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._—Just, then, as he who does not honour the Son does not
honour the Father who sent Him, as our Lord says, so he who does not
honour the image does not honour the original. Still some one says, ‘We
cannot refuse to honour the image of Christ, but we will not have the
saints.’ What folly! Listen to what our Lord says to His disciples: ‘He
who receives you receives Me,’ so that the man who does not honour the
saints does not honour Christ either.
St John Chrysostom, from his ‘Commentary on the Epistle to the Hebrews.’
How can what precedes be an image of what follows, as, for instance,
Melchisedech of Christ? Just in the same way as a sketch would be an
outline of the picture. On this account the old law is called a shadow,
and the new—the truth and what is to come—certainties. Thus
Melchisedech, who represents the law, is a foreshadowing of the picture.
The new dispensation is the truth; the picture fully completed shows
forth eternity. We might call the old dispensation a type of a type, and
the new a type of the things themselves.
From the Spiritual History of Theodore, Bishop of Cyrus. From the ‘Life
of St Simon Stylites.’
It is superfluous to speak of Italy. They say that this man became so
well known in the great city of Rome, that small statues were erected to
him in all the porticos of workshops, as a certain protection to them,
and a guarantee of security.
St Basil, from his ‘Commentary on Isaias.’
When the devil saw man made after God’s image and likeness, as he could
not fight against God, he vented his wickedness on the image of God. In
the same way an angry man might stone the King’s image, because he
cannot stone the King, striking the wood which bears his likeness.
_Commentary._—Thus, every man who honours the image must necessarily
honour the original.
The same.
Just as the man who shows contempt for the royal image is held to show
it for the King himself, so is he convicted of sin who shows contempt
for man made after an image.
St Athanasius, from the Hundred Chapters addressed to Antiochus, the
Prefect, according to Question and Answer.—Chap. xxxviii.
_Answer._—We, who are of the faithful, do not worship images as gods, as
the heathens did, God forbid, but we mark our loving desire alone to see
the face of the person represented in image. Hence, when it is
obliterated, we are wont to throw the image as so much wood into the
fire. Jacob, when he was about to die, worshipped on the point of
Joseph’s staff, not honouring the staff but its owner. Just in the same
way do we greet images as we should embrace our children and parents to
signify our affection. Thus the Jew, too, worshipped the tablets of the
law, and the two golden cherubim in carved work, not because he honoured
gold or stone for itself, but the Lord who had ordered them to be made.
St John Chrysostom, on the ‘Third Psalm, on David, and Absalom.’
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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