Sermons & Homilies
Could it be that all of this was the result of the neglect shown to an Icon of the Mother of God? What historian could ever make such a claim and find his work published, taken seriously by the academic community. And yet it’s just such a conclusion that today’s feast invites us to draw. It forces us to look at the fate of nations not with the eyes of the historian but with the eyes of faith.
We must take an example from St. Symeon who waited so long in faith. This was an active waiting. It was a daily trial. He had plenty of time to doubt the prophecy. He had plenty of time to give up. He had plenty of time to forget what he was still living for. He had plenty of time to bury himself in mindless worldly consolations, distractions, and preoccupations. However, he kept faith. This was not easy. This was not automatic. There is so much hidden within one line of the Scripture which simply states that he would not die until he saw the Lord’s Christ.
How do we sum up a life? How do we encapsulate a person’s whole being into a few words? Often, we are at a loss at a funeral to fully depict the life of the person being commemorated. We try our best with anecdotes, with words of advice that have stuck with us. And so it is fitting today, when we celebrate not the death, but the passing over from death to Life of the Most Holy Theotokos, to find a way to sum up her life. I would offer her own words, the words she gave in response to the Archangel Gabriel at the Annunciation, as perhaps the most succinct and perfect summation of the life of our Panagia.
It is through the Theotokos that we come to know Christ. The Invisible One became visible through her alone. The Unknowable became knowable through her alone. The Intangible became touchable through her alone. The Silent became audible through her alone. This is how He desired it. This is how He designed it. This is how He has loved to make it be.
