Prayer and the image of God by Enzo Bianchi, Part IV But it is precisely this radical annihilation of images of God (who has ever thought to depict God in a condemned criminal?) and words about God (what logos is not broken in two by God crucified?) that is also a radical abolition of idolatry, of our reduction of God to our image. It is in Christ on the cross that we now find the presence and image of God: ‘He is the image of the invisible God’ (Colossians 1.15). The crucified Christ annihilates God as man’s image and gives us a man who is the image (eikon) of God. Christ on the cross is the image of God that destroys our images of God. The crucified Christ is also the image before which we pray, but who must destroy the images we project, intentionally or despite our best intentions, onto God. The image of God revealed by Christ on the cross contradicts the image of God ‘professed’ by the Pharisee at the Temple – an image connected to a certain consideration of himself supported by a derogatory image of others. In prayer, then, we ‘compose’ our images of ourself, of others, and of God around the crucified Christ. The image of God that is Christ on the cross preserves Paul from the temptation of pride and from his own ‘super-ego’: his ‘being too elated’ (hyper- airomai, 2 Corinthians 12.7) is converted into boasting of the sufferings he has endured for the sake of Christ (hyper Christou, 2 Corinthians 12.10). Through prayer, Paul participates in the suffering of Christ: ‘I carry the marks of Jesus branded on my body’ (Galatians 6.17; cf. Colossians 1.24). As prayer transforms those who pray into the image of Christ crucified, it also becomes a promise of resurrection and the space in which we are transfigured in the image of the Lord in glory (cf. 2 Corinthians 3.18).
Posted on: Thu, 10 Oct 2013 09:21:12 +0000
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