Dormition 2020

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

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

Glory be forever. Today we celebrate the ancient

and glorious feast day of the falling asleep,

the dormition of the Theotokos, the Virgin Mary,

the Mother of our Lord. This event, of course,

is not recorded in the New Testament. but it's

a very ancient belief that is seen in the sermons

and the writings of the fathers of the church

in the gospel of st luke of course gabriel is

sent to the virgin mary and announces that she

is to become the mother of the messiah the mother

of the redeemer and then mary makes a trip to

see her cousin, Elizabeth. Elizabeth, of course,

who was the mother of John the Baptist. And when

Elizabeth came, or rather when Mary came and

Elizabeth saw her, Elizabeth said, the baby within

my womb leaped for joy. Recognizing, of course,

who it was that was within the womb of his mother's

cousin the stories in early christian literature

about the dormition of the virgin mary have a

have a common idea and that is that when it was

time for the virgin mary to conclude her life

on this earth Then the apostles were miraculously

transported back to Jerusalem to see one last

time the mother of the Savior. Then I'm sure

you know this story. They buried her, and Thomas,

late Thomas, just as he wasn't there at the appearance

of the Lord the night of the resurrection, Thomas

arrives late. And then according to the story

that he said, I want to see once again the face

of the mother of my Savior. So they went and

brought him to the tomb of the Virgin Mary. When

they went inside, her body was not there, only

flowers. That is one reason why, of course, in

some churches, flowers are blessed on August

15th. The liturgical texts make it very clear

the prominence of this feast day and the logic,

if you want to use that word, of the assumption

and dormition of the Virgin Mary. That Mary,

who contained within her womb the uncontainable

God, that when she died, this body, this ark,

this new temple of the presence of the Lord,

would not see corruption. So it is very fitting

that from the earliest days, this was celebrated

as a feast day. I thought of another one. I should

have mentioned it when I talked about when Mary

went to see Elizabeth. After the greeting, Mary

says her beautiful hymn, My soul magnifies the

Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,

which is sung at the matin services in the Orthodox

Church. There is one verse in there, Behold,

henceforth all generations shall call me blessed.

Now I, of course, grew up with this and understood,

basically what it meant, but not a few Protestants

who, as Protestants, when they decided to investigate

the Orthodox Church, one of their struggles was

to see how prominent Mary fits into the worship

of our church. And I remember one especially

who told me that for once, It finally dawned

on him what that means. From now on, all generations

will call me blessed. And indeed, therefore,

the veneration and prayer to the Virgin Mary

is most appropriate. So this is her feast day.

Like for any Christian saint, our real birthday,

we have three birthdays. One, the day we're born,

we celebrate our birthday. Our second birthday

is when we are baptized, born again. And our

third birthday is when we leave this world and

are born into the next. So we have this feast

day of Mary's third birthday, so to speak, when

she enters into the kingdom of heaven. And it

is a feast day of hers, but it is also a feast

day for us. Because the resurrected and glorified

body, which now sits at the right hand of her

son Jesus in the kingdom of heaven, we too, at

the second coming, when Jesus returns in glory

and our bodies, our souls are reunited with our

bodies, that we too will fall asleep in this

world. and enter into eternal life. So Mary,

who is blessed and the mother of the life, remember

each and every one of us and our church in her

prayers today. Amen.