- A suffering Mary holy image
Have you ever seen a Latino holy image? You know, what you see in a Roman Catholic Church in Perú or Bolivia or México? Most of them are quite bloody or show quite a lot of suffering. The image on this post is of a suffering Mary with tears streaming down her face. Orthodox icons show the saints in glory. That is, they show the saints after all the suffering is done, after they have died, and after they are looking back and realize that they have won the victory. In North America, Roman Catholics tend to show the saints in the same manner, with maybe some symbolic representation of the sufferings through which they passed.
However, Spanish and Latin American holy images show the saints before they die in the midst of their suffering. Our saints have tears on their faces and blood streaming down their bodies. They are twisted; they are painful; they are sometimes nausea inducing. People from other cultures who look at them tend to wonder why on earth we would make our holy images in such a fashion. I would argue that the Church needs to look at its saints, in the same way that us Latinos do, on a regular basis. The Scripture for this Sunday gives us an insight into the why of it.
More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit which has been given to us.
Because we Orthodox make our icons picturing our saints in glory, our people sometimes forget that suffering means just that, SUFFERING. I must admit to a certain degree of bias. I am a faithful Orthodox priest. But, every so often I find myself thinking that we would do better as Orthodox if we were to have some icons that showed some intense suffering. Why do I say that?
From my Latino viewpoint, the main problem with our Orthodox icons is that they can lead to the erroneous belief that somehow suffering is easy. You see, by showing the saints only after they have won, our icons can imply that we can bear up under suffering with no pain. Here is the advantage of our Latino images. When one looks at our Latino images, there is no doubt that suffering HURTS. Thus the Latino EXPECTS to have a difficult time of it (when suffering comes). A Latino does not expect God to somehow, mysteriously, do away with pain. Rather, our images quite obviously portray that suffering is just that, SUFFERING.
Our Orthodox (and Anglo-Saxon) viewpoint can tend to minimize suffering or can tend to imply that a saint can simply look at suffering from an impassive viewpoint. But, unless the Holy Spirit directly intervenes, suffering is NOT impassive. Rather, suffering is quite full of passion. Thus, I feel more comfortable with our holy images. When we suffer, we SUFFER. Endurance is produced only when we are driven to the edges of our abilities and we are forced to either expand our edges or “crack.” Character is the reflection of a person whose boundaries have been expanded through pain and agony.
Character that comes through suffering produces as its child, hope. Because, when suffering is truly intense, there is nothing left but hope. And that is the problem with our Orthodox icons. They can appear to portray that the saints never lost hope. But, the Scripture for today appears to picture the possibility that hope is almost lost and that, in spite of the normal expectation, hope returns through the Holy Spirit. And the reason is that “God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit which has been given to us.” In other words, survival, in spite of suffering, requires a work of the Holy Spirit.
And that is why I prefer our Latino holy images to some of the Orthodox icons. Our Latino holy images portray life as it is not rather than life as it is after we die. Our holy images comfort us with the thought that many saints experienced pain and suffering and managed to make it through to the other side. Our Latino images portray life as it often is, not as it will be. So, sorry Greeks, I prefer our images even though I must hang your icons.
Father, you may find the following blog interesting:
http://arturovasquez.wordpress.com/
Very interesting blog.
I’ve just returned from a month-long trip in Spain, and oddly enough, it made me want to visit Russia. Why do I say this? Because I have always felt there are some interesting connections between these two very different countries and cultures. Both traditionally stress suffering and sacrifice as key inthe ascetic life (I think I hear more talk of “suffering Orthodoxy” from Russians than I do from any other Orthodox group). Somehow, there is a familiar feel when I encounter both cultures. Others have made the same observations, so I know I’m not alone in this.
When you suffer a lot, you tend to want to explain suffering. Both cultures have suffered much trauma, so it is not surprising that both did much thinking about God and suffering.
I’ve noticed that Black Americans that become Orthodox take to the suffering aspect of Orthodoxy like ducks to water. It mirrors our collective experience so well. I don’t think we’re in any danger of forgetting about the connection between suffering, struggle and hope!
I always thought that the Latin Catholic emphasis on crying and bleeding saints was meant to show that the saints and Christ suffer and cry with us.
Spaniards have an innate understanding and acceptance of suffering as part of life. I’ve never been to Russia, but it does seem that though many peoples understand and accept suffering, Russia and Spain are more intense about it than other peoples. It’s as if they embrace it wholeheartedly as opposed to resignedly.
Yes, we do embrace it wholeheartedly, and so we transform it into something else.
Startled as I was on observing the extent to which Mexican statues are often blood drenched, I presumed it a throwback to pre Christian religeon
One of the tendencies in the USA (but I do not know from which country you come) is to assume that anything that is not common in the USA must be a throwback to some pre-Christian religion. Some of that type of thinking is found in the United Kingdom as well.