St. Barbara Byzantine Catholic Chapel at 1114 Troy Street, Dayton, OH 45404 US - About the Icon
| About the Icon |
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The icon ?I Have Chosen You? portrays many aspects of discerning a spiritual vocation. The title comes from the words of Jesus in the Gospel of John: ?You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide.? (15:16)
In the icon, Christ is shown in dialogue with a man and a woman, representatives of all who are invited to serve through ordination and religious life. Both individuals are moving out of the world, symbolized by the woman partially in the border, towards Christ. The scroll in our Lord?s hand represents His teachings. An angel, holding a scroll that reads ?discernment,? guides and protects those contemplating the request of the Lord.
The entire scene takes place on desolate ground. A single tree, symbolic of vitality, breaks the barren landscape. This setting reveals several more characteristics of discerning a vocation. First, it takes place outdoors, in a place without walls, symbolic of the Church not being an earthly institution of buildings and structures but a new life in Christ. Second, as Jesus saw Nathaniel under the fig tree and called him to discipleship (John 1:48), Jesus intimately knows those whom He calls. Third, the tree?s lower branch connects the man and woman to the trunk, representing the vocations as the branches of Christ?s vine (John 15:5).