A Sermon by Metropolitan Moses On the Dormition Today we celebrate the victory of the God-Man Christ over death, the new Adam and the renewal of mankind. You may ask, don’t we celebrate that theme on the feast of feasts, the Holy and glorious Pascha? Yes, we do indeed celebrate these events on that day. But, that victory is the cause of this victory and that healing is the cause of this new creation, that is, the Blessed and Glorious Lady and Queen of Heaven, the Theotokos, the God-Birthgiver, and ever Virgin Mary. On this day we celebrate the triumph of the repose and translation unto the heights of heaven of the Glorious Theotokos, and her presence here on earth, as is expressed in the Apolytikion for the feast: In giving birth thou didst preserve thy virginity; in thy dormition thou didst not forsake the world, O Theotokos. Thou wast translated unto life, since thou art the Mother of Life; and by thine intercessions dost thou redeem our souls from death. According to Holy Tradition, three days before her repose, an angel notified the Most Holy Theotokos, Mary of her imminent translation. She then prepared the necessary things for her burial and spent the remaining time in unceasing prayer on the Mount of Olives. On the third and final day the Holy Apostles, except the Apostle Thomas, were transported miraculously from throughout the world to the home of the Mother of God. She informed them why they were there and after consoling them all, with blessings and prayers for all she reposed. Some three days later Saint Thomas arrived and asked the other Apostles to open the tomb. When this was done it was discovered that her body was no longer present. This is seen as a witness by the faithful of the common resurrection at the Second Coming of Christ. On this feast it is appropriate to consider that the life and death and translation of the Theotokos is a ready cure for all of mankind. There was a law given to our first parents so that they might remember that they were created by God and their origin was from His will. According to the teachings of the Holy Fathers, this was done so that they not be lifted up with the same pride that was the cause of the downfall of the evil one. Our first parents were deceived and followed the council and will of the evil one and thus became partakers of sin and, so that sin would not become immortal in them, they became subject to death. Our God did not kill our first parents, but rather He told them, “…of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.” (Genesis 3:3) Afterwards, when they ate of the forbidden fruit God did not curse Adam and Eve. God admonished Adam and cursed the ground saying, …Because thou hast hearkened to the voice of thy wife, and eaten of the tree concerning which I charged thee of it only not to eat-- of that thou hast eaten, cursed [is] the ground in thy labours, in pain shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life. (Genesis 3:17) Yet God did curse the serpent, saying …Because thou hast done this thou art cursed above all cattle and all the brutes of the earth, on thy breast and belly thou shalt go, and thou shalt eat earth all the days of thy life. (Genesis 3:14) And immediately after cursing the serpent God added a blessing for mankind saying, And I will put enmity between thee and the woman and between thy seed and her seed, he shall watch against thy head, and thou shalt watch against his heel. (Genesis 3:15) This is the only place in Scripture that refers to the seed of a woman. With these obscure words God predicted the Virgin birth and that the Son of the Virgin, the God-Man would trample on the serpent and all of his machinations. Our God became the God-Man to set us free from all the power of Satan and sin. Our God is the Physician of our souls and bodies, He calls us to Himself as the source of our wellbeing, He guides us in commandments that bring health and well-being. Without Him, we are truly dust, clay and ashes, with Him we are deified and become like unto Him. It is this reality that we celebrate today, the triumph of the Most Holy Theotokos, the daughter of Adam who was made from clay, a woman, who, through union and communion with God through her obedience and prayer, became a “god” by partaking of grace. The theme of the feast we recently celebrated, the Holy Transfiguration, was our Savior’s manifestation of His Divine Grace on Mount Tabor. Saint Peter referred to the partaking of this Grace in his Second Epistle when he wrote: Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord, According as His divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him that hath called us to glory and virtue: Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. (2Peter 1:2-4) This “partaking of the divine nature,” refers to our partaking of the grace of God, that is, the uncreated energies of God. When a man or woman partakes of the grace of God in this manner, this process is called theosis or deification, in other words, becoming godlike. God became incarnate for us, and revealed His Divine Grace, His Uncreated Energy that inseparably issues forth from Him. The Most Holy Theotokos is revealed to us as the greatest of all the saints for more than all mankind she has been deified by grace. God became the God-Man and the highest of mankind is a woman, His mother. We offer God adoration, and when we venerate the Theotokos we adore God again, recognizing that He dwells within her according to our Savior’s words in His prayer to the Father not long before His voluntary Passion, …And for their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they also might be sanctified in the truth. Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe in Me through their word; That they all may be one; as Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee, that they also may be one in Us: that the world may believe that Thou hast sent Me. And the glory which Thou gavest Me I have given them; that they may be one, even as We are one: I in them, and Thou in Me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that Thou hast sent Me, and hast loved them, as Thou hast loved Me. (John 17:19-23) These words apply to some degree to all Christians who receive the grace of God, but they apply to the Theotokos in an extraordinary superabundant way. The Most Glorious Theotokos is the highest of all creation and by her cooperation with grace she is as sinless as a created mortal nature can be. From her earliest years she was given by her parents to serve at the Temple and by a special dispensation was guided to a life of remembrance of God and prayer. She is a guide to our sanctification. If one examines human existence with any understanding one can only come to the conclusion that sanctification is great and everything else in this life and in the age to come is small by comparison. As sinful men we are fascinated by small things and ignore great and eternal things. We can seek sanctification if we struggle to emulate the Glorious Theotokos according to our lowly measure. How so? We must strive to remember God and seek His will. When the Archangel Gabriel visited the Theotokos and told her of her role in the plan of salvation she said, “Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word.”(Luke 1:38) We, each and every one of us must pray and seek to fulfill our role in God’s plan within our families and parish and be ready to do our part to serve Christ. It is written that while the mysteries of God’s dispensation were being accomplished, “But Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart” (Luke 2:19), that is, she spent her time prayerfully reflecting upon the things of God. We as Christians are all called upon to do likewise. According to the words of Saint Gregory Palamas, from the time the glorious Theotokos abode in the Temple she was taught of God regarding unceasing prayer. After giving birth, her Son and God was the focus of all of her life in ways that we cannot even begin to understand. There are ascetics who received the gift of prayer and unceasing remembrance of God through her intercessions. So also, we should entreat her to help us draw nigh unto her Son and God. The glorious Theotokos teaches us what it is to be a Christian, that is, to love God and conform our will to His will. Our salvation as Christians is not determined by merely following an external set of rules, it is determined by the disposition of our heart. Each one of us must ask, “Do I love God and seek to commune with Him?” Teach your children this lesson and you will give them an everlasting inheritance. May you all individually and collectively, with the help of our Glorious Lady the Theotokos, be sanctified in the truth and love of our Savior that you all may be one in Him and with the Father and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Posted on: Thu, 28 Aug 2014 12:15:04 +0000
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