Deesis

Serigus Bulgakov – Essay on the Forerunner

There are two types of the soul’s relation to Christ as the Bridegroom. Every soul in the Church, giving itself to Christ and living his life, stands in the relation of ‘bride’ to him – like the Church itself, which receives its life of grace from him; this is the ‘feminine’ way of yielding to Christ.

But then there is another way – if not of communion with, then at any rate living for Christ, namely, our human, moral relation to him which consists in self-renunciation out of love for Christ. Then the soul learns the sweetness of friendship for the Bridegroom, the path of the Forerunner. This is the type of love between man and man, a ‘masculine’ relation to the Bridegroom.

These two types are not mutually exclusive but form a composite and indivisible unity. Love is both self-renunciation and communion, as life in another; love is the unity of two in one life. The Church as the Bride of Christ has and gives this unity and communion of life, which is the principle of divine motherhood as expressed by the Church. The Church as a multiple unity of person, after the image of the tri-Personal unity of God, consists in continual self-renunciation, dying for the sake of anther, friendship with the Bridegroom.

Love is sacrificial self-immolation and resurrection, union and friendship. The fullness of love and communion with Christ in the Church include two aspects of love for Christ, of which one is appropriate to the office of Our Lady, the other to that of the Forerunner, the two figures who stand together stand beside the the Saviour in the ikon called Deesis (‘Supplication’).

A Bulgakov Anthology (Page 87)