Jonathan Pageau: Christmas — The Anchor of Reality

over the years I have made many videos on the subject of Christmas talking of course about the Nativity and but then about everything the Christmas tree Santa Claus Rudolph so many aspects of the Christmas season we just are going to put out a video this year about the Massac of the Innocence because in some ways we're kind of running out of things to talk about in terms of Christmas and I thought this would be a good opportunity to repost a video that my team thinks is probably my best explanation of the symbolism of the Christmas story and the Christmas icon and why Christmas has all the elements that it has but this is also an invitation for you to go back there's actually a list uh video list of all the Christmas stuff that I've talked about you know uh a way to go back and look at the Christmas videos that I've done because like I said I don't like talking about them twice so we might also repost every year maybe a a Christmas video for to remind people that it's all there in the old videos on the YouTube channel and so please enjoy our video on why it is that Christmas how it is that Christmas founds the [Music] world this is Jonathan Pedro welcome to the symbolic world [Applause] [Music] for those who don't know maybe who I am my job I'm an icon Carver which is a bit strange for um for some people there aren't that many icon Carvers actually probably I'm there probably in America like one I think maybe two maybe there maybe two there's more in there are more in Greece there are more in Russia obviously but it's not something that is very useful very I hope it's useful not something very usual hope that wasn't a little Freudian slip there uh it's not very usual and uh as I discovered traditional art and Orthodox art uh you know learning my own skill but also exploring the icons themselves and their symbolism um and their relationships between the icons and scripture and the Liturgy and the architecture and really discovering this beautiful pattern that we have in our faith that's been passed down and kept for for thousands of years now um it's something that I find a lot of joy in and so one of the things I'm also doing is I'm I'm on making YouTube videos and I talk about some of this stuff I talk about um iconography but also how the traditional symbolism that we have in our litery and our icons in scripture how it actually connects to uh everyday life and espe actually how this is what I'm going to try to show you tonight that the icon of the Nativity it's not just an image of a moment in history when a young child was born but it's actually an image of reality it's a it's an image which shows us how reality lays itself out for us um and so hopefully we'll be able to go through the the icon and I'll be able to show you how profound um our faith is and how profound these images are these images obviously the problem a lot with a lot of these images is that we come to take them for granted obviously we we we've seen them so much that they kind of go into the background of our minds but it's always good to go back into them and let's say reawaken our our sensitivity to see what's really going on in some of these images now I wanted to start with this just because this is where we're going everybody knows it's November we're going towards this we're going towards this this kind of crazy excess of everything uh for the holidays this this uh this celebration the the bells The Velvet the the gold and all of that and we're used to it we see it happen every year but we as Orthodox Christians we have this fast here uh it's it's obviously quite a contrast as we're watching Everybody partying around us that we have this fast it's it's I have to admit that it's a much harder fast to follow than lent because it's just a lot harder because there's so much going on everybody celebrating but I think we can at least look at why would we have a fast what is it that we're preparing for because that's the point of the fast that's the point of Lent and that's also the point of this fast what is it that we're preparing for what's the why is it such a big deal for this notion of the Nativity or the Incarnation um you know we we uh we always have as Christians most of we always have this Trope where we say like what's the real you know we we have Christmas we celebrate we give gifts we have all that we have Santa we have everything we ask like what's the real reason for Christmas and we all have the answer right right it's the birth of Christ that's the answer but we need to go more into it what's why is it such a big deal and in the icon of the Nativity we can see with our eyes the way that the icon is made why that's such a big deal how it shows us this so so I put in I put in one one of the icons that I've carved just so you can see for those who haven't seen uh my work but um so everybody knows the icon of the Nativity does everybody understand what's happening maybe I'll go through the elements of the icon just so that people kind of understand what what's going on first because it is a complicated icon for a feast um so we have the mother of God in the center who's lying down on a mat or she's resting after having given birth we have of course Christ the Christ child who's laying down in the manger surrounding him is the ass and the ox by the way the ass and the ox is one of the oldest elements of the Nativity it doesn't say in Scripture that there's an ass and an ox specifically but it is it is one of the oldest elements the first images we have where we see Christ in a Manger we see the ass and the ox there's some images from the the the third Century where you just see a Manger with Christ and an ass and an ox on each side uh we'll get to why that's important it's very important um we have the three wise men who are coming to encounter Christ here we have a Shepherd who is blowing his born celebrating at the top we have the Three Angels that are announcing the birth of Christ here that you can see it in this one can you see what it is everybody see right that's a star and above the star is a glory so different ways of showing it but it's a glory which shows us in a symbolic manner the presence of God now down below we have two scenes we have we'll start here we have the washing of the Christ child and we have St Joseph who is being tempted by a Shepherd SL devil so that those are the canonical images the canonical elements of the icon um is there before I start explaining some of the elements are there some things that you've never seen or that you're surprised to hear of like when I said Joseph being tempted by a devil I saw a few people sneering in the audience is that possible does everybody know that story okay so in the in the tradition uh there is uh there is a story which talks about it comes from the Proto event angelium of James which is the the book out of which most of our traditions for for the mother of God and for the Nativity come from outside of the Bible and in that book you have this scene where Joseph is not permitted to be there when uh when when the mother of God gives birth in Imagine we're so used to our modern way of thinking with the dad you know in the hospital with the with a doctor but that is not the traditional way that a woman would have given birth a woman woman would give birth uh with uh what's the word in English midwives there you go sorry my French is going to come back so with midwives and so Joseph was told to to leave the the the the place where where Christ is born and so then he's mulling over in his mind and he's thinking like is this really possible is this for real like he knows he's not the father and so he's wondering like is this is this the real deal is is is this really the birth from a virgin and it's the this devil figure who is tempting him and who's saying like who's asking him questions and one and getting him to wonder whether or not this is actually possible and then the midwives are the ones who are here washing the Christ child so those are the basic elements as for the ass and the ox that is also a very very ancient tradition um also the other tradition which is quite old is the fact that Christ was born in a cave now that in scripture doesn't say that the only thing it says in scripture is that Christ was laid in a Manger which means that Christ was laid in a food trough for animals that's what a Manger is sometimes we forget a Manger is basically a food trough for Animals uh and so it doesn't say that he was born in a stable or born like we know we have these little images of nativities with Christ in the little St table uh but the tradition from very early from the first century we have in St Justin Martyr talks about how Christ was born in a cave okay so those are the basic elements of the the uh the icon and the way they're laid out first of all can help us understand something about iconography which is icons are not snapshots you know they're not just someone who would come at on an event and just take a picture of something that's going on because all of these events are happening at different time times the the and different places right the wise men were in the East when they saw the star and when they arrived at at the the place where Christ was it was like a year later or several several months later okay uh and then here's the mother of God giving birth but then here's Christ here and then here's Christ here again being washed and so what the icon does is it compresses things together right it takes these different elements of the story and it brings them into one place where you can see uh things in their meaning you could say how all these elements in the story come together and participate in the meaning and so it can gives us it can give us um a different sense of what these things mean and how they how they come together so what you see for example in the icon you see it quite clearly you see this joining of these kind of uh you could say these wild opposites you have the these angels up above right you have this kind of demonic figure there below you have these wise men who are from very very far away and who were probably an elite Nobles in the west they were considered Kings we say the the three wise Kings and so they're they're the elite and but they're also from far away and then you have these homely uh Shepherds who are just the guys next door who are participating in this event and so look at how the the icon is actually brought together right the whole thing is like a bullseye right it's this concentric this conr concentric structure you have something going on in the middle which brings together everything from everything that's around it and that already starts to tell us a little bit of the mystery of what it is that's happening on in that moment what it is that's going on what is this Christ child what is he what is he for us and the first thing that we can see is that he's bringing together all these opposites you could say something like he's gathering together you know all of creation all of everything Gathering it together into himself and once you start to see that then you start to understand also when I told you about the ass and the ox this is a little bit more kind of esoteric but just bear with me you'll see how it makes sense the ass and the ox relate to Old Testament laws so there were Foods in the Old Testament which people could eat today Jews call kosher food and there are some foods that people couldn't eat they were impure Foods now the ox is a Pure Food and the ass or the donkey is an impure food you're not allowed to eat donkeys so because of that the donkey becomes becomes in the the symbolism an image for us actually most of us I don't know are there any Jews here maybe not but for all the all the nations let's say all those that aren't uh Jewish and you you read in the church fathers they talk about this ass and this Ox as in the and there's a law in the Old Testament which says you cannot yoke an ass and an ox together if you're going to plow so it's like that's a very strange law for people you know especially for kind of atheist types they always like that they want to make fun of the Bible they'll say here's this crazy law which says that you can't yoke an ass and an ox together but what it meant is exactly is what I told you is that you cannot bring together the outside and the inside you cannot join with the foreigners you cannot mix the pure and the impure but Christ brings us a different vision of the world brings us a different reality where in fact he does I always say Christ is the only one who's allowed to break that law because he does in fact bring the ass and the ox together and he does it and we see it happen in this icon and so the ass and the O become this image of how the Jews and the Gentiles are going to join together and the church will be born out of that out of that Union I'm not making this stuff up by the way you can read I don't have the the quotes but in the church fathers they explicitly talk about this symbolism now the other kind of let's say strange element or important element is the cave so why does Christ have to be born in a cave one of the the secrets to kind of understanding why Christ has to be born in a cave is if you look at the manger so look at the look at the manger what does it look like sorry yes that's exactly what it looks like and so the manger is is already uh tomb and so this descent into the cave this this this image of Christ being born in a cave is already showing us what the whole story is about what the whole story is about which is it is already this descent into death and the descent into death appears you know we symbolize the imagery of the the the of the manger as uh as a tomb but the manger itself is already an image of that this idea of descending down into animality descending down into the the the place of animals that is the state of the Fall itself right when Adam and Eve fell in the garden God gave them these garments of animal skins to cover them and so this idea of descending into the place of the animal is this descent into to death and the early Christians knew that very very well um they they would actually create images which would link all of those things together uh a good example here in the these are images taken from the catacombs so these are images taken from literally from the graves of Christians and so what do they represent in the space of death they represent something which is akin to what we saw that is these three images this is can anybody guess what that image of is of of there no yeah it's Noah's Arc it's very strange Noah's Arc but that's Noah's Arc you can tell because you see he's got a bird and he's got this this giant box FL floating in uh in water uh who can guess what this one is yes Jonah and then this one you can read his name is written so it's not that hard so there's Daniel in the lies Den so there are three images three images from the Old Testament which help us see what it is that going on this descent into death this descent into a cave this descent into the place of animals into into the animal existence you could say which is that existence of death and so the image of of of of Christ it it's you know and I and I talk about that and I feel like maybe I'm actually ruining Christmas for you because because Christmas we know we celebrate and it's fine we should celebrate Christmas we should but in our icon we have a reminder of something which is far more austere something which is far more serious than just this kind of celebration of the birth of a child there are other images of Christ other icons of Christ which happened underground you would say and we've got two of them one is this one everybody know what this is right the baptism of Christ and the other I'll show I'll show it later the other is the anastasis which is Christ descending into death those two images happen underground and those two images are also images of Christ descending into death so you have this like repeated pattern from the Nativity of Christ descending into death and then the uh the the the the baptism of Christ and the anastasis here in this version of the anastasis uh of the of the baptism he's actually standing on the doors of death just like in the icon of the Resurrection so in the icon of the Resurrection here's another one of my carvings if if you want to know another one of the Resurrection in the icon of the Resurrection you see Christ standing on the door of death why why why is it I'm telling you that this is an image of reality this icon is actually a a picture of how the world Works uh why is that so well there there there there are a few things this idea of the Christ child God told Gabriel told uh St Gabriel told the mother of God to name her child Emmanuel and what does Emanuel mean God With Us yes God With Us or God in us right so it is it is both this Descent of Christ into the cave is of course this Descent of the origin of the universe into the world and in a way it's like this this this story obviously is total Scandal you can understand why people rejected it it is a crazy story it is a crazy story to say that God that the logos that the Divine logos which created the world would become a person would enter into the world and reveal himself in this specific moment you know in history and you think it is an insanely crazy story but at the same time it's not a scandal because what it's showing us it's showing us how reality actually works it's showing us the mystery that St Paul announced the S St Paul talked to us about what is this mystery of the Incarnation and he says that Christ has revealed to us the mystery that was hidden for all ages and generation but is now revealed to his Saints and what is this mystery it is Christ in you the hope of glory no we we say as orthod Orthodox people and we repeat it all the time we say God became man so that man could become God that is Christ is revealing us the manner in which the world actually exists everything in the world and when I say and when you say Christ in you it's not just Christ in you but Christ in everything Christ in the world God is hidden in the world just like Christ is born hidden in this cave God is of course there are difference of levels here we have to be careful I'm not saying that the whole world is the Incarnation but the Incarnation is showing us how God is hiding in the world and is hiding behind phenomena and in fact without without this Divine spark or this child this invisible thing which is hidden inside all phenomena the world doesn't exist and I'm saying this like I'm saying this very technically I'm not saying it in a way that that that is just I'm not just pouting this off the the world is actually the world is made of too much stuff everything in the world scatters into details why is it that this microphone how is it that you say that it's a microphone why don't you see all all its parts without without seeing that it's one thing there's something about the world the way the world Works which which makes the world come together into unity and that's for anything any object anything in the world everything has multiple multiple multiple Parts an indefinite infinite amount of Parts why how is it that we can say that that that some things exist and you hear like people kind of talking the people say that like it's all just a Quantum flux right it's all just flux there that nothing is actually real like if you take the microphone you could say this is this is a wire and it's a mesh of Steel and it's black paint and it's white paint and I could keep going and keep going and keep going I could describe the microphone Forever Without ever saying that it's a microphone how is it that I can see that it is something and it's a mystery we can't totally know exactly how it works but what we do know is that that is that is the that is the ontology that we are living and that is the the world view that the Orthodox Christian lives in St Maximus the Confessor talks about this explicitly he talks about how hidden in the world are these purposes these hidden uh kernels that bring things together that make us make us actually make the world exist and so when we see Christ coming down into this cave hidden in the world it is an image of how the world exists and when we see St Joseph there doubting and asking himself is this is this possible is this possible that a someone can be born of a virgin what is he asking he's asking a huge question he's a he's asking the question he's asking how is it possible for there for something to come out of nothing how is it possible for this Union between the spiritual and the physical to happen how is it possible that we that the world exists ultimately that is what he's asking when we talk of the mother of God we use certain terms which are very very strong to help us understand this mystery we say that that that Christ uh that she that she how do you say how do we say it that um her womb contained that who him who the world cannot contain or the that the cosmos cannot contain and so she contained in her womb that which could not be contained and it is and it is a pointing right it is a pointing to the mystery right there even from the beginning of scripture it is linking us to that beginning of scripture of this primordial primordial Earth and then you see the the the the word come down and the word of God which manifests the world out of this primordial Waters right this image is is helping us see what the mystery is about and you see that ray of light coming down that star that comes down it's not a it's not arbitrary that they showed it like this Ray of Light which comes down and points and points to this hidden kernel this hidden reason why the world exists this hidden reason why things exist so I think what's important I mean what's important is there are few things that are important one is to understand what it is that we're celebrating and to to understand especially that we we have we've been in a certain ways we've been we've been ruined by the modern world we've been told that as Christians we believe these things and these things are arbitrary that here it is you know I there are these things that I believe and they're somewhat arbitrary and here it is that I believe them but that is not the case what we believe our faith is real it is the things that we that it talks about the things that it manifests to us it manifests was really the mysteries of how the world exists because the question question that that that St Joseph is asking himself that's the question that the atheist asks himself too about the entire Cosmos how's it possible why is there something rather than nothing you you can hear you can hear the Physicians the the the the physicist asks that today it's like they say the Big Bang it's like why is there something how did something come out of nothing those questions the these those questions are being asked today and the Incarnation is obviously have to be careful I'm not I'm not saying that this is all the same thing right I'm I'm trying to help you show that the Incarnation of Christ brings us into the very manner in which the world exists and anchors us to a way that we can understand but not not just understand but participate in how the world exists and so what I would like to suggest is that that is what we are preparing for and you know there it's not totally arbitrary the fact that Christmas Nativity comes at around the time of the solstice you know I I don't think that it's purposeful in the sense that a lot of people think that somehow uh Christians just took over the pagan holidays actually I don't think that that's how it happened but it isn't also arbitrary because that's the that's this in the time of the soltice is when happens this secret mystery too you can imagine it's hard now cuz we live in the city and we have lights and everything but we we can imagine the sun going down and down and down and down and there's this darkness which is rising and rising and rising and you think and you wonder you think how far is it going to go is the Sun going to vanish is the Sun going to go away is it going to end is it is this is going to finish and then in that secret place as the sun is at his lowest point in that secret place is where the son is born again and we don't see it right away right it's a mystery we don't see it until mid January we don't realize that the days are getting longer and and again that image it's the same image as what we're seeing here right here's the light which comes down and manifests itself in the secret place in this hidden spark which is there and which will grow and start to reveal itself and then and then you know and we'll go all the way into into pasca to the final kind of Glorious manifestation of what was already started here was already intimated in the very story of the birth of our Lord so that is what I want to encourage you today mostly to kind of understand understand how important it is and also in the Orthodox faith we have kept what I believe to be the most complete and the most profound understanding and version of this in our hymns in our icons in our liturgy and in the writings of the fathers we have kept the most profound version of this and so we do have an answer to you know the the crazy commodification of Christmas and this is our answer and we know how deep it goes It goes to the bottom of the world so thank you very [Applause] much so I know that we said that if anybody has questions it can be about this but it could also be about anything else if you want to ask questions about iconography or about you know the strange fellow who carves icons then then the floor is is open yeah I feel a little silly asking but the uh the underground baptism yeah there's there's a figure there in the bottom the two strange disturbing figures like a pig I will tell you what they are let's put them up and I'll tell you what they are these guys yeah okay so uh so that is the the C and the Jordan it's actually a it the representations of uh of the waters so there's a there's a um there's a Psalm in which it is said that the Sea and the Jordan receded before the Lord that they that they kind of made way for the Lord and so this is a representation of the Jordan and the Sea kind of making Way for their lord who's coming down uh but there's something more very interesting about this as well is that the way in which they're represented they're represented as old gods they're like Old River Gods these are these are Roman like Roman uh River gods and River nymphs and whatever it's all these kind of weird Roman gods and so what happens is that not only are the Seas and the the rivers kind of making way for Christ but the old gods are making way for Christ as well and they're kind of getting out of the way to make way for Christ and and you have this this image you know we we talk about baptism you know we go in to baptism and then you come out and you person and you leave something down in the waters right you leave the the the the uh let's say the the the chaotic aspect of yourself or the the the the aspect of yourself which was not could not be brought in into Union with Christ you leave it down in the waters and that's in terms of civilizations it's the same we talk about how Orthodoxy baptizes cultures right Orthodoxy went into Russia baptized Russia baptized Rome baptized uh uh different cultures but there are some aspects of that culture which got to stay in the waters and so this is a this is a kind of very elaborate way to show all these different things at the same time yep what's the ACT oh so the acts refers to St John the Baptist uh there St John the Baptist when he he's preaching out in the desert he says the acts he talks about how people I need to repent and need to to be baptized and he says the axe is at the foot of the tree and he's saying basically the judgment is coming you need to repent because soon everything that doesn't bear fruit is going to be cut off so that's what that represents yeah I have a weird question I don't know sure question I what came first the Bible or icons what's the oldest icon that's ever existed did that come before the Bible or um well it depends what you mean by icon uh if by icon you just mean an image icon of Christ well for sure for sure the icons of Christ as we know of they came after the Bible but it's it's very difficult to it's very difficult to know what was going on because the because the church was being persecuted we do have some images here and there early early images we don't have a lot and so it's difficult to know we do know that already in the 2 Century there is a church that they found in the city called Dura oropus which was a it was a a home Church which was next to a synagogue and in that home Church from the 2 Century there they found two images of Christ one of Christ healing the paralytic and one of Christ pulling St Peter out of the water and so that's what we have and don't let historians tell you that that's the first those are the first icons you know there may be more some before we have no idea you know it's just that because the church are persecuted it's hard to uh it's hard to know yeah y it's just a question about the baptismal iography so we we baptize obviously as infants most most of but your the comment about leaving a chaotic part of your existence behind I have a hard time reconciling that when we speak of newborn infants or children or well it's almost like let me ask you this do you exercise the newborn before you baptized them do you exercise yeah you do yeah so so so even even even even when we're born we are still St Gregor of Nissa we do talk about children as having a certain innocence that's true but St Gregory of Nissa talks about right there talks about even the child even the infant who screams for you know his mother's breast is already showing the passions uh you know that he'll have to deal with later in life and so it's like we already because we are living in a body of death uh the passions and the kind of are are there very very early yeah some there's snakes underneath door well the snakes underneath the door have more to do with kind of these these you know in the baptism uh prayers if you've heard the baptism prayers we talk about these they're great they're my favorite prayers by the way where it's like we chase away the dragons that are in the water and we chase away the serpent that's hiding at the bottom of the waters and so we there this ancient idea of of of these chaotic beings you know the Leviathan or sea monsters that hide in the waters and they kind of represent all of this all of these things that we exercise all of these these these Fringe elements of ourselves that need to be cleansed and so that's what that is so he's kind of pushing down the serpents um yeah the sea serpents all right well everybody I really appreciate your attention thank you for listening to me and uh and I wish you all the best on this mentoring program sounds like a lot of fun so uh thanks father Justin [Applause]