Forms and colours

“To pursue the ecumenical path we need to make an effort to prepare everything so that the Lord can act. Collaboration between the Churches has enabled us in recent years to undertake a journey of reflection and dialogue that we wish to continue with the commitment of us all”, declared the Prior of Bose, ENZO BIANCHI , at the end of the 15th International Ecumenical Conference on “The transfigured Christ in the Orthodox spiritual tradition”, held in recent days at the monastery in Piedmont. Organized under the auspices of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople and the Patriarchate of Moscow, the conference was attended by some 200 bishops, priests, monks and laity from Greece, Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Romania, Bulgaria, Lebanon, England, Italy, France, Belgium, Germany, Switzerland, Austria and the USA. Representatives of the Reformed Churches were also present. The delegates debated the theological, liturgical, anthropological and iconographic aspects of the Christian mystery of the Transfiguration. THE LIGHT OF TABOR. “Iconography – said STAMATIS SKLIRIS in his intervention on “The light of Transfiguration in Byzantine iconography – is the language of theology, in other words, it is an art so inseparably bound up with theology that it is an essentially theological language that speaks through the forms and colours of art”. “Transfiguration – continued Skliris – means what is utterly new: Christ appears, liberated from the constrictive force of natural laws. The light radiated by the Lord, in the Gospel accounts, is indescribable: it invests him with dazzling whiteness”. “All the details that make iconography a particular pictorial technique – explained Skliris – derive from the light of the Transfiguration; the dazzling highlights we place on garments or in faces are pictorial formulae to represent the mystery of the Transfiguration”. Iconography soon led to the development of “a new art, through a new concept of the illumination of the image, inspired by the light of the Transfiguration. What was changed by the Transfiguration was not the anatomy of the face but the conception of light itself, pictorial freedom in contrast to the constructions of nature, chiaroscuro, shadow”. “For the first time in the world history of art – concluded Skliris -, the light of the icon was something ‘personal’: whereas the natural light is spread in a straight line and illuminates the person only on one side, the light of the icon embraces the whole person and eliminates all shadows”.TRANSFIGURATION OF CULTURES. “Two great exponents of Orthodoxy who lived in very different periods and contexts, but who had in common the ability to offer elements of synthesis between the Christian tradition and contemporary culture”, said SERGIJ GOVORUM , from Kiev, in summing up the profiles of Seraphin of Sarov and St. Anthony the Great, exemplary figures, respectively, of Russian and oriental monasticism. “Seraphin – explained Govorum – was a contemporary of Puskin; alongside the brilliant intellectual life of Russian cities in the 17th century, he marked the enduring presence of a life of meditation and prayer in the solitude of the forests”. In the same way, “St. Anthony the Great influenced Alexandrine culture in the 4th century. The transfiguration of man through spiritual life was translated in these figures – in very different periods – into the transfiguration of art and culture hostile to Christianity”. “The ability of Seraphim and Anthony – concluded Govorum – who lived intensely the life of the Spirit, to influence the times in which they lived and to transform cultures without elaborating particular doctrines is also an invitation to us to do likewise”. TABOR AND GOLGOTHA. “How can we reconcile the tragic mystery of innocent suffering, which we see present in the world all around us, with our faith in a God of love?”: that’s the question posed by Bishop KALLISTOS WARE of the Patriarchate of Constantinople to the participants in the conference during his address on the “Significance of the Transfiguration in the contemporary world”. “Evil – continued Ware – since it is a mystery cannot be simply explained with a rational argument: it can only be explained by personal participation and compassion” and “The context of the Transfiguration suggests to us how we should approach this mystery”. According to Ware, “Tabor and Golgotha are inseparably linked; the one cannot be understood independently of the other”. Seen in this light, “the message of the transfigured Saviour to suffering humanity is that all things can be transfigured, but that this is only possible through the Cross. There’s no other way”. “Jesus – concluded Ware – does not give a theoretical answer to innocent suffering, but responds to it through his own participation in that suffering. Our God is a God of compassion”.