SUNDAY OF ORTHODOXY

 

St Andrew's Greek Orthodox Theological College

A brief reflection from A/Prof. Philip Kariatlis, Sub-Dean

This coming Sunday is known as the ‘Triumph of Orthodoxy’ in the liturgical tradition of the Orthodox Church. It is a day which commemorates the restoration of icons to the Church in 843AD and the definitive end of Byzantine iconoclasm.

Icons are a theological proclamation to the truth and reality of our Lord’s incarnation; they are eloquent ‘words’ in colour bringing us into the presence of our Lord and opening up before us, silently, yet most emphatically, our Lord’s eschatological kingdom in the here and now. In praying before an icon of Christ, Panagia and the saints, we are really and genuinely enabled to stand in their presence.

Moreover, icons equally profess the innate goodness of materiality, and related to this, the world’s transcendent beauty. On the last point, for example, the Fathers of our Church make it very clear that every human person, created in the image of God, is an ‘epiphany’ of God and as such can reflect the beauty of the face of God.

During the period of Great Lent, as we focus on the journey to encounter Christ, it is timely that we do not ignore the beauty and sacredness of creation, of the material world around us and, as we do at every divine Liturgy, give thanks and glory to God for the gift of creation.

Very often we think that the ‘spiritual’ life is solely concerned with own personal ‘spiritual’ struggle to overcome the sinful passions and worldly desires that may dominate our soul; the need to deny or purify ourselves from all materiality which may hinder our soul’s union with Christ—as if the material world was inherently evil.

Without, in any way underestimating the need to take the difficult and arduous road towards our own personal integrity and wholeness—that is, becoming fully and truly human, which will most certainly entail our own personal ascetical struggle—we must not think that our journey to Christ necessarily means a denial of materiality—our materiality—so that we can attend only to the spiritual needs of our soul, as if our purpose in life was to become ‘bodiless’ angels.

Icons remind us of the reality of Christ’s incarnation, and of the beauty and goodness of the world more broadly.