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Views from the Choir Loft

6th-Century Icon: God of Mercy and Justice

Fr. David Friel · October 15, 2017

ACRED ARTS have the power to communicate strong messages about both God and man. This is true of music, painting, and architecture, as well as many other arts. Recently, a beautiful icon from the first millennium (pictured at right), accompanied by a scholarly interpretation, caught my attention.

My encounter with this icon derived from studies I have been doing on the effect of liturgy upon self-understanding. Anthropologists have grown more and more interested over recent decades in analyzing this important role of religious ritual: the formation of the “liturgical self,” if you will.

In a 2014 book entitled Liturgical Subjects: Christian Ritual, Biblical Narrative, and the Formation of the Self in Byzantium, Derek Krueger explores the self-understanding that was encouraged among participants in Byzantine liturgy from the sixth century to the turn of the eleventh. One of his most central theses is that Byzantine liturgy of this time period produced a strongly introspective conscience, resulting in a lively conception of the self as sinful, yet still able to be saved. This assertion challenges the common narrative that Augustine and the subsequent Christian West were chiefly (or exclusively) responsible for forming a pervasive, penitential self-understanding among Christians.

The Byzantine liturgical subject, according to Krueger, was formed in the tension between two gazes. The first gaze is the subject’s inward vision of his or her own self. The second gaze is that of the all-seeing God. This divine gaze is characterized both by judgment and compassion, reflecting both the virtue of justice and the virtue of mercy.

In this context, Krueger presents a thoughtful reflection on the symbolism of this striking, sixth-century icon at the Holy Monastery of Saint Catherine in Sinai, Egypt. The author presents this reading of the Christ Pantocrator icon:

His right hand blesses the viewer, while his left holds a jeweled Gospel Book. His body is at once in motion and at rest. The slope and angle of his shoulders suggest that Christ has just shifted his attention toward the viewer. His face looks directly out. On the left side of Christ’s face—the viewer’s right—the brow knits as the eye narrows and the face darkens in shadow; the corner of the lip turns down in a scowl. The God of judgment looks out in wrath. But on the right side of his face, Christ’s expression lightens and his mouth relaxes. His eye wells up with a compassionate tear. Intimately, the image presents Christ as God of justice and mercy, both scolding and comforting the viewer. It forms viewers as subjects of the divine gaze. (Krueger, Liturgical Subjects, 26-28)

N MODERN times, the notion of God as merciful has grown much more popular than the notion of God as just. Both aspects of the divine countenance, however, are essential for a correct understanding of God, of ourselves, and of our relationship to Him. Perhaps this icon could serve to renew appreciation for God’s justice and mercy in the world today.

Opinions by blog authors do not necessarily represent the views of Corpus Christi Watershed.

Filed Under: Articles Tagged With: Byzantine Liturgy, Traditional Catholic Artwork Last Updated: January 1, 2020

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About Fr. David Friel

Ordained in 2011, Father Friel is a priest of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia and serves as Director of Liturgy at Saint Charles Borromeo Seminary. —(Read full biography).

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Corpus Christi Watershed

President’s Corner

    “Booklet of Eucharistic Hymns” (16 pages)
    I was asked to create a booklet for my parish to use during our CORPUS CHRISTI PROCESSION on 22 June 2025. Would you be willing to look over the DRAFT BOOKLET (16 pages) I came up with? I tried to include a variety of hymns: some have a refrain; some are in major, others in minor; some are metered, others are plainsong; some are in Spanish, some are in Latin, but most are in English. Normally, we’d use the Brébeuf Hymnal—but we can’t risk having our congregation carry those heavy books all over the city to various churches.
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    “Yahweh” in church songs?
    My pastor asked me to write a weekly column for our parish bulletin. The one scheduled to run on 22 June 2025 is called “Three Words in a Psalm” and speaks of translating the TETRAGRAMMATON. You can read the article at this column repository. All of them are quite brief because I was asked to keep within a certain word limit.
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    “Music List” • Pentecost Sunday
    Some have expressed interest in perusing the ORDER OF MUSIC I prepared for Pentecost Sunday (8 June 2025). If such a thing interests you, feel free to download it as a PDF file. Because our choir is on break this week, the music is relatively simple.
    —Jeff Ostrowski

Quick Thoughts

    Antiphons Don’t Match?
    A reader wants to know why the Entrance and Communion antiphons in certain publications deviate from what’s prescribed by the GRADUALE ROMANUM published after Vatican II. Click here to read our answer. The short answer is: the Adalbert Propers were never intended to be sung. They were intended for private Masses only (or Masses without music). The “Graduale Parvum,” published by the John Henry Newman Institute of Liturgical Music in 2023, mostly uses the Adalbert Propers—but sometimes uses the GRADUALE text: e.g. Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul (29 June).
    —Corpus Christi Watershed
    When to Sit, Stand and Kneel like it’s 1962
    There are lots of different guides to postures for Mass, but I couldn’t find one which matched our local Latin Mass, so I made this one: sit-stand-kneel-crop
    —Veronica Brandt
    The Funeral Rites of the Graduale Romanum
    Lately I have been paging through the 1974 Graduale Romanum (see p. 678 ff.) and have been fascinated by the funeral rites found therein, especially the simply-beautiful Psalmody that is appointed for all the different occasions before and after the funeral Mass: at the vigil/wake, at the house of the deceased, processing to the church, at the church, processing to the cemetery, and at the cemetery. Would that this “stational Psalmody” of the Novus Ordo funeral rites saw wider usage! If you or anyone you know have ever used it, please do let me know.
    —Daniel Tucker

Random Quote

“Those who are trying to improve the quality of congregational singing cannot refuse to Gregorian chant the place which is due to it.”

— Sacred Congregation of Divine Worship (14 April 1974)

Recent Posts

  • “Booklet of Eucharistic Hymns” (16 pages)
  • PDF Download • “Text by Saint Francis of Assisi” (choral setting w/ organ: Soprano & Alto)
  • “Yahweh” in church songs?
  • “Music List” • Pentecost Sunday
  • “Participation” • Recovering its Receptive Dimension

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