Word VI. On the Most Glorious Dormition of the Most Holy Mother of God

August 15, 1907.

Let us sing the praises of Mary, the Virgin, universal glory sprung from mankind and who bore the Master, the gate of heaven, the song of the bodiless hosts and the adornment (glorification) of the faithful; for she has been shown to be heaven and the temple of the Godhead (First-Tone Dogmatikon).

Thus the great hymnographer of the Church, the golden-tongued Damascene, glorifies the Most Holy Virgin Mother of God, whose all-venerable Dormition we solemnly call to mind and glorify today. Let us, as it were, with joy and reverence, glorify this Virgin and Mother, sprung from the human race and who gave birth to God incarnate: for She has become heaven and the temple of the Godhead.

We celebrate today Her honorable falling asleep. There came the foreordained end of Her earthly, much-suffering life, and She slept for three days a death that was also a life-bearing sleep. It could then be said of Her: the Maiden has not died, but sleeps. — Yes, She rested for three days, as did Christ God, Her Son, and on the third day was raised and lifted up in glory into heaven, to reign together with Her Son, forever without end. O most blessed lot! O endless joy! It is fitting and right. For it would seem that She, the Most Pure One, should only rejoice on earth, as one who had no sin; yet Her whole life She suffered for Her Only-Begotten Son, Her whole life She feared for Him, because of the multitude of His enemies—kings, and rulers, and the falsely so-called learned, and soldiers, men cunning, flattering, envious, greedy for silver. But now, at last, the earthly life of the God-Man came to its end; after His sufferings and death, the Crucified One rose; His eternal glory began. He is seated, according to His humanity also, at the right hand of God the Father. But for His Mother the time of glory had not yet come; She was left still to live on earth, in the house of the Apostle John, given to Her as a son, and to be a witness of the wondrous successes of the Christian faith and its all-saving power among believing people. She fell asleep in old age. And how, how glorious was Her falling asleep! With what light did Her most pure Face shine! What a wondrous, indescribable, incomparable fragrance came from Her most pure, ever-virgin body, as St. Dionysius the Areopagite writes, who was present at Her burial! What sweet, angelic singing was heard by the faithful! How divinely inspired was the glorification of Her falling asleep, especially by the holy hieromartyr Hierotheus, disciple of the apostles! A glorious end to the Ever-Virgin’s glorious earthly life!

Why does Holy Church every year call to mind and celebrate the greatest events of the Christian world—the Annunciation, the Nativity of Christ, the Baptism, the Meeting of the Lord, the Entry into Jerusalem, Pascha, the Ascension, Pentecost, the Dormition of the Mother of God, and so forth? In order to kindle and confirm our faith, our Christian hope, our gratitude and love toward God and the Mother of God, our unashamed Intercessor before God; that we may remember and not forget our heavenly fatherland, and not become attached to this present life, which is only preparatory and instructive, temporary and transitory.

If there were no such Christian feasts, Christians would forget that they are indeed Christians, called to a heavenly fatherland; they would not know why they live in the world, why they were enrolled in Christian society, in the Church of God; what the purpose of their life is, why they must believe in Christ and who Christ is, why they must believe in the Holy Trinity and who the Holy Trinity is! Many uninstructed people indeed do not know who Christ is, who the Trinity is, who the Mother of God is! They would not know why they must pray to God, must partake of the holy Mysteries of Christ! The feasts of the Church explain all this to the people, if they attend the services—and inform them concerning God’s providence over us, teaching us to love and thank God, to repent of our sins, and always to keep in view the future life in heaven, which has no end, and to prepare for it, according to the word of the Apostle: our citizenship is in heaven, from where we also await the Savior, our Lord Jesus Christ (Phil 3:20).

Let us, then, celebrate the Dormition of the Mother of God spiritually, ourselves too earnestly preparing for our own passage from this present, temporary life, vanishing like a dream, to the life to come, promised to all faithful Christians by the unfailing and firm word of God. Most Holy Mother of God, save us! Amen.