St John Damascene on Holy Images (πρὸς τοὺς διαβάλλοντας τᾶς ἁγίας εἰκόνας). Followed by Three Sermons on the Assumption (κοίμησις) — John Shaqi
St John Damascene on Holy Images (πρὸς τοὺς διαβάλλοντας τᾶς ἁγίας εἰκόνας). Followed by Three Sermons on the Assumption (κοίμησις)John of Damascus, Saint
Religion
St John Damascene on Holy Images (πρὸς τοὺς διαβάλλοντας τᾶς ἁγίας εἰκόνας). Followed by Three Sermons on the Assumption (κοίμησις)
John of Damascus, Saint
Icons -- Cult; Idols and images -- Worship; Mary, Blessed Virgin, Saint -- Assumption -- Sermons -- Early works to 1800
_Commentary._—You see that the divine beauty is not set forth in form or
shape, and on this account it cannot be conveyed by an image (οὑκ
εἰκονίξεται): it is the human form which is transferred to canvas by the
artist’s brush. If, therefore, the Son of God became man, taking the
form of a servant, and appearing in man’s nature, a perfect man, why
should His image not be made? If, in common parlance, the king’s image
is called the king, and the honour shown to the image redounds to the
original, as holy Basil says, why should the image not be honoured and
worshipped, not as God, but as the image of God Incarnate?
The same, from his Sermon at Constantinople on the Godhead of the Son
and of the Spirit, and on Abraham.
Then the father proceeds to bind his son. I have often seen paintings of
this touching scene, and could not look at it with dry eyes, art setting
it forth so vividly. Isaac is lying before the altar, his legs bound,
his hands tied behind his back. The father approaching the victim,
clasping his hair with the left hand, stoops over the face so piteously
turned towards him, and holds in his right hand the sword, ready to
strike. Already the point of the sword is on the body when the divine
voice is heard, forbidding the consummation.
Leo,¹² Bishop of Neapolis in Cyprus. From his book against the Jews, on
the Adoration of the Cross, and the Statues of the Saints, and on
Relics.
If you, O Jew, reproach me saying that I adore the wood of the Cross as
God, why do you not reproach Jacob, who worshipped on the point of his
staff (ἐπὶ τό ἄκρον τῆς ρἁβδου)? Now it is evident that he was not
worshipping wood. So with us; we are worshipping Christ through the
Cross, not the wood of the Cross.
_Commentary._—If we adore the Cross, made of whatever wood it may be,
how shall we not adore the image of the Crucified?
From the same.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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