His Beatitude Metropolitan of Kyiv and all Ukraine Onufry
Metropolitan Onufry told about what is the meaning of the veneration of icons.
The day of commemoration of the Holy fathers of the seventh Ecumenical Council, the Primate of the UOC his Beatitude Metropolitan of Kyiv and all Ukraine Onufry told about the heresy of iconoclasm and explained to the faithful the essence of the main decisions of the Council: “honoring the way we honor the Prototype,” according to the outreach Department.
Metropolitan Onufry said that the Orthodox venerate an icon, as an idol, but as a reminder of God. As an example he cited the photo: “the Man is… Remembers mom gets a picture of his mother, kisses the picture… But no one will say that the photo of mom son believes mom. He pays tribute to not pictures, and mom. A smart man knows that the photo is just a reminder to my son about his mother. And the icon is a reminder to man about God”.
He recalled that the fathers called the icon is “theology in color”. Christian symbols that depict the icons remind us of salvation and eternal life, the Archpastor explained.
Metropolitan Onufry urged believers to worship the icons and to honor them “as those things that lead the mind to Prototypes – to God, to the saints of God, to the Ordinances of our Heavenly life.”
The fathers of the seventh Ecumenical Council established the reverence of icons in 787. Convened the Council of Nicaea, to combat the Iconoclast heresy. The victory over iconoclasm and Orthodox celebrate the day of Triumph of Orthodoxy.