Yesterday, October 13, 2024, Archbishop Elpidophoros of America celebrated the Divine Liturgy at Sts. Constantine and Helen Greek Orthodox Church in Westland, Michigan alongside Archbishop Demetrios formerly of America, Metropolitan Nicholas of Detroit, and Metropolitan Savas of Pittsburgh.
In his homily for the Sunday of the Seventh Ecumenical Council, Archbishop Elpidophoros reflected on the time of iconoclasm, when “generations had to worship as pious and Orthodox Christians in secret, or risk real persecution.”
“In truth,” Archbishop Elpidophoros continued, “there can be no Christianity without the icon, or at least its possibility,” given that “the very basis for our faith is the Incarnation” and “All of creation is redeemed in the Divine Humanity of our Lord Jesus Christ…He chose to become material substance for our sake.”
Read below the full homily of Archbishop Elpidophoros of America
Beloved Co-Celebrant in the Holy Spirit, Metropolitan Nicholas,
Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ,
I give abundant thanks today to serve the Holy and Divine Liturgy in this wonderful Church dedicated to your Heavenly patrons: Saints Constantine and His Holy Mother, Helen.
As I look around your Temple, and behold the place where the glory of the Lord dwells, I marvel at the mystery of this Sunday – the Sunday of the Holy Three Hundred and Fifty Fathers of the Seventh Ecumenical Council.
For as we gaze at the impressive and excellent iconography with which you have adorned this sacred space, we must also consider that there was a time when such magnificence was forbidden by imposters who ruled over the Church. For nearly one hundred and fifty years, literal generations had to worship as pious and Orthodox Christians in secret, or risk real persecution.
The Orthodox suffered under the Emperors and the Church officials who foisted iconoclasm upon the Church. But in the fullness of time, under the leadership of the great Saint and Patriarch of Constantinople, Tarasios, the Seventh Ecumenical Council met in Nicaea –where the very first Ecumenical Council was held – and with boldness they proclaimed the doctrine of the Holy Icons.
For the Fathers of the Seventh Council recognized the saintliness of such spiritual giants as the Holy Patriarch Germanos, Saint John of Damascus, Saint George of Cyprus, and all those martyrs and confessors of the true and unalloyed Orthodox Faith. They understood that the very basis for our faith is the Incarnation – as Saint Athanasios so elegantly stated:
“For He became a human being, so that we might be made divine.”1
All of creation is redeemed in the Divine Humanity of our Lord Jesus Christ; for He is the Creator of all, and He is the Redeemer of All. He chose to become material substance for our sake, being found, as Saint Paul says, “in human configuration;” or in Greek, “καἰ σχήματι εὑρεθεἰς ὡς ἄνθρωπος.”2
This, above all else, not only justifies the making of icons and their adornment of every aspect of our lives, but truly, it necessitates them.
In truth, there can be no Christianity without the icon, or at least its possibility. For our Lord’s Human Nature – which he received from the Holy Theotokos – was real. It was concrete. As the Evangelist John says in his First Epistle;
The One Who Was from the Beginning – Whom we did hear, Whom with our eyes we did see, Whom we beheld, Whom with our hands we did touch – concerning Him – the Logos, the Word of Life!3
Here is the proof of the icon, that the Fathers recognized and pronounced. And although it would be another 56 years until the final Triumph of Orthodoxy – which we observe every year on the First Sunday of the Holy Fast of Lent – the teachings and dogmas of this Seventh Ecumenical Council paved the way for the splendor we behold today in our churches – here in Westland, and around the world.
My beloved Christians, we have been given so much by our spiritual ancestors, by these 350 Fathers of the Seventh Ecumenical Council in Nicaea. May we always hold to the Faith that shines forth in the Divine Nature of our Lord Jesus Christ, and share this faith to uttermost parts of the earth. Amen.
1 On the Incarnation of the Word of God, 54.
2 Philippians 2:8.
3 I John 1:1.
Photos: GOARCH/Dimitrios Panagos