st. john of damascus (676-749 - Cristo Raul

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48 ST. JOHN OF DAMASCUS.
Omar II., in reply to one addressed to him by the
latter, in which, singularly enough, we see the great
iconoclastic emperor playing the part of a defender
of images at least, of what he then thought their
reasonable use. honour the cross,"
he writes,
because of the sufferings endured upon it by the
incarnate Word of God. As for pictures, we do not
pay the like respect to them, not having received
from Holy Scripture any command whatever on the
subject. At the same time, as we find in the Old
Testament the divine commission to Moses to carve
figures of cherubim in the tabernacle, and as we are
inspired by a sincere regard for the disciples of the
Lord, and burning with love of the incarnate Lord
Himself, we have ever felt the need of preserving
their likenesses ;
and these have since become for us,
as it were, their living representation. Their presence
delights us ;
and we glorify God, who saved us by
the mediation of His only Son, appearing in the
world under a like figure. We glorify the saints also ;
but we render no homage to
painted wood (au bois
et aux couleurs)."
Such were the moderate opinions of Leo about the
year 717. But within the next ten years we find him
taking a very different course. The temperate de
fender of the use of images now appears as the
determined opposer of what he considered their
abuse. What causes may
have been at work to
Chahnazarian :
"Pourquoi adorez-vous les ossements des
apotres et des prophetes, ainsi que les tableaux, et la croix qui
anciennement servait, selon la loi, d instrument desupplice?"
Leo s reply is not so civilly worded as that of his correspondent.