On this first Sunday of Great Lent, the Church shifts from the more solemn mood of Clean Week and into a day of celebration called the “Triumph of Orthodoxy!” It is a remembrance of the day when the Church was victorious over those who tried to get rid of one of the powerful tools that God has given us to experience the Divine Life and to understand the Word of God in both word AND image…that of Holy Icons.
I was sent a story by a dear friend this week who isn’t Orthodox herself but does truly love the Church. It was the story of a Russian colonel and his wife who were relaxing on the beach near Sochi three years ago and were watching as a group of twelve dolphins swam all of the way up to the beach itself. The couple was curious why this group of typically smart animals had come up to the beach itself, but before they could gather their thoughts, one of the dolphins flipped up its fins and launched something on the beach, before the entire group swam off back into the sea.
The colonel and his wife went over to see what this object was which was covered in mud and were shocked to find that the dolphins had delivered an icon of the Theotokos to the shore. How it got there, or from where it came, who could say? But it did serve as a reminder that even the animals realize that there is something different…something Holy and Grace filled about icons.
There are photos and eye-witness accounts of how bees will protect holy icons by placing their honeycomb throughout the entire image except for the face of Christ or the Saint that is depicted on it. It isn’t just the animals, but rather all of creation that realizes that Icons are somehow different! How do we explain weeping icons to people? Healing Myrrh literally pouring forth from these wooden images? Springs of water gushing up from the ground from icons like the Kursk Root Icon? What makes icons so special, so different, and so Holy and necessary for our worship of God?
The Bishop wrote a beautiful letter for us this past week, with a powerful reminder of why we all have this powerful desire to return to our normal state of worshiping in the Churches without any restrictions. He said: “In the life of the Church, our first priority is that all be done “on earth as it is in heaven”. Our desire to return to a regular rhythm of liturgical services is nothing less than a desire to stand together before the One “Who is seated on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty of the heavens”.
What makes icons different? In them, we recognize heaven. We feel God’s Grace working through them. Icons act as this instrument which takes us from the depths of the fallen world and provides a window into the kingdom.
On Orthodoxy Sunday, we remember that our Holy Faith, and all of the things included in it which bring us closer to God like Holy Icons, the services, the hymns of the Church, the sayings of the fathers, the use of candles…all of these things represent the necessary experiential “faith of the apostles…the faith of the Fathers…the Faith of the Orthodox…and the Faith which has established the universe.”