In the Ending of the Year

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4 Responses

  1. A.D. says:

    Great post. Mihai. I especially like the interpretation of the icon. Thanks.

  2. Mihai says:

    Thank you, Servent of the Raven! 🙂

  3. Raluca says:

    Very nice article! I would like to ask a few things :
    I kenw that the Natobity Icon where the Baby is being washed is not a canonical one. This is because Christ was not born as we all humans do. Virgin Mary received Her Baby in Her arms, it was a misterious birth. So washing the Baby as per tradition was not necessary.
    Secondly, I like the Icon with The astrologica signs, maybe you should make an article also about that.

    Merry Christmas!

    • Mihai says:

      Bună, Raluca! 🙂

      That image with the Child being washed is. as mentioned in the article, indeed outside of the strictly canonical Scripture. However, the point here is not whether the Child had any reason to be washed or not. Rather it is a way of showing His participation to all what human nature entails, including the most mundane aspects of life. It is the same thing as the episode when the Holy Mary and Joseph paid offered the usual sacrifice at the Temple which was due for every first born according to the law of Moses, or of Jesus being circumcised the eighth day after birth etc.

      None of these rituals of the old Law had for Him the meaning or purpose they had for mere mortals. But the point was the Jesus, by taking on Himself the whole human nature and being fully human, born among the Jews, He fulfilled the Law as all Jews were supposed to and, as a God, brought the Law to its end (meaning both is fulfilling and its surpassing).

      The same way as he participated in the Mosaic Law, so he participated into other universal human habits, symbolized- in this icon- by the act of being washed by midwives.

      As for the fresco with Christ in the center of the cosmos with angels and the signs of the Zodiac, it is basically there is an article on this site, written by Branko, which is called “Imperatrix Mundi”- about fate, free will and all of that. That fresco is basically a rendering into image of the doctrine outlined there.

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