The Source of the Question
"Every
one of us is in the image of God, and every one of us is like a damaged icon. But if we were given an icon damaged by time,
damaged by circumstances, or desecrated by human hatred, we would treat it with
reverence, with tenderness, with broken-heartedness. We would not pay attention primarily to the
fact that it... is damaged, but to the tragedy of its being damaged. We would concentrate on what is left of its
beauty, and not on what is lost of its beauty. And this is what we must learn to do with
regard to each person as an individual, but also — and this is not always as
easy — with regard to groups of people, whether it be a parish or a
denomination, or a nation. WE MUST LEARN
TO LOOK, AND LOOK UNTIL WE HAVE SEEN THE UNDERLYING BEAUTY OF THIS GROUP OF
PEOPLE. Only then can we even begin to
do something to call out all the beauty that is there. Listen to other people, and whenever you
discern something which sounds true, which is a revelation of harmony and
beauty, emphasize it and help it to flower. Strengthen it and encourage it to live."
— Metropolitan Anthony of
Sourozh
Was Anything Omitted?
Did Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh Omit Anything? In carefully examining Metropolitan
Anthony’s excellent meditations, I’m still left with a feeling of uneasiness about
his conclusions. Mind you, everything he
said is very apropos. Does it fall
short?
We should give careful attention to everything Metropolitan
Anthony said. We should see beauty in
everything: it is, after all, God’s creation.
We wrestle against spiritual wickedness, not against flesh and
blood. Granted, the flesh cooks up
plenty of its own sinfulness. Nevertheless,
our real battle is with demons, and not mere men or groups of men: the sinful
flesh is only clay.
If we do pay attention to Metropolitan Anthony’s accurate
words, we shall soon realize that his advice applies to all varieties of
Christian denomination. These words
compel us to see beauty in all of them.
We shall soon realize that it is our Christian duty to seek the flaws in
our own iconography first, stop crowing about our own glory, and stop branding
others with hateful words like heterodox.
Heterodox implies much more than other correctness; it boldly and
judgmentally says, “You are wrong.” It
is a carefully concealed form of pride.
Our duty, then, is to appreciate the beauty in other denominations, seek
to arrest the damage caused by sin, and aid in the full recovery of all, wherever
that may be possible. In a sentence, “I
am my brother’s keeper.” This does not
mean that I am free to mince words about sin; I must struggle to be forthright
in all things.
These are not things that Metropolitan Anthony left
out. What he left out was the fact that
our loving Creator has the power to justify wrong, to remove sin from our
lives, and to heal all the wounds and damage caused by that sin. God’s solution to sin is judicial,
correctional, and medical: it is multifaceted, and complete. We no longer live under fear of the threat of
judicial condemnation, our inability to stop sinning, or the obvious damage our
actions have worked in us and to those around us. We pray about all of these things daily. God certainly hears our cry, because He is
good and the lover of all mankind. What Metropolitan
Anthony left out is what God does with these things.
What does God do with these things? Our Lord
Jesus Christ is eternally scarred with thorn marks, nail prints, and a spear
wound in His side. He was beaten beyond human
recognition. These are beauty marks;
they do not make Him ugly. Paul writes
that he bears in his body the marks of the Lord
Jesus: these, we shall eventually see, are Paul’s beauty marks. 2 Corinthians 1 points out that the core of
our effective ministry comes from the scarring done to our icon: these marks
are beauty marks. What Joseph’s brothers
intended for evil, God intended for good: Joseph’s fetter-scars are beauty marks. We must not live in perpetual fear of the
ravages caused by sin in our lives. We
must cling faithfully to our baptism and our communion, to our confession and
absolution. These are some of the instruments
of God that will change the ugliness in our lives and make even these objects
of beauty.
Left to our own devices we would have left our icon in its
original wrapper, sealed it behind glass, or otherwise kept it in its pristine
condition. But God’s plan is better and
greater. God is not done painting our
icons: He may never be done. He is
carrying us forward to a beauty and glory, which we can never imagine: the
increase of this beauty and glory may never end. “God became man, so that man might become
god.” That is an unspeakable beauty and glory.
The Grand Canyon is an ugly scar in the surface of the
earth: it spoils earth’s spherical perfection and symmetry. Yet, when seen firsthand the Grand Canyon is
a work of breathtaking beauty. The
unscarred area around the canyon is rather ugly and boring.
He is the vine, we the branches. Every beautiful grape attaches to the vine
with a dead, ugly, dried up, little, insignificant branchlet, that we pluck out
and throw away. This branchlet is our
lives. At most, we have been a conduit
bringing the grace of God to the grape.
What we despise and cast away, God keeps, loves, and treasures. These branchlets, God does beautify. The grapes are merely consumed.
Yes, we should carefully heed Metropolitan Anthony’s
instruction. But, there is more, much
more.
