Sunday of Orthodoxy
Hebrews 11:24-26, 32-12:2; John 1:43-51
Christ is among us!
Today, on this First Sunday of Great Lent, we celebrate the Sunday of Orthodoxy, commemorating the restoration of the veneration of holy icons in AD 843. This feast affirms the heart of our faith: that the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. Because Christ took on human nature, we can depict Him; because He made Himself visible, we can gaze upon Him in the icons, just as the disciples gazed upon Him in the flesh.
The Co-eternal Son took on a body so that we might look upon God in the flesh and receive the gift of faith. St. Paul urging us: "Let us run the race with endurance with our eyes fixed in Jesus". In today’s Gospel, Philip says “Come and See”. But sometimes, like Nathanael, we hesitate. We want to make sure, we want to verify the truth and that is a good thing.
"Philip takes Nathanael to Christ, knowing that once he hears His words, he will make no more resistance." Nathanael wisely withholds judgement until he sees Christ; he wants to investigate. He seeks truth, exercises discernment, but is then humble enough to accept that Christ is indeed the Messiah when Our Lord reveals Himself to Him. When Jesus reveals His divine knowledge—"Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you" —Nathanael immediately confesses, "Rabbi, You are the Son of God!".
Great Lent is a time to recover orthodoxy (right believing) and orthopraxy (right living)—which are inseparable. The heresy of iconoclasm denies that the human body can be sanctified and transformed, but the restoration of holy icons affirms that Christ is true God and true man, and that He came to save us through the renewal of our mind and body. This is why we fast, pray, do penance, and amend our lives.
In our modern world, the battle against iconoclasm has taken new forms. Modern culture seeks to erase not just sacred images but all signs of God, right worship, and orthopraxy —we complain of Latinization, but the greater evils are Protestantism, Gnosticism, and spiritualism in the Church—these are the modern day manifestations of iconoclasm.
St Basil defended the veneration of icons when he taught that "The honor given to the image passes on to the prototype.” To bow before an icon of Christ is to acknowledge His real, incarnate presence among us. To live our lives in imitation of His life is to become a saint.
On this Sunday of Orthodoxy, let us follow the example of Nathanael by seeking the truth with diligence and embracing it with humility. Like St. Paul, let us run the race of Lent with endurance, fixing our eyes on Christ. And like St Basil, let us defend and venerate the sacred images of our faith as witnesses to the Incarnation. Christ calls each of us, as He called Philip and Nathanael, to "Come and see." May our eyes be opened, our hearts and bodies purified, and our faith strengthened, so that we too may see and confess: "Rabbi, You are the Son of God!" Amen.