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And the blessed and hallowed St. John of the Ladder says, “There was an ascetic who, whenever he happened to see a beautiful person, whether man or woman, would glorify the Creator of that person with all his heart, and from a mere glance his love for God would spring afresh and he would pour out on his account a fountain of tears. And one marveled, seeing this happen, that for this man what would cause the soul of another to stink had become a reason for crowns and an ascent above nature. Whoever perceives beauty in this fashion is already incorruptible, even before the dead shall rise in the common Resurrection,”

“Be ye not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind . . .“ (Rom. xii. 2)

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NO MATTER WHAT, READ UNTIL THIS PART: "certain faces, certain old faces, fashioned by a long life, faces which have not been plunged into resentment or bitterness or the fear of death, faces of those who do not flinch as they approach death, faces that know precisely where they are, and have found again the mind of a child."

Fit any of the older saints in your home church? Anyone you've known? (Mother Theresa?)

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Beauty is the splendor of truth, said Plato; and splendor, adds Paul Evdokimov, "is inherent in truth which does not exist in the abstract. In its fullness, truth requires a personalization and seeks to be enhypostazied, that is, rooted and grounded in a person."(33) The beauty of Jesus is the splendor of God, and the Church is an icon of Jesus' splendor repeated in each glorified face. Gennadios Limouris says,

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The icon, then, is the Christ, the God who became a face. Then it is also the faces of all the friends of God who are our friends and who insist on including us in their circle. And already, the icon represents the Kingdom of God; anticipating the Kingdom of God, starting from the one place where we see this already anticipated: here on earth in the human face! The Kingdom of God is anticipated, either starting from the beauty of the world, though this is an ambiguous beauty, or starting from certain faces, certain old faces, fashioned by a long life, faces which have not been plunged into resentment or bitterness or the fear of death, faces of those who do not flinch as they approach death, faces that know precisely where they are, and have found again the mind of a child.(34)

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The Church must fundamentally be an icon of the resurrection before the world.

And since the nature which Christ unified with human nature is a triune one, therefore growing into the likeness of God possesses a social dimension. St. Maximus held that "holy Church bears the imprint and image of God since it has the same activity as he does by imitation and in figure." Because heaven is a populous place, as Dante's Mystic Rose reminds us, therefore the Church-icon is corporate. The unity put on display by consecrational Christendom will not again be seen, but it is still incumbent on the Church to be an icon of catholic unity vis-à-vis secular Christendom's diverse, pluralistic, and multiform communities.

Liturgy as Icon: Public Witness in a Pluralistic World
The Catholic Theological Society in America
June 11, 2000, San Jose, California
David W. Fagerberg
Concordia College
901 South 8th St., Moorhead, MN
fagerber@cord.edu

LINK -- http://www2.bc.edu/~morrilb/Icon.html

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