our eyes to see. Amen.

Bible Study Notes: Judgement Sunday

Tags

fasting, Icons, Image and Likeness, judgement, monasteries

Let me open this post the same way I opened this week’s Bible Study: it is a pet peeve of mine that this Sunday is called Meatfare. Nowhere in the hymns of the Church nor in the readings is there anything about fasting from meat. That is not what this Sunday is about. Rather, this Sunday is more properly called Judgement Sunday.

The hymns are filled with images of the Judgement Seat with its river of fire and the opening of all the books:

When You come down to the earth, O God, in Your glory, all things will cower tremulous, and a river of fire will draw before Your Judgment Seat; the books shall be opened up, and public knowledge will things hidden be. Rescue me, then, I pray, from unquenchable fire, and count me worthy to stand at Your right hand, O You, the most righteous Judge. — Kontakion of Judgement Sunday

These images come from the seventh chapter of Daniel, verses nine and ten:

I watched till thrones were put in place, And the Ancient of Days was seated; His garment was white as snow, and the hair of His head was like pure wool. His throne was a fiery flame, Its wheels a burning fire; a fiery stream issued And came forth from before Him. A thousand thousands ministered to Him; ten thousand times ten thousand stood before Him. The court was seated, and the books were opened.

While reading the Epistle (1 Cor. 8:18; 9:1-2), one might be tempted to claim that it is about fasting; however note what St. Paul says about fasting from food:

We are no worse off if we do not eat, and no better off if we do. (1 Cor. 8:8)

The focus of this pericope, rather, is serving our weaker brethren. We need to know each other well enough and find value enough in each other to bear one another’s burdens. Part of why we fast is so that those who are weak are not tempted into further weakness.

This seeing value in others is also a very large part of the Gospel Reading (Matthew 25:31-46) on which we spent most of our time discussing. The key verse is Matthew 25:40:

Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me.

Every human being is made in the image and likeness of God. Every human being is the icon of Christ. Therefore, the criteria for being a goat or a sheep is going to be how we see and treat our fellow human beings.

Some of our other observations:

• Orthodox monasteries are a wonderful image of Judgement and of our participation in it. The outside of the chapels are almost always covered in images from the Judgment — the images found in Daniel. Inside the chapel, the walls are covered in icons of the saints. This passively asks the question, Are you in or are you out of the Kingdom of Heaven? The choice is ours.
• Note the progression of how Christ describes treating our fellow human beings: feeding & giving drink; welcoming the stranger; clothing; visiting; going to. Our relationships begin with an external encounter of good will (food & drink). Then the Other comes to us (welcoming). Then we get to know them by allowing them into our lives (clothing). At this point the relationship begins to shift because we visit them (visiting). Finally, we go to where they are. This is where our relationships ought to be. It isn’t enough to give money so that others are fed and clothed. We must be willing to get out of our comfort zones and love one another enough to go where others are. Remember, this is the criteria by which we will be judged.
• Finally, it was asked what the word “punishment” in Greek meant. The word is κόλασιν, the root of which means maimed, or more literally, cut off. In other words, if we refuse to see the image of God and the icon of Christ in others, we cut ourselves off from our fellow human beings. We maim ourselves. In turn, this will become the standard by which we are judged. Because we have cut ourselves off from the image and icon, we will have cut ourselves off from God.

Sunday of Orthodoxy

Tags

Cross, Icons, Lent, Old Testament, Worship

Hebrews 11:24-26, 32-40; John 1:43-51

Today is the first Sunday of Lent, which is why we switch over to the Liturgy of St. Basil with its longer prayers and different selection of hymns. Prior to the ninth century, the first Sunday of Lent was a day in which we remember the prophets, particularly Moses. We see this in the Epistle Reading for today:

Brethren, by faith Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, choosing rather to share ill-treatment with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. — Hebrews 11:24-25

This reading goes on to describe for us all the things accomplished by Moses and the people of God in the OT.

After the ninth century the Church added another layer of meaning on top of this first Sunday of Lent — the Sunday of the Prophets. Starting in the eighth century, the Church was wracked by the iconoclasts, who tried to destroy the icons. For 150 years, the Church fought with iconoclasm. People died — martyred for the cause of having icons in the Churches. Ultimately, the iconodules (the lover of icons) won the argument and the icons were restored to the Churches. This was deemed so important and vital to the faith that the Church declared the first Sunday of Lent to be the Sunday of Orthodoxy — of Right Belief.

If we read the proclamation that the Church says every year on the first Sunday of Lent — a passage from the Synodikon of the Seventh Ecumenical Council — we find that is says something rather remarkable:

This is the Faith of the Apostles.
This is the Faith of the Fathers.
This is the Faith of the Orthodox.
This is the Faith which has established the Universe.

This seems to be a pretty strange thing to be saying about a piece of wood with a picture painted on it — that this is the faith of Moses when he refused to be called the son of the Pharaoh’s daughter:

This is the faith that established the Universe.

If we look at the word faith — πίστις in Greek — it comes from a root meaning to be trustworthy, to have faith in, to believe. God is trustworthy. We can put our faith in Him because we know He will do what is right and good — He will do everything in His power to make sure we can be with Him in His Kingdom. It is through Him that the world is established. In other words, we trust in Him that the world is established. We trust that despite its fallenness the world continues to exist because of God, His will and His lovingkindness. We trust that the fullness of His Kingdom will become manifest. Thus we say that this is the faith that established the Universe. This is the faith:

We have a faith that says:

YES indeed, Christ came!
YES indeed, Christ became a human being!
YES indeed, Christ is God!

If we deny the ability of the Church to depict Christ and His Saints in icons, we open the door to call into question that this ever happened:

If we can’t depict Christ, if we can’t make a picture of someone who was really there — who ate fish, who had the mark of the nail in His hands, who people touched and heard and saw — it follows that maybe all of this stuff didn’t happen. Thus, to the Church, the icon is necessary.

If we say definitively that YES we can depict Christ and His Saints, then we definitively say:

YES Christ really did become a human being!
YES Christ really did go to the Cross!
YES Christ really did rise on the Third Day!
YES He will come again!

So on top of the Sunday of the Prophets — who declared Christ and whose prophecies ultimately foresaw that which is depicted in the icons — the Church established the Sunday of Orthodoxy and the celebration of the Restoration of the icons.

In today’s Gospel reading we hear Christ telling Nathanael:

Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man. — John 1:51

This is in contrast to what St. Paul tells about Moses, the prophets and all the people of the OT:

Yet all these, though they were commended for their faith, did not receive what was promised, since God had provided something better so that they would not, apart from us, be made perfect. — Hebrews 11:39-40

So here we are, gathered as the Body of Christ, better off than Moses was when he walked the earth because we have this:

At the time of Moses you were not allowed to make any image of God because nobody knew what He looked like. We do. Christ tells us:

Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. — John 14:9

We have seen the face of God. We have seen the heavens opened. We have seen angels ascend and descend upon the Son of Man. The question before us, then, is what do we do in response to this awesome gift that has been given to us by our Lord, God and Saviour Jesus Christ?

The answer is found in the person of Philip, who was the one who sought out his friend Nathanael to tell him:

We have found him about whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus son of Joseph from Nazareth… Come and see. — John 1:45, 46

Come and see the heavens opened. Come and see the angels ascend and descend upon the Son of Man. Come and see:

We are called to be like Philip. We are called to go out into the world and declare the Good News. We are to declare that we have seen the face of God and that He has become one of us in order to cross the divide that existed between us and Him in order to unite us to Him. We are to declare that that which was out of reach at the time of Moses is right here and right now.

So let us go to our friends and our families and say, “Come and see.” On April 11, we will formally open our doors to friends and families to come see our Church with an Outreach Sunday. Invite our friends and neighbors to come and see what Orthodox Christianity is all about.

But, today I pray that we don’t wait until April. I pray that all of us, as part of our Lenten journey towards Pascha, take advantage of all the things that the Church has to offer — the prayer, the fasting, the almsgiving and the extra services. In this way we can come close to God and His Christ. In this way we allow the Holy Spirit within each of us to burn brightly so that in our everyday lives people will wonder what is it that we have that they do not. Allow them to not only see us, but this:

And then invite them to come and see. Amen.