Word XVIII. On the Most Glorious Entry of the Most Holy Mother of God Into the Temple

November 21, 1907.

Let us truly praise Mary, the Maiden of God: for today she is led into the Holy of Holies, to be brought up for the Lord (Exapostilarion of the feast).

Holy Church celebrates today the most glorious entry into the temple of the Most Holy Virgin Mary. This event was foreseen and foreordained by God before all ages—even before the creation of the angelic worlds, before the being of heaven and earth—just as the fall of a third of the angelic world and the fall of the human race were foreseen and permitted by God; for known unto God from eternity, according to the apostle, are all His works (Act 15:18). By the boundless goodness of God, there were called by His word from non-being into being bright, personal, countless angelic minds of various ranks and orders, endowed with wondrous, God-like beauty and immortality; and one of them, who took first place over all, the Day Star, was distinguished among all especially by his great mind, his brightness (whence he was called the Day Star), his power, and his beauty; he was in especially close nearness to God—and this Day Star, having grown proud of himself, of his own perfections, instead of thanking God, from whom he had received all things, grew proud, wished to be equal to God, and to found his own apostate kingdom, drawing after him a third of the angelic world.

Pride blinded him: he remained unbending and unrepentant in his intention, as did those he had led astray, and the goodness of God left him and all who had fallen away with him, and they were wholly transformed into malice, pride, and eternal darkness—they took into themselves a consuming and tormenting fire, an eternal turmoil—and declared war—on whom? On God Himself, and on the rest of the faithful and good angels; and when man was created and subjected to a trial of his faithfulness and obedience to God, the former Day Star, appearing in the form of a serpent to Eve, the first woman, deceived her and her husband, and made them rebels against their Creator and Benefactor. In the persons of our first parents the fall of the whole human race was accomplished.

God is true to Himself, and abides eternally unchangeable in His holiness, righteousness, and goodness; but His creature, once faithful, God-like, and blessed, was willfully transformed into a faithless, cunning, and evil being, and fell away from Him, becoming subject to the righteous wrath of God, to the curse, and to death.

Man was pitiably robbed by the serpent, deprived of his likeness to God, retaining only certain remnants of the image of God, disfigured and pitiable, and became a slave of the devil, subjected to every corruption of sin, especially to idolatry. But even in the fallen human race, among the generations yet to come, great treasures lay hidden—namely, in certain of its future descendants: in Enoch, Shem, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Noah, Moses, Elijah, Elisha, David, and, above all and beyond all others, in the Virgin Mary—all of whom God foresaw from eternity, and whom He chose for the fulfillment of His divine purposes, for the salvation of the human race.

What, then, does the goodness of God do for the salvation of perishing mankind? For its salvation, one of the Persons of the Holy Trinity willed Himself to become Man, to fulfill all the obedience that Adam and Eve and all mankind had failed to render, to fulfill all the righteousness of God, to take upon Himself the sins of men, the curse and death for them, that by His own divine-human death He might crush death, overcome its sting, rise from the dead, and give to all resurrection and eternal life. Wondrous are the works of Your dispensation, O Lord, our Savior!

And so, in the eternal counsel of God, it was determined that the Son of God Himself should become man, without ceasing to be God, and should accomplish the will of His Father for the salvation of the human race. — But who could serve as the instrument of this incarnation? All men were sinful, and the All-Righteous One could not be born of the sinful. What fellowship has light with darkness, righteousness with lawlessness? (2Cor 6:14).

The incarnation is accomplished in a manner above nature, for where God wills it, there even the order of nature is overcome. By the will of God the Father, for the incarnation of the Son of God there is chosen a pure Virgin, purified beforehand by the Holy Spirit; She is brought up from infancy in the Holy of Holies of the temple, and, on reaching maturity, there is sent to Her the bodiless herald, the holy Archangel, to announce to Her the conception, in Her virgin womb, by the overshadowing of the Holy Spirit, of God the Son of God, according to His human nature. The holy Virgin faithfully and obediently received the annunciation—and in Her the Son of God was conceived, and, when the time of Her pregnancy was fulfilled, was born of Her as a divine Infant, subject to the ordinary law of human growth.

Here, then, is the miracle of miracles of God, the greatest of all, incomprehensible, saving, and at the same time fearsome mystery of the incarnation of God the Word, who by His own Word to this day continues to form the human race.

This is why, out of all generations, a pure Virgin was chosen, solemnly led into the temple as a three-year-old maiden, and there brought up by the Holy Spirit to become the Mother and dwelling-place of God the Word.

Rejoice, faithful Christian race, at such condescension of God toward the fallen human race. Celebrate, all of you, with a pure heart, the Entry of the Mother of God into the temple, and with lips and heart praise and exalt the Mother of God, the Intercessor of faithful Christians and our Advocate before Her Son and God.

Be faithful to the Church of God, and be brought up spiritually in the temple of God, for the heavenly kingdom. Hate sin, which has been and remains the cause of temporal and eternal ruin, and do righteousness and holiness in the fear of God. (2Cor 7:1). Amen.