We all know that an icon is an image, a depiction of a divine person or event – either an image of Jesus, or Mary, or one of the saints – or of an event in salvation history, like the birth of Jesus, or the death of a martyr.
Whomever, or whatever, an icon depicts it is meant to reveal Divine truth through beauty. A beautiful icon of Jesus Christ shows us an image of divinity, of the Incarnate Word – it shows us the human face of God. And a beautiful icon of a saint gives us a representation of a person who has been so perfectly transformed by grace that they have become an image of Christ.
My professor made the point that each and every one of us is an icon – a sort of painting, which God Himself has said, He created in His own Divine image. But, we are incomplete. Our icon has not yet been finished or perfected. We are intended to help God bring His act of creation to fulfillment – to finish the picture, so to speak – by the way we live our lives.
When the life we live is one of virtue, grace and charity we fill our image in with a beautiful array of colors and texture. We become a more and more faithful representation of the Divine life: our lives look more and more like the life of Jesus.
But through all sorts of vices and sins, faults and mistakes, we can smear and smudge our image – we can tarnish and erode the beautiful glow of divine life we have been given.
On this first day of Lent we all come forward and receive a smear of ashes, a smudge of dirt upon our brow. With it we admit to ourselves, and confess before God and all who will see us this day, that we have indeed smudged and smeared the beautiful divine image that God so lovingly created us in.
But this smudge is in the form of the Cross –which is the sign and proof of God’s infinite love and mercy. And so even within this smear is contained the hope and promise of the Cross – the means by which God has reconciled us to Himself.
During this holy season of Lent, we strive to “become the righteousness of God,” to become the image, the icon of Divine life that we were created to be. We submit ourselves to the sometimes difficult and painful process of scrubbing our lives clean and starting out fresh.
We don’t seek to torture ourselves through self-sacrifice – we don’t give up good things that we rightfully like and enjoy simply to make ourselves miserable.
We cultivate a life of prayer, we fast from pleasures that can distract, and we increase our giving of alms and charity, because these are the artist’s tools – these are the brushes, and oils, and disciplines by which a virtuous life, a holy life, a divine life are painted and filled in.
Today, we come forward and receive a reminder and admission of the imperfections in our icon. Over the next forty days, with God’s grace, we do the hard work of removing the smudges that mar God’s image in our lives – and, at the same time, we do the hard work of adding layers of color and texture, all in an effort to make our lives the icon of God they were intended to be.
My professor made the point that each and every one of us is an icon – a sort of painting, which God Himself has said, He created in His own Divine image. But, we are incomplete. Our icon has not yet been finished or perfected. We are intended to help God bring His act of creation to fulfillment – to finish the picture, so to speak – by the way we live our lives.
When the life we live is one of virtue, grace and charity we fill our image in with a beautiful array of colors and texture. We become a more and more faithful representation of the Divine life: our lives look more and more like the life of Jesus.
But through all sorts of vices and sins, faults and mistakes, we can smear and smudge our image – we can tarnish and erode the beautiful glow of divine life we have been given.
On this first day of Lent we all come forward and receive a smear of ashes, a smudge of dirt upon our brow. With it we admit to ourselves, and confess before God and all who will see us this day, that we have indeed smudged and smeared the beautiful divine image that God so lovingly created us in.
But this smudge is in the form of the Cross –which is the sign and proof of God’s infinite love and mercy. And so even within this smear is contained the hope and promise of the Cross – the means by which God has reconciled us to Himself.
During this holy season of Lent, we strive to “become the righteousness of God,” to become the image, the icon of Divine life that we were created to be. We submit ourselves to the sometimes difficult and painful process of scrubbing our lives clean and starting out fresh.
We don’t seek to torture ourselves through self-sacrifice – we don’t give up good things that we rightfully like and enjoy simply to make ourselves miserable.
We cultivate a life of prayer, we fast from pleasures that can distract, and we increase our giving of alms and charity, because these are the artist’s tools – these are the brushes, and oils, and disciplines by which a virtuous life, a holy life, a divine life are painted and filled in.
Today, we come forward and receive a reminder and admission of the imperfections in our icon. Over the next forty days, with God’s grace, we do the hard work of removing the smudges that mar God’s image in our lives – and, at the same time, we do the hard work of adding layers of color and texture, all in an effort to make our lives the icon of God they were intended to be.
1 comment:
I LOVE this homily! Thank you! I only wish I could have been there to hear it in person. Ever think about asking the Holy Cross if they would consider transferring you to a Dominican parish in Seattle?! ;)
Post a Comment