Metropolitan Athanasios: Our relationship with Christ is love, not ideology
Metropolitan Athanasios of Limassol explains that the Christian relationship with God is a relationship of love, not an ideology or a movement of followers. The Gospel is not an ideology. In the Church we learn to love Christ, and because we love Him we want to see Him and His holy form, as well as the forms of the saints, the friends of Christ.
That is why the Church has holy icons depicting Christ. The Metropolitan recalls that the Church has stated clearly that Christians do not worship icons, nor are icons idols. Instead, the faithful offer honorific and relative veneration to the icons that depict the Lord Christ and His friends, the saints.
Key moments
- Our relationship with God is a relationship of love, not a relationship between an ideology and its adherent.
- The Gospel is not an ideology.
- In the Church we learn to love Christ.
- Because we love Christ, we want to see Him; we have a need to see His holy form and the forms of the saints, the friends of Christ.
- Therefore we have holy icons that depict Christ.
- The Church said clearly that we do not worship icons, nor are icons idols.
- We venerate icons honorifically and relatively, with maternal veneration, giving honor to the holy icons that depict the Lord Christ and His friends, the saints.
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