Keywords: primordial state, icon, archetype and prototype, spiritual resurrection, iconological prototype, unity of thought, Baptism, the icon of the Mother of the Holy Incarnation
Abstract:
Through Resurrection, as proof of His living life (cf. Hebrews 7, 8; John 14, 19) that was sanctified as truth by His sacrifice (cf. John 7, 19), the Saviour sanctified the celestial “Prototype” of His Icon and presented it as “a city which hath foundations” (cf. Hebrews 11, 9), resembling the one of the original Adam (cf. Romans 5, 14) and archetype of the “Tree of Life”. The most profound symbol for the significations of the Resurrection in the Church of God is the Holy Icons. The visible archetype for the Tree of Life was planted by Christ through the secret “covering” of men (cf. Psalms 90, 4) behind His incarnated divine nature, shining through His body as through a mirror. This is how the celestial spirit was secretly imprinted in the heart of Christ, as an icon of the divine Archetype in the hearts of His disciples: “I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do” (John 17, 4), as Christ confesses in the Lord’s prayer. Then the Father sanctified the disciples in the Truth of the life in Christ, proven at the Resurrection, after His Sacrifice. This sanctification represented the spiritual resurrection of the disciples, to an Easter-resembling of the living life of Christ. But the iconological “Prototype” of His heart was not unveiled to them, although Christ secretly planted it in them. This was to be the “adoption” by the Father through the Holy Spirit, at the Pentecost. After the “adoption” by the Father, the Holy Spirit unveiled in their hearts the “Prototype” of the heavenly spirit from the heart of Christ, that brought their unity of thought with the Holy Trinity: “He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall show it unto you” (John 16, 14). The entirety of God’s work through Christ, the “calling, justification and glorification” (Romans 8, 30 cf. Amos 9, 11), as well as the work of the Father, who founded the Church built by Christ (cf. Matthew 16, 18) through the Holy Spirit, at the Pentecost, consists of the consolation of feeling the presence of Christ in their hearts. For the day of His Resurrection, Christ was able to confess to His disciples: “At that day you shall know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you” (John 14, 20), which meant that they will be baptised with the spiritual resurrection at His holy appearances, while at the Pentecost, God the Father shall transform the joy of their spiritual resurrection, through the Holy Spirit, in the “consolation” of feeling “the Prototype” of the Icon of Christ in their hearts, as an adoption through the Holy Spirit and as a divine power to spread it throughout the world (cf. Romans 8, 14), according to the Lord’s command: “Go therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost” (Matthew 28, 19). In this work, the Saints were perfected by God through Christ, Who confessed the wholeness of this work through His words from the Lord’s Prayer: “the glory which You gave me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one” (John 17, 22).
Pages: 45-86