But since some find fault with us for worshipping and honouring the
image of our Saviour and that of our Lady, and those, too, of the rest of the
saints and servants of Christ, let them remember that in the beginning God created
man after His own image. On what grounds, then, do we show reverence to each
other unless because we are made after God's image? For as Basil, that
much-versed expounder of divine things, says, the honour given to the image
passes over to the prototype. Now a prototype is that which is imaged, from
which the derivative is obtained. Why was it that the Mosaic people honoured on
all hands the tabernacle which bore an image and type of heavenly things, or
rather of the whole creation? God indeed said to Moses, ‘Look that thou make
them after their pattern which was shewed thee in the mount’. The Cherubim,
too, which overshadow the mercy seat, are they not the work of men's hands?
What, further, is the celebrated temple at Jerusalem? Is it not hand-made and fashioned
by the skill of men?
Moreover the divine Scripture blames those who worship graven images,
but also those who sacrifice to demons. The Greeks sacrificed and the Jews also
sacrificed: but the Greeks to demons and the Jews to God. And the sacrifice of
the Greeks was rejected and condemned, but the sacrifice of the just was very
acceptable to God. For Noah sacrificed, and God smelled a sweet savour,
receiving the fragrance of the right choice and good-will towards Him. And so
the graven images of the Greeks, since they were images of deities, were
rejected and forbidden.
But besides this who can make an imitation of the invisible,
incorporeal, uncircumscribed, formless God? Therefore to give form to the Deity
is the height of folly and impiety. And hence it is that in the Old Testament
the use of images was not common. But after God in His bowels of pity became in
truth man for our salvation, not as He was seen by Abraham in the semblance of
a man, nor as He was seen by the prophets, but in being truly man, and after He
lived upon the earth and dwelt among men, worked miracles, suffered, was
crucified, rose again and was taken back to Heaven, since all these things
actually took place and were seen by men, they were written for the remembrance
and instruction of us who were not alive at that time in order that though we
saw not, we may still, hearing and believing, obtain the blessing of the Lord.
But seeing that not every one has knowledge of letters nor time for reading,
the Fathers gave their sanction to depicting these events on images as being
acts of great heroism, in order that they should form a concise memorial of
them. Often, doubtless, when we have not the Lord's passion in mind and see the
image of Christ's crucifixion, His saving passion is brought back to
remembrance, and we fall down and worship not the material but that which is
imaged: just as we do not worship the material of which the Gospels are made,
nor the material of the Cross, but that which these typify. For wherein does
the cross, that typifies the Lord, differ from a cross that does not do so? It
is just the same also in the case of the Mother of the Lord. For the honour
which we give to her is referred to Him Who was made of her incarnate. And
similarly also the brave acts of holy men stir us up to be brave and to emulate
and imitate their valour and to glorify God. For as we said, the honour that is
given to the best of fellow-servants is a proof of good-will towards our common
Lady, and the honour rendered to the image passes over to the prototype. But
this is an unwritten tradition, just as is also the worshipping towards the
East and the worship of the Cross, and very many other similar things.
A certain tale, too, is told, how that when Augarus was king over the
city of the Edessenes, he sent a portrait painter to paint a likeness of the
Lord, and when the painter could not paint because of the brightness that shone
from His countenance, the Lord Himself put a garment over His own divine and
life-giving face and impressed on it an image of Himself and sent this to
Augarus, to satisfy thus his desire.
Moreover that the Apostles handed down much that was unwritten, Paul,
the Apostle of the Gentiles, tells us in these words: Therefore, brethren,
stand fast and hold the traditions which ye have been taught of us, whether by
word or by epistle. And to the Corinthians he writes, Now I praise you,
brethren, that ye remember me in all things, and keep the traditions as I have
delivered them to you."
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