During this time of year, we find ourselves juggling many things. It can be exhausting, stressful: Thanksgiving is just past and already we’re bombarded with all the commercial aspects of the Advent and Christmas season.
And in the midst of our busyness, we can quickly succumb to the hectic and often frantic pace of the season: the long lines in the stores, the extra challenges to already bad traffic, and other demands on our time, as well as difficulties paying the bills.
In short, we can find ourselves overwhelmed by all the stress. We forget to pray, to fast, to remember today’s Gospel admonition: the “One thing needed,” Jesus Christ and our life in Him.
All of us become distracted from Christ at times. This is part of working out our salvation. We find ourselves out of sorts because of our failure to prepare for the Feast to come or take the steps of faith we were committed to at the beginning of the Fast or at our last confession. There are plenty of ways that we can lose our focus on Christ, the opportunity for growth in Him, for increase of faith, for healing and salvation.
Martha struggles with this very thing in today’s Gospel. She’s “distracted with much serving.” She’s beyond busy; she even becomes bitter toward her sister when she doesn’t join in her frantic pace. Well, let’s be honest: We’ve all been there. We’ve all been Martha! We convince ourselves that if we just get more done, all will be well. In the process, we take our eyes off of Christ and lose spiritual ground.
But God is merciful. He’s caring for us, loving us: Here, right now, at the beginning of the Nativity Fast, we’re given this Great Feast—The Theotokos has entered the Temple, the Holy of Holies—the leave-taking of which we celebrate this day. God offers us here an opportunity to see His love in action, His mercy poured out on us. We may find ourselves being too busy, too much like Martha. God offers us a way out, a way forward in faith.
Picture this with me: Inside the Temple in Jerusalem, behind the second veil, stands the Holy of Holies. The appointed high priest enters once-a-year to offer the blood sacrifice for his sins and those of all the people. There we find the Ark, overlaid with gold on all sides, adored with the golden Cherubim, which God had Moses fashion. The Ark contains the holiest objects of Jewish veneration and worship, the remembrance of God’s temporal salvation of Israel, which also point towards His future eternal salvation in Christ: the golden pot that held the manna from heaven is there, Aaron’s rod that budded, AND, the tablets of the Covenant.
Now, if God took such great pains to meticulously describe and order the making of the Ark and the Temple, how much more would God care about the preparation of the woman He has chosen throughout all time to contain in her womb the Uncontainable God?
The first Ark in the Holiest of Holies contained the signs of God’s love and mercy bestowed on Israel. The second Ark, Mary, the Theotokos, prepared from the righteous line of Seth, all the way through David, contains in her womb God Himself who made all those holy objects. How much greater is the second ‘ark,’ Mary, than even the first?
Throughout the history of His relationship with Israel, God has been working to bring about our healing from sin-sickness, from the curse of the Fall. He has prepared Israel to come to this point: A Virgin enters the Temple to prepare to be the ‘Ark’ which carries Jesus, the Logos of God, the Messiah, not only for Israel, but for ALL mankind.
Mary, the pure virgin, is the untouched Gate, the means (the gate) through which the Logos (Word), the Creator, came into the world He made. As we hear from this wonderful prophecy of Ezekiel, read in Vespers for the Feast, “The Lord said to me, ‘This gate shall be shut; it shall not be opened, and no man shall enter by it, because the Lord God of Israel has entered by it; therefore it shall be shut. As for the Prince… He may sit in it to eat bread before the Lord; He shall enter by way of the vestibule of the gateway, and go out the same way.’” Mary remains a Virgin, a sign of the miracle that is the Virgin birth, the one unique birth by which as a virgin she conceives, carries, and bears the Word of God made flesh, the Savior, Emmanuel, God with us!
This Truth gives us wings, frees us to see God’s fore-ordained plan for bringing about the redemption, the salvation of the human race, of the miracle of His new life in us! In this Feast, God takes us by the hand to lead us to the Feast of the Incarnation, to Christ’s birth.
The Word is made flesh. Jesus Christ of Nazareth, the new Adam, has entered human nature as man through the Virgin, and has redeemed it, as God. “That which is assumed is healed,” says St. Athanasius. We who put on Christ in Baptism, find this healing through Christ, our Savior as we learn to keep our focus on Christ and grow further up and further in the Life that He is.
Back to us Marthas, knowing Christ is the long-awaited Messiah (Savior), the One born of the Virgin, a woman in the crowd, hearing Christ’s words to Martha, echoes similar words to those of the Archangel Gabriel, “Blessed is the womb that bore you…!”
Yes, we can see through this feast that Mary the Theotokos is more honorable than the cherubim and more glorious beyond compare than the seraphim, having carried Christ, the Life of all, and our eternal life, in her holy womb.
Jesus replies, “more than that (even), blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it.”
Here, today, now, God in His great love and mercy for us, presents us with an opportunity to be blessed, to find healing, salvation: we’re invited to make the most of this holy season of preparation, to deepen our relationship and communion with Christ God. This season, we can refuse our ordinary role of Martha. We can refuse to let the culture dictate how we will celebrate Christmas and for whom, we can do what faithful Orthodox through the ages have always done: we can redeem the time, we can baptize that which the culture, in its fallenness, has twisted.
The answer to the increased secularization and commercialization of Christmas, the Nativity of Christ—where Santa has replaced Christ as the ‘reason for the season’— is not to give in to the Santa-hype, but to keep the Feast, to witness to the truth.
Instead of Santa, we mark the celebration of St. Nicholas on his Feast Day. We teach our children to venerate the real St. Nicholas, who glorifies Christ God rather than the belly. If you celebrate Old Julian Nativity, I encourage you to join us to celebrate New Julian Nativity first. As faithful Orthodox we don’t separate secular ‘Christmas’ from ‘Orthodox’ Christmas. The Church has blessed both. The Church admonishes us to sanctify all of our Nativity celebrations and keep the Feast focused on Christ and His holy Incarnation.
Likewise, we redeem this holy season in our own lives by keeping God’s words, coming outside of ourselves to serve, to witness, to love our neighbors as ourselves. We do this by speaking the Truth in love to those whom God brings our way—by not being ashamed of the counter-cultural Gospel of Christ and His holy Church. We keep God’s words by joining our fasting with increased prayer and alms to the Church and the poor. We do so by struggling and beseeching God for healing over a particular passion or habit of sin-sickness through holy confession.
This Feast is given to us at this time to spur us on: Look at God’s preparations for our salvation! Look at the miracle unfolding before our eyes! Healing in Christ is real! God’s love and redemption is real! God can give us this healing and growth this season too IF we are willing to be more like Mary, more like the Theotokos, if we are willing to keep our focus on “the One thing needed”—our Lord God and Savior, Jesus Christ.
Fr. Robert Miclean
Holy Archangels Orthodox Church
Sunday after the Feast of the Entrance to the Theotokos
25 November 2012
