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!
