The Queen of Heaven is Born!

 There are none of the Major Feasts that can be separated from the others, for the fullness of our salvation as it is worked by God is revealed in them as a total and complete work.  There is no Resurrection without the Lord’s birth.  There is no ministry without His Theophany.  There is no humanity associated with the God-Man Jesus without His flesh being ‘woven’ from the flesh of His Mother.  And so literally every one of the Twelve Major Feasts of the Church is part of a tapestry, completing the image of our salvation gifted to humanity through the love of the Holy Trinity for God’s crowning of creation—humanity.

In beginning the Church year with today’s Feast, the Church reveals to us the importance of the Mother of God in that complete plan of salvation. 

Today God, Who rests upon spiritual thrones, has prepared for Himself a holy throne on earth.  He, Who in wisdom established the heavens, has fashioned a living heaven in His love for mankind; for, from a barren root He has made a life-bearing branch spring up for us, even His Mother.  O God of wonders and Hope of the hopeless, O Lord, glory to You!

It is with these words that we usher in our praise of God’s love for us through the Nativity of the Theotokos.  Within this one short hymn we hear how the Church refers to Her with loving and reverent words, giving Her names beyond those used for people.  In this one hymn we call Her “a living heaven” and “a life-bearing branch.” 

When we sing of and to Her in the context of an Akathist, we give Her other names.  Therein we call Her “Heavenly ladder, bridge from earth to heaven, wonder of angels, wound of demons, cornland yielding a rich crop of mercies, torment of invisible enemies, opening of the gates of Paradise, shelter of the world, sustenance that replaces manna, tree of shining fruit, container of the Uncontainable, all-holy chariot of Him Who sits on the Cherubim.”  All of these ignore the names we most often ascribe to Her, “More honorable than the Cherubim, and more glorious beyond compare than the Seraphim.”  And the supreme of names we ascribe to Her must also be given note—Theotokos, Mother of God!

We must pray these names, but in the process we must never let them pass in prayer without pondering their incredible meaning.  And this is demonstrated in the words of our Lord Himself.  As He was teaching the multitudes about Saint John the Forerunner, He said, “Assuredly I say to you, among those born of women there has not risen one greater than John the Baptist; but he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.” (Mat 11:11)  Our Lord is not diminishing the greatness of the Forerunner, but in a veiled way He is pointing to His Mother—SHE is “the least in the kingdom of heaven.”  Her humility can’t be overestimated. 

How do we know this?  At the wedding in Cana, She knows—even before He begins His ministry—His authority over nature, and so she tells the Lord, “They have no wine.”  It is not even a request.  It is just a statement of fact, and one that in Her heart She knows the Lord cannot ignore.  And so even after a verbal rebuff, Jesus answers Her prayer.

But the supreme view of humility is at the foot of the Cross.  Knowing Her Son to be God in the flesh, She watches—without saying a word.  She takes note of His suffering, His words, His death.  Knowing Him to be the Son of God, She stands and allows His will to be done.  She knows that if He chose to do so, He could call the angels and be delivered.  But She keeps silent.

Today, this Woman herself is borne from the body a a woman barren until old age.  Let us praise Her birth, pay homage to Her godly parents Joachim and Anna, and praise God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, for working our salvation through one of us, through a sinless child who will grow up in the Temple, and who in turn will freely accept God’s will in her own life by giving Him her flesh!

The Greatest Born of Woman

 There are three people whom the Holy Orthodox Church remembers on three occasions each during the Liturgical year.  Those occasions are their conception, their nativity, and their death.  These three are first our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ (conception on 25Mar, birth on 25Dec, and death on Holy Friday), the Theotokos (conception on 09Dec, birth on 08Sep, and death or Dormition on 15Aug), and Saint John the Forerunner (conception on 23Sep, birth on 24Jun, and death on 29Aug).

Within these three, the time from conception to birth varies, with that of our Lord being the “perfect” nine months, that of the Theotokos being nine months less one day, and that of the Forerunner being nine months plus one day.  Holy Tradition holds that this indicates the humanity of both mother and Forerunner, and the divinity of the Lord. 

As we commemorate this Feast, we remember that Saint John is described as both prophet and Forerunner, with the later usually capitalized, indicating something indeed very special about the mission of this man.  While John indeed filled the mission of being a prophet, foretelling all that would come in our Lord’s ministry, in doing this, and in preparing the nation of Israel for repentance through his baptism of water, his purpose was to prepare the way of our Lord, to soften the hearts of the people to be receptive to the Lord’s message of repentance, but more than this, one of forgiveness, one of love, one of God with us!

We tend to think of Pentecost as the day upon which the Holy Spirit appeared in the world, but within the Gospel of Saint Luke is recorded the conversation of the angel with Zachariah, the father of John, foretelling that John would be “filled with the Holy Spirit.” 

In the Gospel of Saint Matthew (11:11), our Lord says of Saint John, “Assuredly, I say to you, among those born of women there has not risen one greater than John the Baptist.”  Our Lord’s praise of His servant is not just related to the number of people whom John turned from their wicked ways by his preaching, or by his baptisms.  It is also related to the prayers offered by Saint John for the people who came to him in repentance, prayers for the life of the world and of the faithful who would come to follow Christ.  And it is related to his being so filled with the Holy Spirit .  There are those who question whether, when John sent his own disciples to our Lord as he was imprisoned to ask Him, “Are You the Coming One, or do we look for another?”, (Mat 11:3), he did so doubting that Jesus was the Messiah.  But the Holy Fathers teach that this is not the case.  Rather, John sent his disciples to Jesus with this question so that they might hear from the Lord’s own mouth His mighty works.  In so doing, Jesus teaches lovingly the disciples of John that they need to break from their master and follow Him.  In Saint John’s words, “He must increase, but I must decrease.” (John 3:30)

Immediately before this, John bears bold witness to those who try to sew dissent by saying, “A man can receive nothing unless it has been given to him from heaven.  You yourselves bear me witness, that I said, ‘I am not the Christ,’ but rather, ‘I have been sent before Him.’  He who has the bride is the Bridegroom; but the friend of the Bridegroom , who stands and hears Him, rejoices greatly because of the Bridegroom’s voice.  Therefore this joy of mine is fulfilled.” (John 3:27-29)

In the life of Saint John, the joy of the Church is fulfilled, for he truly is the greatest born of woman.

Learning to Forget

 My personal library is filled with books.  Most of them I’ve read cover to cover.  Some of them are used as reference books to look up writings of those superior to me in wisdom, in spirit, and in general people (saints) who are beacons, lighting the way when I allow myself to get bogged down in the world around me.

Of all the books I’ve read, I remember so very little about what was written.

Take for example the writings of Saint Herman.  All of us remember his words depicted on his icon:  Let us make a vow to ourselves, that from this day, from this hour, from this very moment, we shall strive above all else to love God and to fulfill His Holy Will!  Easy, right?

We have no trouble remembering things that “click” in our minds.  Something that grabs our attention and holds on, won’t let go.  But others are all too easily forgotten.

In today’s Gospel, our Lord is directing us not to remember, but to forget!  Jesus today gifts to us the parable of the man who owed ten thousand talents.  Within the parable we find the Master calling for the man to “pay up”!  And the man pleads with the Master, not to forgive the debt, but to be patient, to give him time, and if the Master will do so he promises I will pay you all.

The Master is infinitely wise.  He knows such a repayment is not possible.  But the Master is full of compassion, and so he does not extend the clock, he instead forgives the entire debt!

There is certainly more to the parable in terms of spiritually profitable content.  But I ask the reader to pause here, and to ponder this issue of such a massive debt being forgiven.

We all understand that the Master in the parable is God.  Buried in the teaching offered by our Lord is the message that when God forgives a debt, He no longer remembers it.

Now let’s merge the two natures of the word ‘debt’ and come to understand what Jesus is really teaching us.

We say the Lord’s Prayer multiple times each day.  In our use locally, we say forgive us our trespasses.  The more technically correct wording is forgive us our debts, for a ‘trespass’ is indicative of sin, and a sin is a debt to God.

And so God is shown in the parable to be forgiving of our debts, our sins.  And like the great debt of 10,000 talents which He forgave, He ‘forgot’, He in like manner forgets our sins – when we are faithful to confess them.

We started with a focus on reading, noting how easy it is to forget the content of something we’ve just read.  And we noted that our memory is ‘keyed’ to things that “click” in our minds.  One such thing is when someone does something to harm us.  Forgiving becomes difficult, doesn’t it?  Why?  Because we’re not willing to truly forgive, which means that we must truly forget! 

Jesus ends today’s parable with a stern warning.  So My heavenly Father also will do to you if each of you, from his heart, does not forgive his brother his trespasses.  Understand that in the parable, do to you points back to the Master being angry, and His delivering the servant to the torturers.

Let us all learn to forgive – and to forget!!!