Reflections for 8 April

As I was searching for images to use in my last post I stumbled across a fundamentalist website courtesy of this image.


In light of my early argument in these reflections for Christian Unity I thought it might be interesting to go through a little bit and address some of this man's talking points surrounding is condemnation of orthodox Christianity. Note that I use a lower case o in orthodox because I am referring to the collective church represented by Roman Catholicism, the Eastern Rite, commonly called the Orthodox Church, and Mainline Protestantism.

http://www.jesus-is-savior.com/False%20Religions/Russian_Orthodox/ro-idolatry.htm

The above is the url for the first page that I came to. This site is vast and if you feel like exploring it there is a link to his homepage at the very bottom. What I will do for this post is go through some of his more interesting pictures and captions and examine them from both a Catholic and Protestant viewpoint, I am sadly ignorant of the details of the Orthodoxy which the images represent so I call on someone more informed than myself to please enlighten me.

To start with, the image that I posted at the start is captioned "People are worshipping Satan and don't even realize it." This is an inflammatory statement to say the least but one that is pretty common among Protestant denominations unfamiliar with icons.

Icons have a well established place in church history and symbolism. Probably the most famous icon in the world is of the crucified Christ which is what the woman in the image is kissing. Now there is no way from the picture to tell for certain what time of year it was taken or what exact event is going on but in the Catholic tradition the crucifix is venerated in this manner on Good Friday, the yearly commemoration of Christ's crucifixion. Protestants often see the promulgation of icons in Catholic churches as idolatrous, the placement of an image before God. Icons are not worshipped instead of God, as this gentleman argues, but they are venerated as a representation of divine grace and favor. It was upon the cross that Christ redeemed all human kind and so we honor the image of our Lord crucified not because it has any power in and of itself but because it is a visual demonstration of God's love for creation that he would suffer in our place for our sins. This is why on Good Friday we commonly kiss the crucifix, as a symbol of our gratitude to our Heavenly Father.




This image bears the caption "The icons are worshipped more than Jesus. Some of those icons are of mystics (meaning Satan possessed) like Sergei Radonevzhski." This is followed up with the last sentence of the First Letter of St. John "Little children, keep yourselves from idols. Amen." The irony here is that St. John's Gospel is a mystic one. Instead of an action by action account of Christ's deeds during His time among His people, St. John begins with creation. "In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God." It is St. John's Gospel which states plainly the doctrine that Christ is both fully human and fully divine. Mysticism consists of focusing on the spiritual connection with God and mystics have played an important role in both Christian and Jewish thought. Mystics often compose hymns and poems to the Glory of God, some of which we still sing in church services all over the planet. In the last year a couple of films have been made about Hildigard von Bingen who was a Benedictine Nun, composer, and mystic. According to Russiapedia, Sergei was an ascetic monk who lived the humblest of lives and founded a monestary. There is now a cathedral on the site where he built his first shrine to the Holy Trinity.

Icons are made of Saints to give a visual cue for the faithful to look to. Icons are venerated not for any inherent power they possess but because those they represent received the divine blessing.



The caption here is "The crazy 'Patriarch' and his two dragons!" (punctuation from the site). There is a secondary caption which reads "Also, notice the phoenix birdies on his hat." Now because I do not know enough about Russian Orthodoxy I am not sure what the dragons represent but the "phoenix birdies" are a symbol of temporal Russia. After the fall of Constantinople in AD 1453 the King of Moscow, who I believe was Ivan the Terrible but don't quote me on that, made the Roman Eagle flag the symbol of his empire and took the title Czar which is a Russian translation of the word Caesar. The Russian Empire was often called the Third Rome because of the use of this symbol. It represents the empire ruling over two continents, both east and west and where the Empire reached the Church was able to operate freely which is why the Patriarch wears the symbol.




Last, but not least, is the veneration of Relics. Probably the most famous Relic in the Western world is the Shroud of Turin which is taken by the church to be Christ's burial cloth. There are many Relics venerated throughout the Catholic and Orthodox worlds and this one is the Skull of St. Vaclav. This is a Saint I know nothing about but the caption once again uses the word "worship." Same point, Relics are not worshipped, they are venerated because they bear the blessings of God. Because we believe in the resurrection of the dead, St. Vaclav's skull is not merely a piece of bone, it is part of his once and future body, part of the Body of Christ, the Church, and the remains of our brother in Christ. Because he is a saint, it is taken as a matter of faith that his soul is in Heaven waiting to reclaim his earthly body. Presumably, the soul knows the state of the body after their separation and venerating his skull in death is the same as honoring the living man Vaclav who was an exemplar of the faith.

I could go on but I hope this does address some Protestant confusion about icons and relics and maybe reiterates that we're not as far away on some things as it can appear on the surface.

God bless.