Поучение о поклонении святым иконам («Пречистому Твоему образу покланяемся, Благий, просяще прощения прегрешений наших, Христе Боже»)

So solemnly sings the Divine Orthodox Catholic Church. Abel’s innocent blood, Orthodox listeners, once cried out with a great voice to God, as the Almighty Lord Himself told Cain: “The voice of your brother’s blood cries out to Me” (Gen. 4:10). The innocently shed blood of many martyrs who suffered in our Orthodox Church for the holy icons has its own voice. It has its own voice, but not any other, but the following: “We worship Your Most Pure Image, O Good One, asking forgiveness of our sins, O Christ God.” Let us, the Orthodox, and all the sons of the Eastern Church, join this bloody voice of the holy martyrs. Let us also be ready to suffer and shed our blood for the holy icons, and let us all sing according to: “We worship Your Most Pure Image, O Good One, asking forgiveness of our sins, O Christ our God.” What do you say to this, seven-headed serpent of the iconoclastic heresy, who denies holy icons? I hear, I hear, spawn of vipers, what you say. You regurgitate from your godless lips incurable asp poison, calling us Orthodox Christians idolaters, and calling holy icons idols. (I deceived myself with untruth). First of all, I will ask, poisonous adder: what is an idol, what is a holy icon and what is the difference between an idol and an icon? Don't you know this, vile teacher in Israel? An image, or icon, is an image and likeness of a real thing that either is, or was, or will be. If anyone depicts the Holy Trinity in the form of three Angels, this was in reality when the Angels appeared to Abraham at the Oak of Mamre (Gen. 18:1). If anyone portrays God the Father as a certain honorable old man, this was in reality when the prophet Daniel and the prophet Isaiah saw “the Ancient of Days, sitting on a throne, high and exalted. The Seraphim stood around Him” (Dan. 7:9; Isa. 6:1–2). Does anyone depict God the Son, born, living with people, “suffering and being buried, and rising again on the third day according to the Scripture, and ascending into heaven and sitting at the right hand of the Father, and again coming with glory to judge the living and the dead,” so all this in reality was, is and will be. Whether anyone portrays God the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove, this was in reality when the Holy Spirit appeared “in the form of a dove” (see the troparion to Baptism). The same must be said about all other holy icons, which always correspond to their prototypes and are always an image and likeness of true things. What is an idol? How different is it from the icon? An icon is an image of a true thing, and an idol is an image of empty charm. What do idols represent to me? They represent Diya, Ermia, Apollo, Artemis and other countless demonic churches. What do idols represent to me? They depict the sun, moon, Kupala, Lada, Perun. You will say that these are images of gods. But here is the question: are those gods who are portrayed by pagans true? Who will call Bacchus, who is the chief of all drunkards, the true God? Who will call Artemis, or Venus, who is the ruler of all uncleanness and abominations, the true goddess? “All the gods of the pagans are demons, but our Lord created the heavens and the earth” (Ps. 95:5), as the chosen vessel, the Apostle Paul, testifies to this in his Epistle to the Corinthians: “Although there are so-called gods, either in heaven or on earth, since there are many gods and many lords, yet we have one God the Father, from whom are all things, and we are for Him, and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we By Him" (1 Cor. 8:5-6), and there is one Holy Spirit, in Him are all things, and we are in Him. I will say this: look how the idol depicting God actually depicts empty charm, depicts deception. After all, he represents God, who is not God, but a demon, not a Creator, but a creature. This is not at all like holy icons, which always depict the truth, as I have already said about this. From this you can see how great the difference is between truth and empty charm. Who else dares to call holy icons idols? Don’t you hear the sound of terrible thunder, which, as if from a high cloud, comes from the Seventh Ecumenical Holy Council and loudly proclaims: “To those who say that holy icons are idols, anathema, anathema, anathema!” If holy icons are not idols, then how can those who worship holy icons be called idolaters? How dare you, seven-headed serpent of the iconoclastic heresy, vomit your poison on the holy icons and on those who worship them? I will answer, but I will speak to you, seven-headed serpent, on the basis of the Divine Scriptures. Have you never read, lawless iconoclasts, that the Lord commanded Moses to arrange to make two golden Cherubim and place them on the ark of the Lord? After all, those who bowed to the ark of the Lord also bowed to the Cherubim standing on the ark, however, through this they did not become idolaters, but remained the chosen people of God. Have you not read in the Scriptures about the copper serpent, which Moses hung on a tree, which healed those who looked at him and worshiped him, and which was a type of Christ our Savior Himself, crucified on the tree and testifying about Himself like this: “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up” (John 3:14)? Have you not read, spawn of vipers, in historical legends that Christ Himself, our Savior, leaving an image of His most pure face on the canvas, sent to Abgar, the sick king, who wanted to see Jesus and be healed by Him, which image we call Not Made by Hands. Have you not read in the Divine Scriptures, O holy heretics, that Christ Himself, our Savior, in the words of the Apostle Paul, is called “the radiance of glory and the image of the hypostasis of the Father” (Heb. 1:3)? Haven’t you read in the Divine Scriptures that man himself is called the image of God, according to the word of God: “Let us make man in our image and likeness” (Gen. 1:26)? Why do you call images of God idols? Is it really possible that man, who is the image of God, is an idol? I will answer for you. You are correct when you say this about yourself, for it is indecent to call you images of God, but it is better to call you idols. You are idols, vile iconoclasts, for you have eyes and do not see God depicted on His holy icon, you do not see the miracles flowing from the holy icons of the Mother of God, depicted by Saint Luke himself and working many miracles. You have ears and do not hear what the Scripture commands: “Exalt the Lord our God, and worship His footstool, for it is holy” (Ps. 98:5). The Holy Fathers consider the Holy Cross to be the foot, which you do not want to bow to. You have ears and do not hear what Saint Damascus and with him the Holy Fathers and the entire Council say about images, that the honor given to the image is directed to what is depicted on it: whoever honors the image, honors the one depicted on it. By this, Saint Stephen also defeated the iconoclasts, suffering for the holy icons, about whom the following is narrated in his life. They brought him to the iconoclastic leader himself, Leo the Isaurian, who ordered him to trample underfoot the icon of the Savior. But what does a holy man do? He asked for a tax coin and asked: “Whose image and inscription is this?” When they answered him: “Caesar,” he threw the coin on the ground and began to trample and spit on the image of Caesar on it, and began to humiliate and dishonor him in the face of Caesar himself. Looking at this, the king and all his elders became extremely angry, and that husband boldly said: “You are angry because I have trampled the image of your earthly king, who is “dust and ashes” (Gen. 18:27), how will the King of kings and Lord of lords be angry, whose image you trample under your foul feet? Haven’t you read the apostolic rule: “Do not,” it says, “do to others what you yourself do not want”? (Acts 15:20), You do not want the icons depicting you to be trampled upon. Why do you, the tribe of the putrefied Copronymus, trample on the icons depicting our Savior Himself and His saints?” What do you say against it, lawless iconoclasts? Speak, slander, growl, forest animals! We will listen and respond as best we can. All your godless philosophizing is divided into two parts. I will say this: firstly, you are philosophizing that those who worship holy icons are idolaters. To this I will answer the following. I have already said before how great the difference is between an icon and an idol. An icon cannot be called an idol, for it is an image of a real thing, while an idol is an image of empty charm. Look, oppressive Copronymus, how very different we are and how far we are from the idolaters. They worshiped gods in the form of their idols, who in reality are demons living and preaching in idols. In the Savior icon we bow to our True God, in the Mother of God icon we bow to the true Mother of God, the Most Pure Virgin Mary. Idolaters considered their idols to be gods, but we do not consider images to be gods and do not want to consider them: we have only one God, Whom we worship and Whom we glorify in the Holy Trinity, but His icon serves only as an image and a reminder. Idol worshipers thought and believed that their gods lived in soulless idols, like a soul in a body. We, the pious, do not believe this. We know that God is indescribable: He is present everywhere and fulfills everything with Himself. He does not abide in the icon, like the soul in the body, and cannot abide. Idolaters placed all their hope in idols, but we, Orthodox Christians, do not place our hope in icons, but place our hope and hope in the One who is depicted in the icon. Idol worshipers worshiped the idols themselves, wood and gold, but we, Orthodox, do something completely different. When we bow before an image, we bow not to the image itself, not to wood, silver or gold, not to variegation and colors or a beautiful image, but we worship images together and inseparably with their prototype. We worship the image of the Savior, but in our minds we have the Prototype, the Savior Himself. We bow to the image of the Mother of God, but in our minds we have the Prototype, the Mother of God Herself. In a word, we Orthodox, when worshiping icons, never separate the image from its prototype, but always jointly and inseparably worship both the image and the prototype. I will repeat this a thousand times. Doesn’t Saint Damascus say the same thing: “The honor of the image goes back to the prototype”? Secondly, vile putrefied copronyms, you philosophize that we, Orthodox, by our worship of icons are breaking the commandment of God, for it is written in the Ten Commandments of the Lord: “You shall not make for yourself an idol or any image” (Deut. 5:8). We hear, O copronimites, we hear, we kiss with faith and love, we confess and keep the Ten Commandments of the Lord; but you are deceived, not understanding “neither the Scripture nor the power of God” (Matthew 22:29). First of all, I will answer the following. We do not create idols or idols and do not honor them, for one is an image, and the other is an idol, as I have already said about this. Then I will also answer this: why did Moses, having already received the commandments of the Lord, among which was this one: “You shall not make for yourself an idol or any image,” why, I say, already knowing about this commandment of the Lord, nevertheless made an image of the Cherubim at the ark of the Lord, made a copper serpent and lifted it up on a tree to represent the crucified Jesus? Answer, did Moses act well or badly, who, knowing the commandment of the Lord: “Do not make for yourself an idol or any image,” nevertheless made images of two Cherubim and the image of Christ, that is, a serpent lifted up on a tree? If Moses acted badly, bear witness to the evil, but if it was good, then why do you reproach us who do the same? Next I will say the following. The commandment of the Lord: “Do not make for yourself an idol or any image” does not refer to icons, but refers to idols. Almighty God knew that the Jews had a great tendency towards idolatry, for they mixed with the pagans, learned their works, served their idols, created a calf at Horeb, worshiped idols and exchanged the glory of God for the likeness of a calf eating grass. What does Almighty God do, seeing this great tendency of the Jews to idolatry: He gives through Moses the ten commandments, which begin like this: “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery; May you have no other gods before Me. You shall not make for yourself any graven image or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth below, or that is in the waters under the earth; you shall not bow down to them or serve them” (Deut. 5:6–8). Now I call you yourselves, albeit evil ones, as witnesses. Are we not fulfilling this commandment of God? Do we have any other gods besides the God who brought the people of Israel out of the slavery of Egypt, and us from the slavery of the devil? Do we make idols for ourselves instead of gods, to whom we would give the same worthy honor as to God Himself, when we keep and venerate those icons that, as I said, are not idols, which we do not consider to be gods, which we do not worship separately from their prototypes and do not give them Divine honor? However, why talk for a long time with the crazy and stubborn? “He that is unclean, let him be filthy still” (Rev. 22:11). Open your vile throats with all their hellish poison: “The gates of hell will not prevail against the holy Church; the Church is the pillar and ground of the truth” (1 Tim. 3:15); with her we, her children, together with all the Holy Fathers, the universal lamps, Basil the Great, Gregory the Theologian, John Chrysostom, Athanasius, Cyril and many others, with the entire Ecumenical Holy Council gathered against the iconoclasts, we all unanimously say and are ready to sign with our blood: “We worship Your Most Pure Image, O Good One!” We curse you, the illustrious Copronymians, together with the entire Seventh Holy Ecumenical Council: “Anathema, anathema, anathema!”