The Truth of Christ's Faith is Unchanging
1st Sunday of Great Lent
Hebrews 11:24-26;32-40; 12:1-2; John 1:43-51
Circumstances and lifestyles in our time are certainly very different from those of Jesus Christ's time on earth or even from the time of the first Ecumenical Councils (325-787).
From traveling on donkeys to traveling on airplanes that fly faster than sound to traveling on rockets to the moon and other planets in the solar system, the distance or span is incomparably great. At the time of Jesus Christ's visit to the earth, and for many centuries afterwards, people had to be in a certain place where someone was speaking in order to see and hear something or someone else. Today, we take it for granted that we can sit in our homes and see and hear what is happening thousands of miles away in the opposite part of the world or even in space.
Once upon a time, the ancient Greeks gave a name to an indivisible particle of matter: the atom. For thousands of years, people of different nations accepted that the atom was indeed an indivisible particle of matter, but a number of decades ago, the atom was split. As a result, we have atomic, hydrogen, and neutron bombs, as well as structures useful for human life - nuclear power plants, nuclear ships, etc.
Thus, we can state the indisputable truth that the conditions of life have changed greatly since the time of Jesus Christ, as well as since the first Ecumenical Councils of the Church of Christ. But there are things, concepts, that have not changed from the time of Jesus Christ's stay on earth to the present day. Our faith, the basic truths of our Orthodox faith, have not changed at all.
Such truths as: There is one God in the Holy Trinity, one Jesus Christ, born of the Heavenly Father before all ages, who took on the body of Mary the Virgin under the action of the Holy Spirit, and that He was crucified, resurrected, and ascended into heaven, and other truths of our Christ faith, have not changed, because these truths are indisputable truths, expressed and confirmed by God. God's truth, unlike human truth, never changes.
The first Sunday of Great Lent in our calendar is called the Sunday of Orthodoxy, because on that first Sunday of Lent in 843, the victory of the recognition of the true Orthodox faith in the Church of Christ was celebrated. This victory--the affirmation of the truth after 60 years of brutal persecution of the confessors of Orthodoxy and 56 years of painstaking work--occurred within Christ's Church to revive the true confession of the Christian faith.
Outwardly, in material terms, that period was marked by the 60-year terror of iconoclasm (726 to 787), and from 787 onwards: from the 7th Ecumenical Council to 843, when educative measures were taken to restore the worship of holy icons and the image of the Lord's cross.
But, of course, the icons were only an outward manifestation, for the true and confessing believers of the truths of Christ's faith survived precisely among those people who venerated the holy icons. Iconoclasm, which was officially launched by the Byzantine Emperor Leo the Third in 726, was an action of the state authorities to find an understanding with the fanatical movement of Mohammedanism and thus preserve the Byzantine state.
But the deviation from the confession of the truths of the Christian faith did not bring the initiators or the rulers the expected earthly benefit of preserving the unity of the empire; and the brutal persecution of the confessors of the truth, believers who venerated holy icons, sowed enmity toward the rulers and the ruling class.
The broad masses of believers did not trust people who traded in truth. A spiritually weakened country could not resist external enemies, and so iconoclasm proved harmful not only to the confession of the truths of the Christian faith, not only to the detriment of the Church of Christ, but also to the weakening and destruction of the Byzantine state—ironically, it was promoted for its benefit and out of concern for the good of the country.
An important role in promoting the confession of the truth, including the veneration of icons, was played by the 7th Ecumenical Council, which was convened by Patriarch Tarasios of Constantinople (commemorated on 10 March) in 787 in Nicaea, the same place where the 1st Ecumenical Council was convened.
Although we recall that the veneration of icons or holy images was restored at that time, and, although we, in the tradition adopted from the Greeks, celebrate the victory of Orthodoxy on the 1st Sunday of Great Lent as was first done in 843, we must always affirm that we celebrate not only the veneration of icons, but also the return to the confession of the Truth of God, Orthodoxy. That is why we call this Sunday not the Sunday of Icon Veneration, but the Sunday of Orthodoxy.
At the same time, we in the Orthodox Church need to understand that the physical and bodily resemblance of the images of Jesus Christ, the Blessed Virgin Mary, the apostles, or saints in general is not so important to us, because our worship is not of the images themselves, but of the original images.
By showing outward, ritualistic worship, we show our inner sense of reverence and love for our Lord Jesus Christ, His Blessed Mother, and His saints. We also believe that icons are an illustration of the Holy Scriptures, the Holy Bible not in letters and words, but in images.
These holy images-icons teach and remind us of the real existence of God, our Lord Jesus Christ and His saints, and lead to deeper mystical and spiritual experiences. We strive to have holy images, icons in the church, in our homes and in our institutions, so that these images remind us of the omnipresence of our God, so that we glorify God, our Lord Jesus Christ, not only with our mouths in church on the Lord's Day, but everywhere, with all our actions in our daily lives.
Amen.
Very Rev. Fr. Taras Slavchenko
Taras Slavchenko was born on March 8, 1918 in Nikopol, Dnipropetrovsk region in Ukraine. After graduating from school and the Pedagogical College, he entered the language and literature faculty of the Scientific Pedagogical Institute. Having successfully completed it in 1938, he served as a teacher in a secondary school.
