We are gathered here today in the presence of the Lord and His Saints to “keep the Feast” of the „falling asleep,” or, Dormition, of Mary the Theotokos, or, „Birth-Giver” of God. Mary is acclaimed in the Church as „more honorable than the cherubim and more glorious beyond compare than the seraphim.” And yet, this vessel of God, chosen to carry in her womb the uncontainable God, in the holy mystery of the Incarnation, who is also accorded „hyper-dulia,” (that is, the greatest honor and veneration) by the Church, also needed her Son and God as her Savior. He saves her in this extraordinary way and in a manner fitting for the one who is, in the hymnody of the Church also acclaimed as, „higher than the heavens” for she bore our Creator.
In Psalm 115 (LXX), King and Prophet David reminds us that „precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His Saints.” Likewise, Solomon writes in Proverbs that „the memory of the just is praised” (Prov. 10:7). God has created us „a little lower than the angels,” writes St. David in Psalm 8:5, but calls him to glory and the adoption of sonship through the regeneration of new birth by „water and the spirit”. If this is the value that God has bestowed on His human creation, the same God who created man to be in loving communion with Him, who became incarnate to enter into our human nature and renew it, who wept at the tomb of His friend Lazarus, and willingly and for our salvation offered Himself up for the life of the world and our salvation by defeating sin and death on the cross by virtue of His own vivifying resurrection, then how much more precious is the death of His Mother who carried the God of the universe in her womb?
Yes, Mary, like all of the race of Adam, was created „a little lower than the angels” and yet, through her miraculous virginal birth-giving and holy Dormition and subsequent ascension, is raised to a place higher and more honorable than the cherubim and so much more glorious than the cherubim. These angels who specifically are charged to worship at the throne of God, now behold her as the Mother and Queen of Heaven.
As the Mother of the „New Adam,” another name for Christ—the one who renewed and restored the fallen race of Adam with His new and perfect life, which He freely gives to all who put Him on in holy baptism, we are assured in the hymnody of the Feast of her falling asleep that Adam and Eve rejoiced to see this day when a new Eve of their own lineage would be raised to heaven where together they glorify the One who undid the ancient curse caused by their first sin.
Through her yes to God in being willing to carry and then bear her Creator and Savior, the Theotokos has become of the first fruit of the resurrection of her Son and our God, who now, by virtue of His own resurrection and His power over sin and death, raises His own dear Mother from the grave that was the rotten fruit of Adam and Eve’s first disobedience. This is the joy God gives us in this Feast: the spiritual exclamation mark on His already life-changing resurrection is once more brought to the fore as His own dear Mother is redeemed: her body along with her soul are set in heaven beside His holy throne.
For this reason, the Dormition is sometimes referred to in Church Tradition as „the summer Pascha.” Certainly, the fruit of Christ’s salvific death and resurrection and a foretaste of the final eschaton (end and new beginning) are seen here in that His blessed Mother, the Church’s Mother, is able even now to experience the promise of the Second Coming of Christ, when our own bodies will be raised to stand before His dread Judgment Seat.
The falling asleep of the Mother of God is recorded in Apostolic times from the beginning. “Already in the first century, the Hieromartyr Dionysius the Areopagite wrote about Her “Falling-Asleep.” In the second century, the account of the bodily ascent of the Most Holy Virgin Mary to Heaven is found in the works of Meliton, Bishop of Sardis. In the fourth century, Saint Epiphanius of Cyprus refers to the tradition about the “Falling Asleep” of the Mother of God” (OCA.org) You will recall that at the time of her falling asleep in the Lord, Mary was again in Jerusalem, praying before the holy sepulchur and place of Christ’s holy resurrection. The Archangel Gabriel came to her to tell her that the time of her departure to heaven was fast approaching and gave her a palm branch as a pledge. Mary prayed that the Apostle John, to whom Christ had entrusted His dear Mother as He was dying on the cross, would be brought to her. The Holy Spirit not only miraculously transported John, but all the Apostles, St. Paul and his disciple, Dionysios the Aropogite, Timothy, and others of the Seventy. Too many to count, St. John of Damascus likenes them to clouds and eagles. Holy Tradition relates that she called each by name and wished them eternal bliss.
At the Ninth Hour, as those gathered by the Holy Spirit sang songs of praise, glorifying God, a bright lights came into the midst of them. „Descending from Heaven was Christ, the King of Glory, surrounded by hosts of Angels and Archangels and other Heavenly Powers, together with the souls of the Forefathers and the Prophets, who had prophesied in ages past concerning the Most Holy Virgin Mary.”
Seeing Her Son, the Mother of God exclaimed: “My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced in God My Savior, for He hath regarded the low estate of His Handmaiden” (Luke 1:46-48) and, rising from Her bed to meet the Lord, She bowed down to Him, and the Lord bid Her enter into Life Eternal. Without any bodily suffering, as though in a happy sleep, the Most Holy Virgin Mary gave Her soul into the hands of Her Son and God.” (OCA.org)
Then began a joyous angelic song. Accompanying the pure soul of the God-betrothed and with reverent awe for the Queen of Heaven, the angels exclaimed: “Hail, Full of Grace, the Lord is with Thee, blessed art Thou among women! For lo, the Queen, God’s Maiden comes, lift up the gates, and with the Ever-Existing One, take up the Mother of Light; for through Her salvation has come to all the human race. It is impossible to gaze upon Her, and it is impossible to render Her due honor” (Stikherion on “Lord, I Have Cried”).
The heavenly voices joined the earthly voices as all gave praise to God for the life of Mary the Theotokos. All the faithful kept vigil for three days after she was buried, singing, praying, and glorifying God. St. Thomas arrived only then. In tears he beseeched the other Apostles to allow him to gaze once more on the Most Holy Theotokos. It was then, in compassion for St. Thomas, that they brought her body back out from the grave that the miracle was made known: Christ God has taken His Mother bodily to heaven. Her belt and robe were left behind as relics of veneration which are still with us to this day.
St. Gregory Palamas says of this holy mystery revealed, “Earth, the grave and death could not ultimately detain her life-giving body, which has held God and been a more beloved habitation for Him than heaven…” King and Prophet David, her forebear, prophesied concerning her, “Upon the right hand did stand the Queen (Ps. 44:9). She is one closest to God. Her Son is always ready to hear her entreaties as He was when we walked the earth.
For her part, the Theotokos is always eager to enjoin our prayers for growth in faith and union with Christ. She is the exception where we can honestly say that she is like her Son and not the other way around. And, like her Son, in whose image she was also made and whose likeness she attained, she, like her Son, cares for the healing of our souls and our salvation.
This day, of all days, I challenge you to think of one thing you need to receive from Christ God to advance in faith and love—the gift of one virtue, one discipline, the healing of one vice or unhealthy way of being, Know this: Our Mother, Mary, the Theotokos, stands ready to intercede for us this day when Christ, her Son and our God, is so quick to hear His holy Mother.
Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory to Him forever!
Fr. Robert Miclean
Holy Archangels Orthodox Church
15 August 2017—Holy Dormition
Epistle: Phil. 2:5-11
Gospel: Luke 10:38-42; 11:27-28
