The representative icon of the Solemn Year of the pastoral care of the sick in the Patriarchate of Romania depicts our Lord Jesus Christ carrying a lamb on His shoulders.
The icon includes the inscription “IC XC (Jesus Christ), the Good Shepherd, the Physician of our souls and bodies” and was exhibited for veneration inside the Patriarchal Cathedral at the beginning of the year.
The lamb placed upon Christ’s shoulders symbolizes the concern that God has for those who are physically or spiritually suffering.
“The Lord Jesus Christ is our main model for caring for the sick,” Patriarch Daniel said on New Year’s Day.
“He bestows the prolongation of earthly life by His wonderful works, as signs of the Kingdom of Heaven, as Good Samaritan, He went to the half-dead man, and when he saw him, he took pity on him. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. (Luke 10: 34). Through humble obedience even unto death, He sacrificed Himself on the Cross to heal the sin of Adam’s disobedience and to overcome death through resurrection (Philippians 2:7),” Patriarch Daniel explained on the first day of the year.
On January 1, during the proclamation of the 2024 Solemn and Commemorative Year, the Patriarch of Romania presented the icon. Although an old representation, it is hardly ever encountered in modern times.
The representation of the Saviour as the Good Shepherd finds its foundation in the Bible. The Prophet Isaiah and King David called Jesus Christ a “good shepherd.” The Saviour Himself said, “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep” (John 10:11).
The depiction of Christ in the form of a shepherd with a lamb on his shoulders, Christ the criophorus (ram-bearer), similar to Hermes Kriophoros, Apollo, or Orpheus in the Greco-Roman world, very widespread in the early Church, was borrowed from the pastoral symbolism of the Old and New Testaments, especially from prophets and from the Holy Evangelists, explains Prof. Ioan Rămureanu in his book “Veneration of the holy icons in the first three centuries.”
Photography courtesy of Basilica.ro / Raluca-Emanuela Ene
Source: basilica.ro
