O Mother of God, through you, in the Incarnation, the indescribable Word of God became     describable; for through the divine goodness, the Word spoken from eternity became an image. May we, who believe in salvation, clothe ourselves in the same image both in word and deed. –Kondak

On the very first weekend of the Great Fast, our Church commemorates the restoration of the veneration of Icons, or Holy Images. Iconoclasm is a term meaning “image breaking,” referring to the very extreme opposition to the representation of the human figures of Christ, the Mother of God and the Saints and the veneration of these images. This transpired in the Byzantine Empire during the period from approximately 724 to 842. Iconoclasm emerged under Emperors Leo III (717-741) and Constantine V (741-775) and the iconoclastic council of 754. This movement was checked at the seventh ecumenical Council at Nicaea (787) and the total restoration of icons and the final extinction of iconoclasm took place between 815-842. The restoration of the practice of writing and venerating icons took some time.

Why does our Church commemorate the restoration of icons on this first weekend of the Great Fast? I believe for several reasons.

First, the imaging of Christ, in particular, reaffirms His actual, historical existence. Christ is the image of God in human form. So our commemoration of this event in history supports our faith in Jesus as the incarnation of our invisible God and that God became incarnate for the sake of sharing with us how we should live. The fact that we can image Jesus makes Him real.

Second, the images of the Mother of God and the other saints also tell us that they were real people who, by their lives, demonstrated that it is possible to live like Jesus lived.

Third, this commemoration also reminds us that we are made in God’s image and likeness – we are called to be the living icons of God in our world today. The season of the Great Fast is all about growing spiritually so that we more and more represent – image – God in our world.

Finally, the icons we use and venerate bring to mind the persons that we use as models for our lives and remind us that the people they represent are alive in another dimension – icons keep alive our memory of them (In a similar fashion we keep photographs of people we love in our homes).

Do you have an icon in your home? Icons can truly be wonderful reminders of the meaning and purpose of life!