Entrance of the Theotokos

Fr. Basil Zebrun

On Monday, November 21, Orthodox Christians celebrate one of the Church’s twelve major feasts:  The Entrance of the Theotokos into the Temple.  The historical events connected with this event form part of Sacred Tradition and are described in early non-Scriptural documents and in the hymns of the Church.

According to these sources, when Mary was three years old her parents, Sts. Joachim and Anna, the grandparents of Jesus, sent their daughter to the Temple in fulfillment of a promise made at the time of her conception, that she would be dedicated to the Lord.  Joachim did not want Mary’s departure to be a sad occasion. He, therefore, gathered together young girls from the neighborhood, gave them lit candles or lanterns, and Mary intrigued by the bright lights happily followed them to her new home. She was met at the Temple by Zacharias, the future father of John the Baptist.  There she dwelt until her betrothal to Joseph.

The meaning of this feast can be derived from its title: Mary enters the Temple to become herself the Temple of God.  She enters the Holy Place to become a “living” Holy of Holies (Hopko, Fr. Thomas, The Winter Pascha).  In her womb the Fashioner of all creation will be fashioned.  He will take for Himself a complete humanity, our entire human substance, from Mary.  Everything we are He will become, and the years spent in the Lord’s House prepare the Virgin for her role as Theotokos, the Birth-giver of God.  There she is nourished physically, mentally and spiritually, to become the flower of Old Testament piety. Indeed, Tradition relates that Mary was fed by messengers of God while in the Temple. Sometimes this pious belief is depicted artistically with Mary represented twice in the festal icon:  once in the center, escorted by Joachim, Anna and the young maidens as she enters the Temple; and once in the top, right corner, seated “near the door of the Holy of Holies, where an angel comes to assist her” (Leonid Ouspensky and Vladimir Lossky, The Meaning of Icons).

As the dwelling place of God, Mary typifies humanity.  Her entering the Temple and later her conception of the Messiah, signals an end to a strict identification of God’s House with any man-made structure.  “Man” is now revealed as the true and proper dwelling place of the Almighty.  According to Christian Tradition, “we are all fashioned in God’s image and likeness to be abodes of His presence” (Hopko, Ibid).

“…the Most High does not dwell in houses made with hands…” (Acts 7:48)

The emphasis on man as the abode of God is applied not only to the individual but to the entire people of God.  The Church, for example, is spoken of by St. Paul as, “the fullness of Him Who fills all in all” (Ephesians 1:23), the fullness of God’s life, revealed and shared with His followers.  Mary’s entrance into the Temple is thus an essential reminder and celebration of our own entrance into the Church, through baptism and chrismation, at which time we are offered to God, and reborn of “Water and the Spirit.”

As far as services are concerned, it is significant that “the feast of the Entrance of Mary…marks the first specific liturgical announcement of the birth of Christ” (Hopko, Ibid).  On the eve of this holiday the Nativity canon is sung during Matins, at the Vigil service, and at each subsequent major Vigil until Christmas.  The troparion (main theme song) for the day exclaims why this is:  ‘Mary’s appearance in the Temple is an anticipation of the Messiah’s Advent.’  In Orthodoxy Mary is always contemplated in light of her role as Jesus’ mother.  The liturgical art of the Church bears this out.  Icons of Mary almost always depict the Incarnate Word as well.  Even the most traditional name used for Mary, “Theotokos,” identifies her directly with Christ.  There is no separate cult of Mary in Orthodoxy.  Instead, “Mariology is simply an extension of Christology” for Orthodox Christians (Bishop Kallistos Ware, The Orthodox Church).  So it is, that as we celebrate the Entrance of the Theotokos during Advent we look forward already to the birth of her Son on December 25.

“Today is the prelude of the good will of God, of the preaching of the salvation of mankind.  The Virgin appears in the Temple of God, in anticipation proclaiming Christ to all.  Let us rejoice and sing to her:  Rejoice O Fulfillment, of the Creator’s dispensation.” (Troparion)

In closing we shall quote from Psalm 45, verses that are understood as prophetic utterances directly related to Mary.  They are used ‘extensively in the services of this particular feast and have no doubt provided a great inspiration for the celebration of Mary’s consecration to the service of God in the Temple’ (Hopko, Fr. Thomas, The Orthodox Faith, Volume II).

“Hear, O Daughter, and consider and incline your ear;  forget your people and your father’s house, and the King will desire your beauty.  Since He is your Lord, bow to Him…

“The princess is decked in her chamber with gold-woven robes, in many-colored robes she is led to her King, with her virgin companions, her escort, in her train…

On Being True to Oneself

+ Metropolitan Anthony Bloom

Time and time and again I am asked by people: “What is the Will of God for me now, in the nearest future?”  And I always refuse to speak in God’s own Name, because I believe that all I, or any priest, can do is to stand before God in awe, and say, “Lord, Thou art the Truth, Thou art Life, Thou art also the Way:  teach this person, be to this person the Way, enlighten this person with the truth, and bring him to such plenitude of life as no one can either convey or give.”

And yet there are things which can be done. Each of us is a free man of God, as St. Paul said clearly. He says there was a time when we all were slaves of Satan, slaves of our passions, of our fears, slaves of all the things that press on all sides and do not allow us to be true people. In Christ freedom is granted;  not license, but the freedom to be ourselves, the freedom to grow into the fullness of the stature which God has dreamt for us, to grow into fullness that will make us truly living members of the Body of Christ, partakers of the Divine Nature.
On whatever step of our spiritual development we are, the first thing which is required of us is that we should be true to ourselves: not to try to be anyone except the person we are; not to try to mimic any behavior, to force ourselves into any mould in heart, in mind, in will which could be a lie before God, to ourselves, a deception for others. The first rule is to be true to ourselves; and to be true with all the integrity, all the passion, all the joy of which we are capable. And what does this mean?

Apart from what I said a moment ago, it means that we must find who we are not only socially, but at another level. To do this, we can read the Gospel which is an image of what a true human being is. The Gospel is not a book of commandments, of orders, as it were, given by God, “Do this, and you will be right in My sight” — no:  it is a picture of what a real human being thinks, feels, does and is. Let us look into the Gospel as one looks into a mirror, and we will discover that in so many ways we are a distorted image, but that in a few ways perhaps, we are a true human being already, at least potentially. Let us mark those passages of which we can say, like Luke and Cleophas on the way to Emmaeus: Does not my heart burn within me when I hear, when I read these words? How beautiful they are! How true! That is life!.  And if you find one passage or another to which you respond in this way, rejoice. At that point God has reached you at the deepest level of your being, revealed to you who you truly are; but at the same time He has revealed to you Who He truly is.  He has shown to you that you and He are in harmony; that if you only become what you already, potentially, truly are, you will become (an image) of God; a true undistorted image; at least in one or two things.

Then there is another move:  if we want to be truly ourselves, we must remember that God does not expect us to be what we are not, but what we are. That we can stand before God, and say to Him, “Lord! I have read this and that in the Gospel; I understand it with my mind; I believe in my heart that it must be true; but it does not set my mind aglow, my heart on fire; it does not stir my will, it does not transform me yet. Accept me as I am! I will change, but for the moment I cannot respond to such a commandment, to such an example.” There is a passage so beautiful, to me, in the writings of St. Mark the Ascetic in which he says, “If God stood before you, and said, Do this, and do that — and your heart could not answer ‘Amen’ — then don’t do it; because God does not need your action: He needs your consent, and harmony between Him and you.”

Let us therefore try when we ask ourselves – “where do I already stand?” – in an attempt to find out what the Will of God is for us, not in the absolute, but now. What can I already now be and do, and do it wholeheartedly with God? — because in the end, the aim of our spiritual life, of our life and our faith in Christ does not consist in being drilled into doing one thing rather than the other; it is to establish between God and us a relationship of true friendship, of a joy of mutual freedom, and within this freedom, within this friendship, in response to God’s love, to God’s respect for us, to the faith He has in us, to the hope He has vested in us, and say “This person has understood that he is not a slave, that he is My friend” — and He is our friend. What a joy! And it is a gift of God, which we can give Him as we received it from Him! Amen.