What the cross and the icon mean

An icon is a means of conveying some reality symbolically. For example, it may be said that the Gospel is an icon of Christ conveyed in words; and “Kartlis Tskhovreba” is an icon of Georgia, likewise conveyed in writing. An icon of something or of someone may be created by means of music, of poetry, or of some other symbol; and also by means of colours and lines, that is, of painting.

By means of painting an icon of any person can be created. When we look at a picture of someone close to us, in our imagination we draw near to the person depicted in it.

A divine Person took on human nature (a human soul and body), and by this gave us the possibility of depicting Him in colours. If we call on what was said above (looking at the picture of someone close), the icon of Christ links us with the Person of the Saviour, that is, with God the Son.

It is noteworthy too that God, by joining human nature to Himself and cleansing it, made possible the renewal and cleansing of the whole world (man contains in himself the whole world: the immaterial and the material, the living and the lifeless). That is why, through blessing, the material substance of the icon also becomes cleansed and full of grace, which makes it a kind of window opening onto heaven.

The cross is the manifestation of utmost humility, of God's boundless and self-sacrificing love for man; the cross is a weapon of victory over evil and immorality; the cross is a call to man to self-sacrificing love and to martyrdom for Christ; the cross is a rule of life and a dignity for the Christian; the cross is the sign of Christ, and it will be depicted in the sky as a forerunner before His second coming; and finally, the cross is the power of God given to us through Christ, so that, strengthened by it, we may be able to be disciples of Christ and to continue His work in this world.

Priest Teodore Gignadze, rector of the Church of the Exaltation of the Cross in Tbilisi