Day 7 – No Icons – No Savior

Today is the Sunday of Orthodoxy, the first Sunday of Great Lent, the day on which the Church commemorates the restoration of Holy Icons after centuries of battle with iconoclasts. Today is the day we declare the Orthodox Christianity is the “faith which has established the universe” as we process with our Holy Icons. Why is this so important?

Did you ever wonder if George Washington really existed? What about Napoleon or King Tut? We take these characters’ reality in history for two reasons. First, and primary is what the world of history refers to as “primary sources” which shed some light on their truth. Writings about them and even pictures of them help us today to better understand who they were in history. How could we possibly know about them if nobody ever wrote anything about them? How could we be sure they existed if nobody ever drew even a simple sketch of them?

These are the same questions the Holy Fathers of the Seventh Ecumenical Council understood when they proclaimed the truth of Holy Icons. Christ in fact DID exist. People DID see Him and write about Him. People even painted pictures of Him. So, when you are holding your Holy Icons proudly in today’s procession, remind yourself, “If we never had any Icons of Christ, how could be ever be sure He existed?” This is the why we celebrate today.