CONTE NT S 28 In the image
To pray with an icon 31 ‘Spiritually rising’
C21 Notes
Preparing the laity
In the image By Khaled Anatolios To pray with an icon
I
n flannery o’connor’s final story “Parker’s Back,” completed shortly before her death in 1964, the main character, O.E. Parker (his initials stand for the biblical names Obadiah Elihu), meets and marries a very plain and rigidly pious woman, Sarah Ruth. She confounds him endlessly and he cannot seem to love her or leave her. Before meeting Sarah Ruth, the one passion in Parker’s existence had been tattoos. He had inscribed his flesh with one tattoo after another until only his back was clear. Then, sometime after his marriage, he receives a violent visitation of divine grace. His tractor crashes into a tree, upturns, and bursts into flame, and he survives. Once again he has the urge to get a tattoo. Leaving behind the burning tractor, he gets into his truck and heads for the tattoo shop. “Let me see the book you got with all the pictures of God in it,” Parker said
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breathlessly. “The religious one.” . . . “Oh,” said the artist… “Who are you interested in . . . saints, angels, Christs, or what?” “God,” Parker said. “Father, Son, or Spirit?” “Just God,” Parker said impatiently. “Christ. I don’t care. Just so it’s God.”
The artist shows him a large book filled with images, and Parker is drawn to one: the haloed head of a flat stern Byzantine Christ with all-demanding eyes. He sat there trembling; his heart began slowly to beat again as if it were being brought to life by a subtle power.
With the icon inscribed on his back, Parker rushes home, eager to show Sara Ruth this sign of their new communion in faith. But his wife is outraged: “Idolatry!” Sarah Ruth screams. “Idolatry! Enflaming yourself with idols under every green