Today, heaven and earth are united in a holy mystery! Today we celebrate the Dormition of the Most Holy Theotokos, her falling asleep in peace, her translation into life, and her continued intercession for the whole world!
The Church, in her hymns, does not speak of the Theotokos as someone lost to the grave, but as the one who, having given birth to the Source of Life, has now been received into the fullness of that Life.
The Fathers call her The Ark of the New Covenant because just as the ark in the Old Testament contained the manna, the rod of Aaron, and the tablets of the Law, the signs of God's presence, so Mary contained in her very womb the true Bread of Life, and the Living Word Himself, the Creator of the universe! Our church loves Christ's mother and will remember her role in our salvation!
For He has regarded the lowly state of His maidservant; For behold, henceforth all generations will call me blessed. For He who is mighty has done great things for me, And holy is His name. —Luke 1:48-49
She is the only human being who literally contained Christ within herself. This was not a symbolic union but flesh touching flesh, blood nourishing blood. The Creator was clothed in Mary's humanity. "On that day when Mary uttered her 'so be it, the word of the creature brought the Creator into the world," says St. Philaret of Moscow.
The Virgin Mary is not only the real container of Christ, she is also the mystical example for every Christian. The mystery of her life is a pattern for ours. When the Archangel Gabriel came to her, she did not negotiate, she did not calculate, she did not self-protect, she opened herself fully to the will of God. And in that openness, she became the meeting place of heaven and earth. The same God who dwelt bodily in her womb desires to dwell mystically in our hearts.
The Church Fathers say that every Christian is called to be a "bearer of God" (Theophoros). In Holy Communion, the very same Christ who was housed in the Virgin Mary's womb is given to us, not as a memory, not as a symbol, but as the very Living God Himself. We become living tabernacles for Christ as Mary was for the infant Lord! But we cannot contain Christ if our hearts are already full of ourselves. We cannot contain Christ if our souls are cluttered with the noise of pride, resentment, or distraction. We cannot contain Christ if we offer Him only part of our lives while keeping other rooms in our soul locked away from His presence.
The Theotokos shows us the way: her life was an emptying, a continual "yes" to God. She treasured His word, she pondered it in her heart, she bore Him in her body, she followed Him in His ministry, she stood by Him at the Cross, and she rejoiced in Him at the Resurrection. And today, at her Dormition, we see the fulfillment: the one who contained Christ is now contained in the embrace of Christ for all eternity!
Sweet friends, on this feast the Church sets the Theotokos before us not simply to admire her, but to imitate her. She was not divine, she was human like us, yet she became more spacious than the heavens because she made room for God. If we desire to be true Christians, true Christophori (bearers of Christ) then we must also become containers of Christ, real and mystical.
Let us clean the inner house of our soul through repentance. Let us make room through humility. Let us feed Him with our faith and clothe Him with our love. Then, like the Virgin Mary, we will discover that God is not far from us, but living within us.
Today we cry out with the Church's hymn: "In giving birth, you preserved your virginity; in falling asleep, you did not abandon the world, O Theotokos. You were translated to life, O Mother of Life, and by your prayers, you deliver our souls from death."
May we, too, fall asleep one day as she did, cradled in the arms of the One we carried within us all our days, and like the Bible says, may every generation call her blessed!
Wishing all of you a blessed feast day!
+Fr. Tom
Originally published in the Holy Apostles eBulletin. Subscribe here.
