Rector's Reflections - January 2007

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

In 1995, I was able to spend part of my sabbatical at St. Catherine’s Monastery in the Sinai desert. It was a visit full of wonder. Along with a group of pilgrims, I climbed the mountain where tradition says that Moses received the 10 commandments. Leaving our base at 4:00 a.m. on camels, and climbing the last part on foot, we arrived at the top just as dawn was breaking through the clouds. Whether or not Moses stood where we were standing was, in a way, irrelevant because the place seemed, indeed, very holy, the kind of place the Celts, very much later, called a “thin place”.

But by far, the best part of the experience was taking time to be with the icons of St. Catherine’s. It was an act of great trust on the part of the monks to allow the tourists and pilgrims from around the world to go right up and stare at the icons, some of which are the oldest icons still existing in the world.

I was most taken by the icon of Jesus, “Christ Pantocrator,” a print of which I carried back with me and which is now hanging on the wall of my study. It is a very famous icon, perhaps from the 6th century, and portrays the face of Christ with such compassion and wisdom that to call Jesus “the human face of God,” (William Temple’s phrase) seems exactly right.

I was hoping to see that icon again in person at the Getty, but it was left at St. Catherine’s. Maybe I’ll see it another time. Meanwhile, the icon that grabbed my attention the most was the icon of Peter, which I do not remember seeing on my trip. I kept staring and staring at it, and in the best tradition of icons, felt it staring back at me. The paint is chipped,( how apt for Peter’s icon that it is a little less perfect than the others), but the face looking at you is so real, the gaze so direct, the shoulders so broad, it seems to take in all the qualities that make one a saint: a human being filled with the grace and strength of God.

I’m so glad we’re going to see this exhibit together. But I’m even happier that we all have another year to grow, to grow as individuals and as a community. Icons remind us of both our humanity and our divinity. They reflect back to us what and who we can become, with God’s help. And what is that?

One of the saints has written, “the glory of God is the human person, fully alive.”

And so may we grow this year, in our humanity, by God’s grace, fully alive.

In Christ's love,

(The Reverend) Susan W. Klein