Why do Catholics and Orthodox Christians have icons and statues in their churches?

There are two important events in the life of Christians that illustrate why we have icons and statues in our churches. The first is the event of the Incarnation itself. When the Word became man, he took on our flesh – Picturing him is not forbidden. On the contrary, it is venerating to the One who, being fully Divine, shared our humanity. This tradition is as early as the painting of the Blessed Virgin Mary by St. Luke according to ancient tradition. St. Veronica is said to have wiped Christ’s face on his way to the cross by her handkerchief. His face was immediately imprinted on it. In Christianity, the Jewish tradition was married to Greek thought. And with this, the magnificent arts of Rome and Greece were developed into Christian art (music, painting, sculpture, architecture...etc.) The second event was the advent of Islam into the Byzantine empire by the 7th century which caused a heresy in the East. The heresy “destruction of icons” lasted almost a century until in 787 A.D. the seventh Ecumenical Council proclaimed the truth about the Christian faith. At the Council, icons were restored to churches and peace to the empire. Why the Eastern Church no longer has statues of Christ and saints can be explained as an effect of the aftermath of Islam. It is interesting that Martin Luther, the Protestant Reformer in Europe's 16th century, never intended to eliminate statues from churches. As St. John Damascene, the Arab theologian explained in the 8th century, people who could not read the Bible and the liturgy could still worship by looking at icons. In the early and Medieval Church and up to the printing industry in the 16th century, the Bible was copied by hand in monasteries. Ordinary people infrequently read it outside the church. Thanks, however, to the Greek culture, schools of theology and philosophy flourished and thanks to Christian thinkers in both East and West they became centres of learning. By the 12th century the university of Paris was already shining with many great minds. There is a third event which we tend to neglect - it is peculiar to the West as Islam was already in most of the Medieterranean countries. This was Renaissance. Renaissance developed humanism from the classic literature and influenced the Christian West in many ways. We see that in St. Francis' emphasis on the nativity and humanity of Christ. The West developed a culture open to life. Polyphony in sacred music was born in the 11th century. Gothic cathedrals are also a characteristic of Christian churches. The great painters such as Michael Angelo and Raphael brought more beauty into the Christian tradition. Think of this panorama and think how Christ has been pictured in abundant ways and colours, and you will see a sea of imagination. He has brown eyes in the East, blue eyes in the North, yellow hair in the West, and black one in Africa. Christ has the most beautiful face - and he points us to the Father! Why not paint him who dared to be visible to us? Why not paint his mother who participated in his mission and carried him in his life and death and is now with him? Why not paint saints who were heroically transformed to his "image"? The Church carries Christ in all the earth and till the end of times.

Why do we need to pray?

In every religion and culture, people pray. Christians, Muslims, Jews, Hindus, Buddhists, and atheists do. You and I pray everyday even though we do not really know. Before we speak of the great prayers of holy people, let’s explore the little ones…Our own prayers. When my son asks me for a favour, he does not say “I pray” but “Please.” When at work your colleague asks you for a service she says “please.” Your boss sends you a request for a task that must be done and still he says “please.” When some stranger lets me get off the bus ahead of her, I say “thank you” When my wife cooks a meal I like, I say “thank you” to her. Yesterday my eldest son bought me a nice shirt – I wanted to kiss him because he thought of me. Prayer does not have to be explicitly defined. It is innate in everyone from the little baby who needs the affection of his mother to the oldest living person who needs the care and love of his/her family. The little baby cannot say “please” yet his mother responds with giving him her affection and love. The same with everyone. It is not only private but also communal. When someone excels at his services whether at work, in the community, or in Church, people gather around him and praise him. They celebrate his services and give him a gift to recognize his contribution. We see all the above forms of prayer in every place. Prayer of supplication, thanksgiving, and praise. Yet this is only the beginning. Here is the important message: Every one of us is imperfect. He/she needs the other. Psychological studies show that a person cannot live by himself alone. People have to be in communion. Some people do this more intensely than others. They reflect on what they pray. They spend time by themselves at home to meditate. They even call on God. They talk to God even if for one minute everyday. All this is done out of need. Did you know that recent scientific research was able to find the origin of language but is unable to find the origin of worship? All humans need to worship. From the stone age to this day man worships. Prayer is only a form of worship. The development of prayer over the ages included deep meditation. In Christianity, this started with the Desert Fathers in Egypt and was brought to other parts of the world by imitating the first Fathers. .St. Anthony of Egypt is believed to be the first in a tradition that spanned the entire Christian civilization for many centuries. Many orders developed out of this deep connection to God who are still serving the world in prayer, thought, and service including the Benedictines, the Franciscans, the Jesuits, the Basilians, and many more. To-date, there are many monasteries in the world. At a deep spiritual level, monks have the courage to spend months and years praying to God. Again their prayer is meant to submit to the Father their supplications for the human needs both material and spiritual, their thanksgiving for everything we receive, their praise of God for his outpouring love that in spite of our shortcomings and sinfulness he continues to provide. The greatest miracle of all is that God loves us to the point that he came to us. He created us out of love, He became one of us and dwelt among us in Christ and he continues to dwell among us in the Holy Spirit. This is what all Christians believe. However the most enriching prayer is that of the Eucharist where the community offers thanksgiving to the Triune God. Furthermore it is the sacrificial act of God himself (who empties himself continuously in eternity by that eternal love of the Father and the Son through the Spirit). God the Son himself offers thanksgiving and sacrifice on our behalf to the Father and at the same time He is the One offered through his body and blood by the power of the Holy Spirit. In Mass, the entire Church prays the prayer of supplications, the prayer of thanksgiving and the prayer of praise. She is united to her head Christ and with him offers the gifts to the Father through the Holy Spirit. This is why we are encouraged to take the body and blood of Christ since it is really present on the altar. We need however to be careful that we receive it only when we are in the state of grace (i.e. not in the state of mortal sin). When we receive the body and blood of Christ it is there that we partake of the Divine (Theosis). Do we need to pray? Yes we do – We already do it everyday, albeit at beginners level, but we need to recognize, and deepen it in our souls through the one who said “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but by me.” (John 14: 6)

The New Elijah

I met Archbishop Elias Chacour a couple of weeks ago in Toronto, together with a number of Melkite Catholics, the parish council, and above all Fr. Georges Farah and Fr. Michel Chalhoub. Archbishop Elias Chacour, Melkite Catholic archbishop of Galilee in Patestine/Israel was in Toronto to open a conference of the Presbyterian communion. He is frequently invited to speak to Christian denominations in the U.S. and is venerated as the voice of Eastern Christians who endured much suffering in the land of Christ at the hands of both the state of Israel and more recently the Muslim extremist government of Hamas.

Elias Michael Chacour was born in 1939 in Upper Galilee in Palestine to an Arab Christian family, members of the Melkite Greek Catholic Church. At the age of eight he was evicted along with his whole village of Biram by Zionist forces and became a deportee and a refugee but remained in the region. Because he remained in his homeland, he was granted Israeli citizenship when the state was created in 1948. Completing his schooling in Nazareth, he studied theology at St. Sulpice Seminary in Paris, returning home in 1965. He was ordained a priest by Archbishop George Hakim of Akko, Haifa, Nazareth and all Galilee, who became Patriarch Maximos V. He later studied the Hebrew Scripture at the Hebrew University. Chacour is vice president of the Sabeel Ecumenical Liberation Theology Centre. Seeing the lack of educational opportunities beyond grade 8 for his Palestinian fellows, he started his project of creating schools, that today number 10 schools, in his Mar Elias Educational Institutions. Chacour is the author of two best selling books, "Blood Brothers" and "We Belong to the Land." "Blood Brothers" covers his childhood growing up in the town of Biram, his development into a young man, and his early years as a priest in Ibillin. This book has been translated into 28 languages. His second book, "We Belong to the Land," recounts his work in the development of Mar Elias Educational Institutions, from humble beginnings to major schools for educating Palestinian young people and for helping to bring about reconciliation in a land of strife. This book has been translated into 11 languages.

Appointed by the Melkite Catholic synod to the bishopric service, Chacour currently serves as Archbishop of Akko, Haifa, Nazareth and all Galilee. His most recent educational work includes the building of a university in Ibillin. His diocese, the largest Christian in Israel, counts 76,000 faithful in 65 parishes. He speaks 11 languages, and has been twice nominated for the Nobel Prize for Peace. For years Archbishop Chacour has been invited to lecture in conferences and to "Mega church" audiences in the U.S. and Europe. His ecumenical service that started in Palestine is bearing fruits worldwide.

His message echoes that of his Master, Jesus Christ, "Be Not Afraid" uttered almost 2000 years ago in the same place where he serves now. He reminds me first of Patriarch Maximos IV Sayegh who was called "The Lion of the Council" at the Second Vatican Council in 1965. Above all, he reminds me of Elijah, the great prophet of Israel, who in the time of the great apostasy of the people of God, dared to stand alone at Carmel and call back Israel to God. This calling (in this 21st century) is as needed as ever. When today's Christianity is facing annihilation in the Middle East at the hands of fundasmentalists, both Jewish and Islamic, Christians must be encouraged to hope against hope and continue to live, albeit being persecuted, in the holy land. This is what Chacour says. But how can this "New Elijah" preach the Gospel to a hostile surrounding? Without a moment of doubt he answers "by defending peace based on justice." Is not that what Pope Benedict XVI indicated in his visit to the holy land this past May? Let us hope that this prelate of ours will succeed in his worldwide mission.

References:

For more info please refer to the many sites about Archbishop Elias Chacour using Google.

Reference used in this article:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elias_Chacour

Why we need to learn every day

Never stop learning. As long as you live, there is always an opportunity to learn. Because if you do not learn you will not be able to give back. Have an open mind like John of Damascus in the 8th century, Thomas Aquinas in the 13th century, and Karl Rahner in the 20th century. They not only brought new ideas but developed existing ideas. Have a commitment to Tradition because it carries the experience of the people of God. It is our responsibility to be open to others and to love others. This is the way of Christ. But how can we love them if we do not know them? In the ancient traditions, knowledge was not meant only for the objective intellectual mind but also for the subjective experience of my fellow people to the point that the marital sexual act was referred to as knowledge. For example, Joseph's committment to the virginity of Mary the Mother of God was referred to in the Gospel as "He did not know her." It meant he did not have sex with her (i.e. did not know her deepest experience). We know that Mary was fully in love with God that with her obedient cooperation she considered herself only a servant and He became flesh of her flesh by the power of the Holy Spirit. Do we learn through our ideas only? No. Read again. We learn from experience more than we learn from intellectual ideas. Keep this in mind and heart.

Accountability before the Judge of Man

This past Friday, we watched a documentary interview with a contemporary priest, Fr. Steven Scheier, who lived an ordinary life of a priest, until he was near death in an accident. In the interview with Mother Angelica a few years ago, Scheier recounts his extraordinary story. On October 18, 1985, he was traveling from Wichita to his parish in Kansas. According to Fr. Tommy Lane, Fr. Scheier was involved in a terrible accident: a head-on collision with a pickup truck. Fr. Scheier was thrown from his vehicle. His entire scalp was cut off on the right side. He had suffered a broken neck, and the second cervical vertebra was broken. One of his parishioners who happened to be in the hospital was told he was being given a 15% chance to live. But he recovered unexpectedly and was able to return to his parish. He was saying Mass, and started reading the Gospel of Jesus' parable of the fig tree "A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard; and he came seeking fruit on it and found none. And he said to the vinedresser, `Lo, these three years I have come seeking fruit on this fig tree, and I find none. Cut it down; why should it use up the ground?' And he answered him, `Let it alone, sir, this year also, till I dig about it and put on manure. And if it bears fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.'" (Luke 13: 6-9). While reading it in the Church, the page became illuminated, enlarged and came off the lectionary towards him. After Mass, Fr. Scheier remembered a conversation that had taken place shortly after the accident. In that conversation Fr Scheier found himself standing before the judgment of Christ. He says the Lord took him through his entire life, and showed him how he had failed in his priestly service. Fr Scheier said “yes” to everything Jesus said about his life. Now before Christ he was talking to Truth and when you are talking to Truth you can’t give excuses. At the end of his judgment his sentence from Jesus was hell. Fr. Scheier said “yes” as that was the only logical thing he deserved. At that moment, however, he heard a woman say, “Son, will you please spare his life and his eternal soul?” The Lord replied, “Mother, he’s been a priest for twelve years for himself and not for me, let him reap the punishment he deserves.” “But Son,” she said, “if we give him special graces and strengths then let’s see if he bears fruit; if not, your will be done.” There was very short pause, after which Jesus said, “Mother, he’s yours.” Fr. Scheier experienced Jesus’ mercy but Mary was the one who interceded for him.

That was the interview which reminded everyone of the truth of our lives. Our eternal life depends on how we live our present life in this world. Although we know that God is all-loving and merciful, it does not free us from responding to the calls of the Spirit of Jesus who knocks on our doors relentlessly. The experience of Fr. Scheier is particularly relevant to our way of modern life. Especially when the beast is here to swallow every faithful, who can guarantee his eternal life? We are all, very likely, the fig tree and Mary, our mother, continues to implore her unique son as the vinedresser did in the parable. How long will the Master be patient? Our three years are not forever. This was a priest who performed his regular duties as required, but he himself confessed in the interview that he thought with his mind only and not with his heart. It is a mystery how God uses all things, even near-death experiences, to save souls. We know for sure from recent scientific research that the subjective element in Man's experience, in this case near-death experience, cannot be discounted as mere illusions. Here is a possible miracle but the real miracle is surely the transformation of this brother who "was dead and now is alive" (Luke 15: 32). This is the work of God who saves. He is our hope.

References:

http://www.ewtn.com/

http://www.frtommylane.com/homilies/year_c/lent3.htm