Today, the first Sunday of Great Lent, is known as the Sunday of Orthodoxy, when we commemorate the victory of the Orthodox faith over the heresy of iconoclasm. In the eighth century the Church had been torn apart by those who objected to the veneration of icons, and in 787 the Second Council of Nicaea responded by affirming the role of icons in the Church, stating that “Whenever these representations are contemplated, they will cause those who look at them to commemorate and love their prototype.” The Council distinguished between the worship that is due to God alone, and the veneration that we give to icons, and stated that when we venerate an icon we are really venerating the reality for which it stands.
Even after the Council, iconoclasm persisted until in 844 Empress Theodora established Orthodoxy anew with a solemn procession and veneration of icons on the first Sunday of Lent. This was the beginning of today’s feast and celebrates the victory of true doctrine over heresy.
The triumph of Orthodoxy that we celebrate today is integrally related to the earlier struggle for the Orthodox faith, for what was at stake was not simply the validity of venerating icons, but the very reality of the Incarnation of Christ that the Church had struggled to profess in earlier centuries. Because God had become fully human in Jesus Christ, matter itself had been sanctified and had become a suitable medium for portraying His Image. As Saint John of Damascus wrote “If you have understood that the Incorporeal One became man for you, then it is evident that you can portray His human image.”
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The grace of truth has shone forth upon us; the mysteries darkly prefigured in the times of old have now been openly fulfilled. For behold, the Church is clothed in a beauty that surpasses all things earthly, through the icon of the incarnate Christ that was foreshadowed by the ark of testimony. This is the safeguard of the Orthodox faith; for if we hold fast to the icon of the Saviour whom we worship, we shall not go astray. Let all who do not share this faith be covered in shame; but we shall glory in the icon of the Word made flesh, which we venerate but worship not as an idol. So let us kiss it, and with all the faithful cry aloud: O God, save Thy people and bless Thine inheritance.
From Vespers for the Sunday of Orthodoxy