Justin Appel
Dear Friends,
Today is the feast of the Blessed Virgin Mary in both Anglican and Episcopal calendars. It is one of the few calendar days shard by Eastern and Western portions of the church, with the former celebrating the Dormition of the Mother of God, and the latter the Assumption of Mary.
As a way of speaking about Mary, I would like again to share some thoughts about an icon that has become very special to me. As I suggested earlier, icons can help teach us a number of important things about a saint, all in one dynamic image, and this is no exception. (Please take a look at the icon before reading further.)
In Eastern Christian icons (of which this is an example), Mary is almost always portrayed with Christ, and rarely on her own. The theological message is that she is a normal human being, without an exceptional nature aside from her relation to Christ and her own example of obedience. Mary often gets exalted in Western images and statuary, where she is often shown wearing a crown or exploding with light and glory; this style of icon is rather different. Mary is important here because she bears the Savior of the world (in Greek, she is called theotokos, literally the ‘God-bearer’).
This icon depicts Mary and the Christ Child in a traditional format, sometimes called ‘Tenderness’ (in Greek, eleusa), in which the mother wraps the child in her arms, touching his her face to his. Having several children of my own, I find a great deal of meaning in this type of image. In fact, it portrays several kinds of love at once. At first, I see the love of a mother for her child, a type of the love every parent experiences. I also see the love that Jesus has for his mother, a love which serves as a type for our own love for our mothers. Because of who Christ is, however, and because of the familial relationship we share with the saints, we also see the possibility of loving the Mother of God as our own mother. Having lost my mother at the age of 30, I increasingly have come to feel deep affection for Mary as a mother figure, as someone who cares deeply about my soul. Also, Mary is often described as a picture of the Church, and thus this image depicts the love between Christ and his Church: between him and all of us. There is rich, multilayered meaning in this icon.
The reason this particular image speaks to me has to do with the eyes. Perhaps you already noticed that the eyes seem sunken and leave you feeling a bit disturbed. The icon writer, a very accomplished Romanian artist, works in a pediatric oncology department, and has chosen to paint the eyes of the terminally ill children she works with into her icons. This resulting mixture of tenderness and suffering speaks volumes. It teaches us that Jesus and his Mother participate deeply in the world’s suffering. It teaches us the possibility of seeing our own suffering as a part of others’ pain, all of which Mary understands and has experienced.
In our daily experience within the church, we often feel pressure to DO things, to get involved, to change things, to stop sitting around. This icon seems to have a different kind of message: stand still, be quiet with Christ and his Mother, and offer to each your fears, your pain, your doubt. You may never be free from such things in this life, but Christ will never forsake you if you turn to him, nor will his Mother fail to show you a mother’s love.
Yours in Christ,
Justin