Contemplating Rublev's Icon.pdf

8/14/2019 Contemplating Rublev's Icon.pdf

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T H E E C U M E N I C A L R E V I E W Volunu; 60 Number1/2 January/Apr2008

Son and Holy Spirit, because Orthodox theology teaches that the Sonalone, w ho took hum an flesh, can be represented. A s a great contem poraryiconographer, the m onk G rigoriy Krug, has w^ritten, T he Trinity cannotbe represented, but one has to look at this icon (of Rublev s as the deep-est sjmibolic representation. ' It depicts three angels, referring to the OldT estament text in Genesis 18 whe n the E ternal O ne visited A braham mys-teriously, under the form of three angels. This inspired Abraham's phihxe-nia a G reek w ord meaning love for the stranger , hospitahty . T hisimage ind icates for u s a S3nTibolic repres enta tion of a trin ita na n m odel and ,by extension, the H oly T rinity. This icon of the T rinity in the form of threeangels ^vas to become traditional from the time of the Gouncil of Moscowîn 1551 that commended it as a perfect example of iconographie art.A ccording to E gon Sendler, w ith this represen tation by R ublev, dogmat-ic elements began to dominate and determine the whole composition [ofthe Trinity] .^ Rublev painted the three angels wîth a circular motion tosignify their unity and equality, thus creating a unity to repre sent theH oly T rinity in its m ovem ent of love, as the sourc e of m an's salvation .^This perfect circle is the sign of divine eternity, one God in three perfectlyequal persons, as is signified by the three identical sceptres held by theangels. T heir gaze and their being interact w ith no separation, confusionor subordination. They are similar, but they differ in gesture and colour.For the Orthodox, it is this relationship of perfect love that is the modelfor the ideal relationship of all God's creatures one wîth another, andwîthin the church between the different ministries of men and wômen.A ccording to Paul Evdokim ov: In this icon, R ublev recreated the veryrhjrthm of T rinitaria n life. H e also w as able to show^ its united dive rsityand the movement of love that identifies the Persons wîthout confusingthem. * It is on this icon as th e sym bol oflove and T rinitarian relationshipthatw eshall base ou r consid eration.One brief word about the symbolism of the colours, about ^vhich, accord-ing to M ichel Q uen ot, the icon specialist, w e m ust speak of the m ysteryand not give an exotic interpretation . Red is fire, wârmth, divine love.Blue is the colour of mystery, of divine life. Gold is light, divine abundance.


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chridtine haillt CONTEMPLATING RUBLEV S ICON

When-wesee Christ clothed in blue and red, these two co lours symbolize hisdivinity and his humanity. O n this icon, the colours are without shadow, andcontrast with the whiteness of the tablecloth on which the chalice and theeucharistie lamb, the divine nourishment of the Church, the Body of Christ,are laid. The colours and the forms create a perfect accord. For some peo-ple, the beau ty of Rublevs icon conveys more than theological texts''.^W hat canastudy of the icon of the Trinity b ring us in connection wîth thenotion of the person, of relationship and of authority? What is there thatinstructsus inthe C hristian faith? Firstly, that Gods very being is love.It is because of the relationship of perfect love among the three pe rson s ofthe Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, that-wecan speak of them as oneGod. The number threeis aperfect num ber;itunifies an d goes beyo ndseparation.^ ForM ichel Qu eno t, Between individualism andcollec-tivism, between person and community, the Trinity opensathird way,whichIS the only way out of the inevitable antagonism so clearly demon-strated by the multitudeofcurrent domestic, local and international dis-putes. The Trinity disrupts the closed relationshipofthe you-me con-struct byintroduc ingathird element: one tha t opens into the w e ofauthentic communion, inwh ich each pers on can flourish. The I is nolonger affirmed over aga inst the you ; it is affirmed, rather, throu gh shar -ing w ith othe rs by wêlcoming whate ve r is un iqueineach other.'' And forPau l Evdokim ov, the Trinitarian principle ... is the unshak eab le founda-tion that unites the individual person and the community . Accordingtothis model, the churc h is called to bea community of mutual love, a unityin mu ltiplicity There arethree Persons hypodtaded) in onesinglenatureoressence oudia)... They are united not to melt together buttocontain each othe r m utually .^ This is sharin g and ^velcoming accep tance .This unity and this communion among the three personsis a very greatmystery, butit isalso the m odel that God asksofus th at we liveintheChristian tradition. The three persons are not artificially united, like coldmetaphysical concepts. In other wôrds, the dogm a of the T rinity is not anabstract doctrine ,asOu spen sky w rites.^ Each person is unique an ddif-ferent. The Father is the source of life, butatthe same time the Son and


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T H E E C U M E N I C A L R E V I E W Volume 60 Number 1/2 January/April2008

the Sp irit exist from all eternity. T he S on ' is sent by the F ath er and, b yhis incarnation, becomes a human being like us. By his death, the Sonmakes a gift ofhimself and raises us. The Spirit transmits the divine lifeto the vvôrld. H e is the Sp irit of life. T he Fathe r is revealed by th e Son inthe Spirit. It is in his brea th (the Spirit's) that the F ath er d escen dstowârds the Son , tha t the Son receives his Fath er and tha t the W ord ringsou t . ' ' A s Saint Jo h n Dam ascene says: T hrough the H oly Spirit w e rec-ognize the Christ, the Son of God, and by the Son ^ve contemplate theFather. T hough each person has his own characteristics, there is never-theless no separation among them, because of the relationship of perfectlove tha t app ertain s to Go d. W e mus t once m ore insist on the fact tha t thisunion of the three persons implies no sort of confusion, subordination ordomination. In effect, each person keeps his own attributes of Creator,Saviour and Giver oflife, to use certain Orthodox theological and liturgi-cal express ions. T he Fa the r is not superio r to the Son or the Spirit, nei-ther the Son to the Father, or any one to the others.The icon of the Trinity is a support that allows those who contemplate it

to cast a spiritual bridge over betwe en th e model of relationship offeredto us by the Holy Trinity, united in love, and the human race.T he H oly T rinity is also a model of the un ity of the ch urch , being thesource of this unity, and it also shows us the path that allows us to riseabove all our human individualism and bring to reality Christs wôrds:that they all may be one.Is this model of relationship in love lived out? H ow ? T his is a grea t que s-tion that has been asked of the church since its foundation. In particular,the members of the apostolic church tried to apply this commandmentabout love for all to the letter, sharing their possessions in the organizingof the newly-born church. But even Christs disciples quarreled amongthemselves about w^ho would be first, w^ho would command.The Fathers of the Church constantly wrote commentaries to explain thatecc diobgy that is, the life of the Church - must be based on the modelof com m union of T rinitarian love. W e wôuld need a no the r w^hole co nfer-ence to quote them all.


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T H E E C U M E N I C A L R E V I E W Volume60Number1 /2 January/April2008

ship in w^hich each person can live and follow his or her vocation, ministryand service along wîth the others, becoming personally fulfilled wîthoutconfusion wîth the other, giving him- or herself in humility, according tothe model given by the Trinity. As an Orthodox friend w^ho has workedfor man y ye ars ^vlth the mentally han dicap ped said to me: T here are verymany models of Trinitarian love that are not confined to monasteries, orto be found in the every day lives of exceptional pe ople, but a re also foundin the lives of the smallest, the sickest, the most forgotten and the mostdisadvantaged, w^hen we see their love. In order to follow this path ofLove, we must learn to forgive, and pray to God to open our hearts andour eye s. O n the occasion of the A ssembly of the clergy an d laity of thediocese of the Ex;umenical Patriarchate in France, held near Paris in April1997, Fa ther A ndr Borrely, an Ort ho do x priest from M arseilles, said: A uthentic C hristian faith is the faith of the C hur ch in co m mu nion koinonia). The Christian faith is essentially a personal act that we cannotlive out authentically except in the Church, that is, in parish life. It isnoth ing less than the fullness of the apostolic faith to wh ich the p arish hasthe specific vocation of bearing witness ... the parish must be the place inwhich , patie ntly an d ascetically, we learn to move from division to unity,from egotism to sharing, from hatred to love, from vengeance to forgive-ness, from injustice to justice, from violence to peace and from death tolife. I t ISa sphe re of existence in which a man su cceed s in unifying his per-sonal being, w^here prayer and action, adoration and efficiency, contem-plation and participation in history, cease to be incompatible ... the parishIS a place of re-birth. The parish is that privileged place in -which, to peo-ple pressured by impediments in their love life, weighed down by theirprofessional life, anguished by the fear of unemployment or of sickness,there is given the chance to take breath again by inbreathing the Spirit.In the middle of a large city, it is a place where I am offered the possibil-ity of rooting myself in a reality that transcends this fallen -world, where ahumus, a compost, a good and nourishing mother earth, are given to us,making possible the ground for the germination of sharing and forgive-ness, the acceptance of the other in his or her otherness that relativizesme, the hospitable wêlcome to the stranger, a disinterested communion-with beings and things, a sense of festivity and of unconfined joy in cele-


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Chridtine Chaillt CONTEMPLATINGR U B L E V ' S I C O N

cal perspective (of the kingdom) must protect Christians from the inces-santly-rene-wed tem ptation to trea t peop le as 'thing s , to stiffen, to immo-bilize, to crystallize and, finally, to absolutize tha t which app ertain s to theprovisory, necessary thoughitmay seem ...A com munion tha t is unionwithout confusion, theunity inChrist ofpersons in diversity, thatisupheld an d inspired by the Ho ly Spirit ... C hrist is offered by H is F athe rto every hum an being. It is therefore essential tha t the T should no t tram -mel this communication. '^The Reformed churches could be reckoned to befreer incom parisonwith the stronger hierarchical structureofthe C atholic and O rtho doxchurches. The risk of adding little structures of power and authority is,however, always po ssible. Th is show s clearly tha t th e prob lem lies, not somuchinthe stru ctura l and hierarchical forms of the ch urch butinthewây in w^hich they are lived, and above all in the spirit in which they arelived in truth. If we return to our model of perfect love and relationshipgiven us by the Holy Trinity, this can only live, develop and flourish bythe grace ofthe Holy Sp irit, w^hoisever m ysteriously united to theFather and the Son. Each person lives for the others, and gives himselftotally to theoth ers , w ith infinite com passion . For us humansandChristians,it isnotaquestionof calculating orof wânting simplyto orga nize the ch urc h, bu t of all beco m ing a pa rt of this flood of trinita r-ian love that is the source and accomplishment of our interior liberation,of our sanctification and of our salvation, by allowing the divine energiesto penetrate us. Th at all may be one : this is the m odel given by th e Trinity, the sou rce ofour faith to be putinto practice. This dem ands tha t every creatu rebecomes a person in communion, no longer simply an individual, and par-ticipates in making ou r world an un end ing e uch aris t' ' ' by the gift of self toothers, because the vocation of all humanity is to live, in the image of thedivine life, a perfec t relatio nsh ip of love, for a creation renewêd and tra ns -figured.'^ Accord ing to Ousp ensky , the know^ledge of the Trin ity is a liv-ing experience. '^ Sen ice orthodoxe de pre.ide 219, Paris, June 1997, pp.29-32.


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In conclusion, one could say that, within the Holy Trinity, there is no con-ception of authority as the world understands it, but rather an authorityof love and of sharing, a supre m e peace, a celestial repose; T he vision ...is an anticipation of the kingdom ... w here everything is gra ce .' '' Intoday world, assaulted and saturated as it is with empty and all too oftenharmful images, the Life-bearing icon traces a luminous path way, as asilent and faithful guide towards the kingdom of God . '^ If we contem-plate the icon of the Trinity at length, w^ith the eyes of faith and ofTradition, it can help us to begin to meditate on the concept that is bothpresent to us and yet endlessly to be discovered, of the mystery of loveand of relationship. This is what I invite you to do.


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Contemplating Rublev's Icon.pdf