“An icon isn’t just a religious work of art…”
If the timelessness of icons is as much about their applicability and relevance, what do these two parallel images have to say to us? While the ancient image on the left portrays the Madonna and Child, this icon also compels us to remember how God chose to enter our world, not as a mighty warrior but as a helpless infant wholly dependent on the protection of others.
What, then, of the image on the right? In a current photograph, here, a Palestinian infant clings to her mother against the backdrop of shelled buildings in Gaza. No, it isn’t Mary, the Mother of God, and the infant Jesus. Yet what if the nature of icons also challenges the limits we impose on God? What if God is all the more present in those we deem insignificant and of no account?
A priest once said, “Do not go out and buy icons. Instead, go to those who are hungry and thirsty, the war-fatigued and grieving, and look for Christ there.” If we are indifferent to the image of God in other people, we will never find God’s image within icons or ourselves, for that matter.
Prayer: Divine Maker, who fashioned all humankind, non-sentient life, and creation, heal us of our blindness, we pray. Teach us that it is not enough to merely hope that the violence and suffering will somehow come to an end on its own. Instead, be in our thoughts, words, and actions so that we may exemplify the radical expansiveness of your love for all of God’s children and creation. We ask this in all the holy names of God. Amen.
[1] Attribute these images to friend and colleague Mary Ann Holtz, who continues to labor for a cease-fire and non-violence in this region and other parts of the world.