Happy New Year! The new Church year began September 1 and on this day we begin the celebration the first Great Feast of the ecclesiastical year on this the Fore-feast of the Nativity of the Most-Holy Theotokos. And so, with the advent of the new ecclesiastical year and this first Feast, we’re presented by God’s grace with an opportunity this day for a new beginning, for spiritual progress and renewal, even as the birth of the Theotokos brings about the beginning of the renewal of the human race.
The passing of time causes us to think about how we’ve used the past year God has given us and to ponder what this year will bring. We know that everything temporal in our lives, those material things that consume so much of our time and focus, begin and come to an end, as do the cycles of the year, our human calendars, etc. But everything born of God grows in perpetuity to eternal life. At Vespers we sing the beautiful verses of Psalm 104, “The young lions roar after their prey, and seek their meat from God. The sun ariseth, they gather themselves together, and lay them down in their dens. The sun ariseth, and man goeth forth unto his work and to his labor until the evening.” That sun knows its setting, but the Sun of righteousness, born of the Virgin in means past human comprehension, knows no evening, and has, according to the Apostle James, “no variableness neither shadow of turning (Js. 1:17).
Of this Light we proclaim each Vespers as the highlight of the service, singing the Phos Hilaron, (Lumina Lina), “Gladsome Light,” which is the oldest hymn of the Church outside the Scriptures and which already in St. Basil’s day in the 4th century was considered by him a “cherished tradition of the Church” :
O Gladsome Light of the holy glory of the Immortal Father, heavenly, holy, blessed Jesus Christ. Now we have come to the setting of the sun and behold the light of evening. We praise God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. For it is right at all times to worship Thee with voices of praise, O Son of God and Giver of Life, therefore all the world glorifies Thee.
Christ God, the Light of the world, alone dispels the darkness and fills our souls with this light which is His eternal truth of His being.
The economy of His salvation, of His renewal of the human race, begins with this miraculous birth of the Virgin Mary. Her yes to God is preceded itself by a great number of miracles, signs of God’s provision and preparation through the ages for that glorious and life-saving moment. Christ, having entered into human nature as man, has redeemed it as God, healing that nature and restoring it to new life in Him for all who put Him on in baptism and bear fruit of that baptism.
The origin of that saving Incarnation, death, burial, resurrection, and glorious ascension, the Gospel of Jesus Christ we proclaim and celebrate every Sunday, has its origin on this first Feast: the Virgin, Mary is born of the barren parents Joachim and Ana, who in great old age and after years of prayerful perseverance miraculously conceive. Her miraculous conception mirrors that of Abraham and Sarah, who likewise barren and childless, give birth in old age to Isaac, the Fore-Father of Israel. Mary of the rod of Jesse, gives birth to Christ, the Father of the New Israel, the Church, of which we are His Body.
Now heaven is opened to all: there’s neither Jew nor Greek, male or female, slave for free; everyone is invited to the Marriage Feast of the Lamb. The Church proclaims today liberation for all those enslaved to the passions. No one is exempt from this calling, no one is beyond Christ’s God healing if we avail ourselves of His new life and persevere in our prayers and our good, obedient, and humble use of the Sacramental life of His Church.
The new Adam invites us into this New Israel. He gives us here a new name, a new identity, and the hope of growth into that new identity that He has proclaimed to us, that He freely bequeaths to us, by virtue of our new life in Him.
The Virgin born this day is the mysterious new Eden. Her womb is the new Ark of the Covenant. But here is more: The “bush that was not burned of old is born this day and begins to be prepared to contain within her virginal womb Him whom the universe cannot contain.
But beyond the fulfillment of Old Testament prophesy and the Mystery here revealed, our knowledge of this Feast and of the greatness of God motivates us to go further than simple rational acknowledgement of its wonder: We’re urged this day to make a new beginning, to persevere ourselves in going deeper in our faith and communion (koinonia) with God and each other. We’re given the opportunity this day to renew our devotion to God by exercising the virtues of faith and persevering in the faith of the pious couple, Joachim and Ana, who didn’t give up on God’s faithfulness—even as they grew into old age and still found themselves barren and well past the age of childbirth. They were open to God’s work. Their desire was in serving and glorifying God and He fulfilled that desire in most miraculous and unexepected ways.
Here at the beginning of a new Church year, we’re invited today to examine our souls, to invite Christ God into any part of us that is barren and fruitless, closed to God’s healing and grace, to open ourselves up to Him, to make real spiritual progress, to redouble our commitment to living out our baptism, to practice repentance (that is, exercising a change of heart and will) with renewed zeal, so that we conform our steps, our thoughts, our words, to that which is God-pleasing and, therefore, life-giving, both for us, but also for the people around us.
This is a day we’re asked to look beyond a simple declaration of our faith in Christ with our tongues. The fruit of our labors, of our cooperation with the work of the Holy Spirit in us and through us, is manifested in our growth in the virtues that testify to those around us that God is Life and Truth, that there’s hope for all those who put their trust in Him and avail themselves of His life and the tools of salvation found in His Church.
The birth of Mary the Theotokos is, then, an “evangelion,” it’s the proclamation that God’s salvation of the human race has drawn nigh. So, in our lives, our reception of this Feast, our internalizing of its truth, means that we too can more faithfully bear witness to the Good News of Christ. As always, the Virgin Mother, even in her birth, points us to her Son, the Sun of Righteousness, the Light that knows no evening, who is born of her for our salvation.
I urge you this day not only to contemplate this divine mystery of the Virgin’s birth to her barren parents, but to seize this day to put to work inside you the fruit of this Feast. Remember God’s faithfulness to Saints Joachim and Ana. Present your petitions to our Lord and God Jesus Christ, asking for the growth and healing from sin-sickness, the faith and trust that you need to glorify God with you life. Beseech the Holy Mother to pray for you before Her Son and our God that we may discipline our souls and bodies to be freed from bondage to sin and be empowered to witness more fully to the Way, the Truth, and Life that is the Light of the world, Jesus Christ.
I leave you with the words of St. Gregory Palamas for the Feast, “If we persevere in our prayers, as well as the other virtues, continuing in God’s temple with understanding, we shall find stored up within ourselves that purity of heart, which holds God and manifests Him to us.” I say: May it be so! Christ is in our midst!
Holy Archangels Orthodox Church
Fr. Robert Miclean
Sunday of the Nativity of the Most Holy Theotokos
7 September 2014
Epistles: Gal. 6:11-16; I Cor., 16:13-24
Gospels: John 3:13-17; Matt. 21:33-42
