On the Dormition Fr. James Jorgenson

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and

of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Glory be to Jesus Christ.

Glory be to Christ. Fifty or so years ago, when

I was a young and relatively newly ordained priest,

I was the second priest at this large church

in Minneapolis, St. Mary's Cathedral. And the

pastor, a charming gentleman, Russian -born,

would always begin his Holy Day services, his

Holy Day sermon, with the words, Today is an

ancient and glorious feast. Glorious and ancient

feast. And indeed, that is true of all the holy

days of all the special feast days of the church

because these were celebrated for centuries and

they are expressive of the faith that we hold.

Today, of course, is the feast of the Dormition,

the falling asleep, the Assumption of the Blessed

Virgin Mary. You know the story behind this,

that when the apostles were miraculously called

and transported back to Jerusalem to be present

at the death of the Virgin Mary, the one apostle

who was not there, of course, just like when

Jesus appeared in the Gospel. was St. Thomas.

St. Thomas came late and said, I want to look

one more time on the face of the mother of my

Redeemer. They went into Mary's tomb, the body

was not there, and in its place were flowers.

This is the reason why in many churches We place

and bless flowers especially on the Feast of

the Dormition. This story is related in a document

which is called The Assumption of the Virgin

Mary. It claims to be written by the Apostle

St. John, the same one who wrote the gospel story

about when Thomas... was not there the first

time. Realistically, we know that this document

really dates from about the third or fourth century.

And that's quite beside the point in a way because

it relates, it puts in writing the tradition

of the church which had been there all along.

The story about the If you want the miraculous

disappearance, the translation of the body of

the Virgin Mary. I want to share with you this

morning two sermons from the 8th century. One

by St. John of Damascus. who lived at St. Savas

Monastery outside of Jerusalem, and the other

by St. Germanus, Patriarch of Constantinople.

St. John of Damascus is known for a number of

his writings, not only his scriptural commentaries,

but he wrote one of the early textbooks, so to

speak, on the Orthodox faith. appropriately entitled

on the Orthodox faith. And what I always found

fascinating about St. John, he says in his preface,

he says, I do not want to say anything new. And

that's such a different attitude from academic

world nowadays where they want to come up with

new ideas and new theories. But St. John said,

I do not want to say anything new on my own.

And he uses a beautiful analogy. He says, I want

to be like a honeybee, going from flower to flower,

gathering the pure nectar of the theology of

the fathers who have preceded me. Always liked

the way he expressed himself there. St. John,

he's a very powerful preacher, and he very eloquently

expressed in one of his homilies on the Dormition.

And notice how the expressions in these two homilies

that I will share with you, how similar that

is to the liturgical texts that we have, the

Troparion, because this was a very fertile period

in the life of the church when these liturgical

texts were being composed, primarily in the 7th

and 8th century, and St. John of Damascus was

one of the composers of these liturgical texts.

But St. John has this to say. It was necessary

that she who had preserved her virginity inviolate

in childbirth should also have her body kept

free from all corruption after death. Same thing

is said in the Trilparian. In giving birth, you

preserved your virginity. In falling asleep,

you did not forsake the world, O Theotokos. He

goes on to say that it is necessary that she

who had carried the Creator as a child on her

breast should dwell in the tabernacles of God.

Once again paraphrased by the Troparian, For

being the mother of life, you were translated

to life by the one who dwelt in your virginal

womb. The next, the other homily is by St. Germanus,

who was a patriarch of Constantinople in the

mid -8th century. He died about the year 750.

And St. Germanus is noted for his... scriptural

homilies, and also a very fascinating document.

He has a commentary on the divine liturgy. This

book is really interesting for us to read. If

you haven't read it, there's a copy, English

translation available from St. Vladimir's, St.

Vladimir Press, his commentary on the divine

liturgy. And what is so reassuring, in a way,

is that the commentary that he makes on the divine

liturgy and the actions and the words of the

liturgy show that the liturgy we serve today

is virtually the exact same thing as he was talking

about 1300 years ago. And it's worth... seeing

how he explains these different actions and gestures,

the symbolism, et cetera, of the divine liturgy.

But more to the point, what he said about today's

feast day, the Feast of Mary's Dormition. He

said, your virginal body is entirely holy, entirely

chaste. entirely the house of God, because, parenthetically,

Jesus was in her womb. For this reason, yet her

body is henceforth a stranger to decay, a body

changed to a preeminent life of incorruptibility,

a body inviolate and sharing. in the perfection

of life. So this is what we celebrate today.

The translation of Mary from this world to the

next. And as the icons and the shroud illustrate

there, Jesus is in the background and he receives

the soul of the Virgin Mary as a little doll

-like creature. So he receives her into his heavenly

kingdom. For us, the importance of this feast

is not only did Jesus give us the path to eternal

life and to resurrection from the dead, but also

as another sign for us. He, ahead of time, took

the body of the Virgin Mary into the kingdom

of heaven. So for Mary, the bodily resurrection

was taking place earlier than what our bodily

resurrection will take place. And as the liturgical

texts say so fittingly, and the Father's homilies

say appropriately, this is the most fitting thing

that could happen. The body of the mother of

the Savior who held in her womb the Son of God

should not see corruption and decay in the tomb.

She was translated to life by the one who dwelt

in her virginal womb. This feast shows us what

we await when Jesus once again comes in glory

this time, raises all the dead, and brings his

servants with him into the kingdom of heaven,

where we will be with him and with the Virgin

Mary, with all the angels and saints, in the

presence of Almighty God forever and ever. Amen.