Nativity of the Theotokos Fr. Lawrence Margitich

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

of the Holy Spirit, I greet you, brothers and

sisters, those here, the few that are here, and

those who are at home. I greet you with the joy

of the feast. The end of summer approaches, although

the days are not getting any cooler, the skies

are not getting any clearer, and probably won't

for a bit. We all had expectations for September,

probably for August, July, and June, too. Certainly

expectations for the end of summer, the beginning

of the school year. The beginning of so many

activities in our society. Those expectations

have not come to pass. Maybe they're more serious,

personal expectations and hopes that did not

come to pass. Maybe there were prayers that were

not answered. They were said over and over again.

And you felt God did not respond. But our life

is charged with God's grace. He always responds,

just not in the way we expect him sometimes.

The end of August is also not just the end of

summertime activities. It's the end of the church

year. The Dormition of the Theotokos, which you

see depicted as you leave the church, just passed,

that feast just passed, the beheading of St.

John the Baptist, that feast just passed. They're

glorious, yes, glorious reminders of our own

death, death as Christians who await, who look

for, anticipate. Yes, and desire, desire the

coming of Christ in glory and our own glorification

into a mortal life at the resurrection. That's

how the church year relates to us at the end.

And September is not just the beginning of the

school year and activities that aren't going

to happen as normal, but it's the beginning of

the church year. And those... That grace, that

will always come. Nothing in this world can stop

that. So today is a pivotal day. Yes, I use the

word pivotal. A pivot is when you can push off

on one foot and go forward, like a skier or a

basketball player, using the body to accomplish

what he or she wants. Today is pivotal. If we

allow. Father Seraphim, I think his name is Father

Seraphim, he's the abbot of the Monastery of

the Holy Cross in West Virginia. He describes

the liturgical new year by saying that our life

is mystically orchestrated and harmonized with

the church's calendar. And we're greeted today.

We're greeted. Today, with the first feast of

the church new year, the nativity, the birthday

of the mother of our life and salvation, she

is the hymn, say, the beginning of our beginning.

She is the birth giver of the birthless one.

She is the cause of our cause, the beginning

of the beginningless one. At any feast, The church

is inviting us to consider that we are not spectators.

We're not just listeners to events that happen

historically, but are kind of far from us. How

are we to be participants? What is the key? The

liturgy, the vigils, the grace of God, Christ.

who considered not robbery to be equal to the

Father, made himself the same as us. He became

incarnate and he entered into this world. He

became a man. He became a servant. And the death

on the cross and the resurrection and the ascension

into heaven, because we are given the Holy Spirit,

enliven us and make those events, even the birth

of the Virgin Mary, have grace that reaches out

to anyone who reaches out to Christ. It is a

reality. It's not a footnote in a historical

book. There's power. There's meaning. There's

relevance of that thing that happened. which

is always happening to those who come to Christ,

who are being reborn by him and his power. They

don't have a use -by date. Nativity, Pascha,

Pentecost, Ascension, Annunciation, yes, the

birthday of the Virgin Mary, today's feast, are

all initiated by God, part of his providence,

and very importantly, very importantly, received

and welcomed and sought. by those like us, human

beings, who want to know God, who are illumined

by the knowledge of the Lord's incarnation. This

invitation today, the Nativity of the Theotokos,

is about a birthday. The birthday is the beginning.

We begin the church year with the birthday. And

we might, because of this feast day, we might

have a new beginning too. A renewal in our faith,

a rebirth, if you will. But in order for us to

experience that rebirth, we need to be reminded

about two things. That we need to begin again.

We need it. We need. We have an inner sense.

And secondly, when we experience failure, when

it seems that God does not answer our prayers,

we again need to be reminded to know that God,

with God, all things are possible and that we

can be renewed. Sarah, the old lady, conceives

and bears a child. Hannah, the one unable to

bear a child, conceives and bears Samuel, the

prophet. Elizabeth, in her old age, receives

grace from God, conceives and bears John the

Baptist. Joachim and Anna, shamed by years because

of the society and the culture, years of infertility,

barrenness. God answers their prayers. You know

the story. I'm not going to go through it right

now. The first thing of the two things that this

feast reminds us of is our need for rebirth.

It may be that we are distracted. By the blessings,

the material blessings, the good things that

God sends us in this world. And we place them

between God and us. We forget about God a little

bit. He takes the back seat to the gifts he gives

us. I'm not even talking about outright sin.

That does something else to us. We forget that

we need to be reborn, renewed, revivified. If

we don't have that feeling, perhaps our faith

is just one of ethics and morals in which we

try to be a good person, which we should be,

keeping the commandments. But we know that Christ

asks us to be holy, to be holy as our Heavenly

Father is holy. To be good is possible even without

God's direct help. But to be holy, to be as we

were created to be by him, reborn comes only

from Christ. And so we need to discover that

need for that holiness. And the second thing,

the second thing, we may have experienced such

loss and difficulties. struggling for nothing,

it seems, and we're broken, worn down, loss of

hope. Many around us are experiencing that. Then

despondency comes from that fruitless, apparently

fruitless struggle. What good can come when we

discover that is keeping us? Then we think of

this feast day. We enter into it. The pure, the

virtuous, the holy Joachim and Anna who wanted

children prayed and prayed. Barren, no good.

Dried up, hardened, cold, lifeless is what they

felt. What good could come? But God's gaze, his

love, his providence is upon them. And it's upon

us. God guides us. He hears us. He reaches us,

towards us, continually. Let me finish with these

words of the Abbot Ephraim from the monastery

of Vatopedi on Mount Athos, where I was last

year about this time. These are words that the

Elder Ephraim spoke at the Thrapisa. at the lunch

after the service. Joachim and Anna nourished

the hope, which does not bring shame. They had

great persistence in their prayers, and they

felt sure that God would fulfill their respect,

their request. And it was not as though they

bore their lack of a child for any short time.

Tradition tells us that Anna conceived the mother

of God after 50 years of sterility. We often

despair or become displeased with our struggle

and say we have not had a response, that God

has not heard us. We have no sense of grace.

We are distressed. What's needed is patience,

says the elder, patience in sorrows. Not patience

to overcome the sorrows, but patience in sorrows.

Faith, patience and faith in the promises of

God. What is faith? It's not trying harder to

believe what you think the Bible says and the

church teaches. Faith is the action of those

commandments in our life. To keep walking on

the way, no matter what. That's faith. And learning

from what we read in the scriptures and the tradition

of the teaching of the church, that it is true.

That's faith. Trust in God. The elder says, it

was not as though they bared their lack of a

child for any short time. We often become displeased.

We have no sense of grace. We are distressed.

What's needed is patience and sorrow, faith in

the promises of God, perfect obedience to God's

will and hope. Not to lose heart in our prayers.

God knows when it's in our interest to give us

his inexpressible, inconceivable, and invaluable

glorifying gifts. His divine grace as a resident

condition. Spiritual things come by themselves,

says Abba Isaiah. We don't arrange them as and

when we want. And the elder finishes with these

words. We pray that Our Lady, the Mother of God,

and the Foremother of God, who have the blessing

of curing physical sterility, will cure our hearts,

which are barren of spiritual works, so that

God will send to our souls His divine and most

sweet grace, which adorns, renews, and immortalizes

people. making them incorrupt, that is, as saints.

Most holy Theotokos, save us.