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In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Today we commemorate the Holy Fathers of the Seventh Ecumenical Council—that Council which approved the veneration of the holy icons. These Holy Fathers had to endure much persecution and injustices, and many were imprisoned and suffered torments, but in the end, the Orthodox faith prevailed, and beginning with this Council, and then with the events of the Triumph of Orthodoxy, iconodulia[1] was confirmed. And since then, the Church has kept this faith in the holy icons; and although there constantly appear heretics who reject this faith, the Orthodox Church preserves its holy Tradition whole.
How do we honor the holy icons? Everyone knows that we kiss them, we pray before them, we light candles before them, we adorn them with flowers and various jewels, and so on. That is all well and good, but it’s not the most important veneration of the holy icons. We hear about the most important icon veneration in the prayer that a priest reads when he blesses icons, which says that icons are created so that, looking upon them, people would glorify the Lord God and try to emulate the life of the holy God-pleasers depicted on these holy icons. This is the most important veneration: Beholding the holy icons, to lift our minds to God, remember the Heavenly world, and try to correct ourselves and become better.
For example, let us look at our beautiful cathedral.[2] At the High Place, we see the Savior, Who is teaching His disciples and communing them of His Body and Blood. And if we look at this image and remember the Sacrament of the Eucharist and understand its importance and try to commune more and more often, we thereby honor this fresco; we honor this image. Around the Lord are depicted the Holy Apostles, and together with them, the holy New Martyrs, who are communing of the Body and Blood. We can’t kiss this icon; we can’t light candles in front of it; it’s too high up, but we can venerate it all the same. We honor it if we, looking upon the faces of the holy Martyrs, remember their podvig. And what is the most important thing in their podvig? It is, of course, courageous patience—when, despite persecution and misunderstandings, sometimes from those closest to them, despite everything, they confessed the Orthodox faith. And, if beholding this image we will also confess the Orthodox faith, these images will be worthily honored by us, and we will be true venerators of the holy icons.
Let us, brothers and sisters, try today to remember the Holy Fathers of the Seventh Ecumenical Council, to be faithful to their precepts, and to be true venerators of icons; and, beholding every image in our church, let us try to be like those saints who are depicted here, so we would meet them in the Heavenly Kingdom.
Amen.
