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Email a FriendThe above icon of the Resurrection, also known as the icon of the Harrowing of Hades, looks very much like an icon on one of the walls of our parish. The icon shows Jesus, vested in white & gold to symbolize His divine majesty, standing on the brazen gates of Hades (also called the “Doors of Death”), which are broken & have fallen in the form of a cross, illustrating the belief that by His death on the Cross, Jesus trampled down death. He is holding on to Adam & Eve and pulling them up out of Hades. Traditionally, He is not shown holding them by the hands, but by their wrists, to illustrate the theological teaching that mankind could not pull himself out of his ancestral sin, but that it could come about only by the work (energia) of God. Jesus is surrounded by various righteous figures from the Old Testament (Abraham, David, etc.); the bottom of the icon depicts Hades as a chasm of darkness, often with various pieces of broken locks & chains strewn about. Quite frequently, one or two figures are shown in the darkness, bound in chains, who are generally identified as personifications of Death and/or the Devil.
Stronger Far Than Death
Posted by Rebecca Teti in Faith on Monday, April 25, 2011 12:00 PM
The Incarnation & Passion
Henry Vaughn
Lord! when thou didst thyself undress,
Laying by thy robes of glory,
To make us more, thou wouldst be less,
And becam’st a woeful story.
To put on clouds instead of light,
And clothe the morning star with dust,
Was a translation of such height
As, but in thee, was ne’er expressed;
Brave worms, and earth! that thus could have
A God enclosed within your cell,
Your Maker pent up in a grave,
Life locked in death, heaven in a shell;
Ah, my dear Lord, what couldst thou spy
In this impure, rebellious clay,
That made thee thus resolve to die
For those that kill thee every day?
O what strange wonders could thee move
To slight thy precious blood, and breath!
Sure it was Love, my Lord; for Love
Is only stronger far than death.
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