Page 253 - Orthodoxy Zizioulas

T H E I C O N A N D T H E T R U T H O F P R E S E N C E
The Icon and the Truth of Presence
From the personal and living guidance of spiritual father-
hood, the Church now reveals the same truth in another
mode: not only in word and relationship, but in vision—in the
icon, where communion becomes visible and presence is
manifested.
The concept of iconic portrayal is familiar to Orthodox
Christians through the sacred icons honored in the Church,
yet its theological meaning is not always kept clearly in mind.
Indeed, in everyday life in the Orthodox Church icons are
present not only in the churches, but also in the houses of
people. And the Orthodox Christian is in constant commu-
nion with the icon. In the Orthodox tradition, the icon is
never a mere religious picture or psychological reminder. It
signifies presence. The person depicted is truly present, though
in such a way that his transcendence remains intact and his
essence is not confined to the material of the icon. The honor
given to the icon is directed not to wood or paint, but to the
person represented. For this reason the icon must always bear
a name: it is never anonymous, because what is present in the
icon is not an abstract idea, but a hypostatic and personal real-
ity.
Thus the Orthodox icon contains two indispensable ele-
ments. First, it represents the person so that veneration passes
to the prototype and does not remain with the material object.
Second, it is not a naturalistic portrait, like a photograph,
evoking merely psychological memory. It portrays the person
as he will be in the Kingdom: illumined by the light that comes
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