“And you shall bear a son,” he said, “and shall call his
name Jesus.” (Lk 1:31) “Jesus” means “savior”: “for he will
save his people from their transgressions.” (Lk I :34) What did
the treasury of true wisdom reply to this? She did not imitate Eve, her mother, but rather made good Eve’s lack of caution,
using nature as her protection; so she spoke out thus in response to the angel’s word: “How shall this happen to me,
since I do not know a man?” (Lk 1:35) “You are speaking of
the impossible,” she tells him. “Your words break the boundaries of nature, which he who formed nature established. I will
not let myself act as a second Eve and overturn the will of the
Creator. If you are not speaking godless things, tell me the
manner of this conception, and put an end to my difficulty.”
And the messenger of truth replied, “The Holy Spirit will
come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore the holy one to be born of you shall be
called Son of God (Lk 1:36). What is now being achieved is
not subject to the laws of nature, for the Creator is also lord of
nature, and it is in his power to change nature’s boundaries.”
And she, hearing with holy reverence the name she always
yearned for and revered, uttered her obedient answer in words
full of fear and joy: “Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it
done to me according to your word” (Lk 1:38).
“O depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of
God,” I, too, wish now to say with the Apostle; “how incomprehensible his judgments, and how unsearchable his ways!”
(Rom 10:33f.) O boundless goodness of God! O love that has
no explanation! He who calls what is not into being (cf. Rom
4:17), who fills heaven and earth (cf. Jer 23:24), for whom
heaven is a throne and earth a footstool (cf. Is 66:1), has made
the womb of his own servant his ample dwelling-place, and
accomplishes in her the mystery newer than all that is new. Being God, he becomes a human being; in a supernatural way, he
is brought into the world at the time of his birth, and opens the
womb without damaging the closed portal of virginity. He,
“the shining-forth of the Father’s glory, the stamped impression of his reality, who sets all things in motion by the word of his mouth” (Heb 1:3), is carried as an infant in earthly arms. O truly divine wonders! O mysteries above nature and understanding! O virginal boasts that outstrip the human condition!
What is this great mystery about you, O holy mother and
virgin? “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the
fruit of your womb.” (Lk 1:28 [var.], 42) Blessed are you for
generations of generations; you alone are worthy to be called
blessed. Behold, all generations do call you blessed, as you
have said (Lk 1:48). The daughters of Jerusalem (Cant
6:8) – that is, the Church’s daughters – saw you, and the royal
princesses – the souls of the just – proclaimed you blessed and
will praise you for all ages.
You are the royal throne, around which angels stand (cf. Is
6:1), to see their Lord and creator seated upon it. You are
called the spiritual Eden, holier and more divine than that of
old; for in the former Eden the earthly Adam dwelt, but in you
the Lord from heaven. The ark prefigured you (cf. Gen 6:14),
in that it guarded the seeds of a second world; for you gave
birth to Christ, the world’s salvation, who overwhelmed sin and calmed its waves. The burning bush was a
portrait of you in advance (cf. Ex 3:2); the tablets written by
God described you (cf. Ex 32:15f.); the ark of the law told your
story (cf. Ex 25:10); the golden um (cf. Ex 16:33) and candelabrum and table (cf. Ex 25:23, 31), the rod of Aaron that had
blossomed (cf. Num 17:23) – all clearly were foreshadowings
[of you]. For from you issued the flame of divinity, the self-definition and Word of the Father, the sweet heavenly manna,
the nameless “name that is above every name” (Phil 2:9), the
eternal and inaccessible light, the heavenly “bread of life” (Jn
6:48), the uncultivated fruit that grew bodily to maturity from
you. Did not the furnace point to you, whose fire was at once
dew and flame (cf. Dan 3:49f.), a type of the divine fire that
dwelt within you? The tent of Abraham, too, quite obviously signified you (cf. Gen 18:6); for human nature brought to God
the Word, still dwelling in the tent of your womb, its own firstfruits taken from your pure blood, as bread hidden in the ashes:
bread shaped and baked by the divine fire, humanity existing
within its own divine individuality and finally reaching the true
existence of a body animated by a reasonable and an intelligent
soul. And I almost forgot Jacob’ s ladder (cf. Gen 28:12)! What,
then? Is it not obvious to everyone that it too is an anticipation
and a type of you? Just as Jacob saw that ladder joining heaven
and earth by its two ends, so that angels could go up and down
on it, and just as he saw the strong and unconquerable one symbolically struggling with him, so you, too, are an intermediary;
you have joined distant extremes together, and have become the
ladder for God’s descent to us-the God who has taken up our
weak material and has woven it into a unity with himself, making the human person a mind that sees God (cf. Gen 32:31). Therefore angels came down to Christ, worshipping their God
and master; and human beings have taken on the angelic way of
life, in order to lay hold of heaven.
Where shall I put the testimony of the prophets? Do they
not refer to you, if we wish to show their true meaning? What,
after all, was that fleece of David (cf. Ps 71:6 [LXX]; Jg 6:36-40), on which the Son of that God who is king over all things
came down like rain-the Son who is also without beginning
and who reigns with the one who begot him? Was it not you,
most obviously? Who was the virgin whom Isaiah, in his vision of the future, predicted would conceive in her womb, and
bear as a son, the one who is “God with us” (Is 7:14): that is,
the one who would remain God after becoming human? What
was Daniel’s mountain, from which Christ, the cornerstone,
was cut without the use of a human instrument (cf. Dan 2:34,
45)? Was it not you, who gave birth without human seed, and
continued to remain a virgin? Let the divine Ezekiel come forward and show us the locked gate, passable to the Lord but
never opened, which he proclaimed in prophecy (cf. Ezek
44:1f.). Let him point to the fulfillment of his words. Surely he
will point to you, through whom came the God who is above
all – a gate of virginity he did not open when he took flesh. For
truly the seal remains eternally unbroken!
The prophets, then, proclaim you. The angels serve you,
the apostles revere you, the virginal mouthpiece of God [St John the Evangelist] takes
care of the ever-virgin who was Mother of God. Today the
angels minister to you as you go home to your Son, joined by
the souls of the just, of patriarchs and prophets. The Apostles
are your escort, with a countless throng of inspired Fathers
gathered from the ends of the earth as in a cloud, by your Son’s
divine command, in this holy and sacred city, Jerusalem. In
their godly enthusiasm, they sing holy hymns to you, the
source of the Lord’s body that is for us a stream of life:
“Oh, see how the source of life is carried over into life,
through the midst of death! See how the one who overcame the
defining limits of nature in her childbearing now gives way to
those same limits, and submits her unsullied body to death! It
was only right for that body to ‘lay aside what is mortal and put
on immortality’ (1 Cor 15:53), since the Lord of nature himself did not refuse the test of death. He died in the flesh, and by
that death destroyed death, bestowed incorruptibility on corrupt nature, and made death the source of resurrection. See
how the maker of all things receives into his own hands her
holy soul, now separated from that tabernacle that received
God. He rightly honors her who was by nature his handmaid,
but whom by his saving plan he made to be his mother, in the
unfathomable ocean of his love for humanity. For he truly became flesh, and did not feign his incarnation!”
They saw, we are told, the ranks of angels awaiting your departure from this world of human life. O lovely emigration, which was for you a migration to God! For
even if this is granted by God to all who are inspired to serve
him – and it is granted to them all, we believe – still there is an
infinite difference between God’s servants and his mother. What, then, shall we call this mystery concerning you? Death?
But even though your holy and blessed soul was separated from
your privileged, immaculate body, and your body was committed to burial, as custom demanded, still it did not remain in
death, nor was it dissolved by corruption. For she whose virginity remained undamaged in childbirth also kept her body undamaged in her passage through death. She was brought over to
“a better and more divine tent” (cf. Heb 9:11) that is not cut
down by death, but endures always, for endless ages of ages.
For just as the all-bright, ever-shining sun, when it is hidden for
a while by the body of the moon, seems in a way to fail and to be
covered in darkness, accepting shadow in place of light, yet
nonetheless never ceases to produce its own light-for it has
welling up within itself an ever-flowing fountain of light, or
rather is itself an inexhaustible fountain of light, as the God who
created it has ordained – so you, too, the ever-flowing fountain
of true light, the inexhaustible treasure of life itself, the abundant spring of blessing, the cause and sponsor for us of all good
things, even if your body is hidden for a short space of time in
death, still you pour forth light for us in a generous and endless
stream: immortal life, unceasing, pure and inexhaustible waves
of true blessedness, rivers of grace, springs of healing, blessings
without end. “You are like an apple tree growing in the midst of
the deep woods” (Cant 2:7), and your fruit is sweet in the
mouths of the faithful. Therefore I will not call your holy passing from this world a death, but rather a falling-asleep, a parting, or-more properly speaking-a homecoming. For when
you parted from the things of the body, you went to make your
dwelling among greater things.
The angels and archangels carried you there. The unclean spirits of mid-air trembled at your departure. The air was
blessed by your passing through it, the aether of the upper regions was sanctified. Heaven received your soul with joy. The
powers [of heaven] met you with holy hymns and splendid ceremony, crying out words such as these: “’Who is this who ascends, robed all in white’ (Cant 8:5), ‘spreading over us like the
dawn, beautiful as the moon, singular as the sun’ (Cant 6:10)?
How beautiful you are, how sweet! ‘You are the flower of the
plain, like a lily among thorns’ (Cant 2:1f.)! ‘Therefore the
young maidens love you-we rush towards the fragrance of
your myrrh’ (Cant 1:3f.). ‘The king bears you into his chamber’
(ibid.), where the powers accompany you in procession, the
principalities sing your blessings, the thrones praise you, the
cherubim are struck dumb with joy, the seraphim praise you, for
you are called, by nature and by God’s own plan, the mother of
their Lord. You have not simply gone up into the heavens like
Elijah (see 2 Kg 2:11 [LXX]), nor have you simply been transported, like Paul, to the third heaven (see 2 Cor 12:2). You have
gone on to the very royal throne of your Son, where you see him
with your own eyes and rejoice; you stand beside him in great,
indescribable freedom (cf. Ps 44:10 [LXX]; Heb 4:16; 9:12;
10:19-35). For the angels and for all the powers that exist
above this world, you are ineffable gladness; for the patriarchs, endless happiness; for the just, unutterable joy; for the
prophets, continual exaltation. You are a blessing for the
world, sanctification for all things, rest for the weary, consolation for the grieving, healing for the sick, a harbor for the
storm-tossed, forgiveness for sinners, friendly encouragement
for the sorrowing, ready help for all who call on you.”
O wonder truly above nature! O amazing event! Death,
long seen as revolting and hateful, is now praised and called
blessed. Long known as the bearer of sadness and depression, of tears and melancholy, it is now revealed as the cause of joy
and celebration. So it is, if for all God’s servants, whose death
is now called blessed, the ends of their lives give sure proof
that they have found God’s favor – if their death is called
blessed for this reason! Death brings them to fulfillment and
shows them to be blessed by making their goodness unchanging; as the proverb puts it, “Do not call a person blessed before
his death” (Sir 11:28).
But we do not understand this as applying to you. Blessedness was yours – not death! Your passing was not your arrival at
perfection, nor did your departure bestow security on you. For to
you the beginning, middle and end of all the good things that
are beyond our minds, their security and true confirmation, was
your conceiving without male seed, God’s dwelling in you, your
childbearing without damage to your virginity. So you truly
predicted that you would be called blessed by all generations, not
from the moment of death but from the very moment of that conception (Lk 1:48). Therefore death has not made you blessed, but
you have yourself made death glorious; you have destroyed its
horror and shown death to be a joy.
And so your holy, spotless body is committed to a reverent
burial, as angels go before you and stand around you and follow after, doing all the things by which it is fitting to serve the
mother of their Lord. The Apostles, too, are there, and all the
full membership of the Church, crying out divine hymns to the
music of the harp of the Spirit, and singing: “We shall be filled
with the riches of your house; holy is your temple, wonderful
because of [God’s] salvation” (Ps 64:5 [LXX]); and again,
“The Most High has made his tabernacle holy” (Ps 45:5
[LXX]), and “God’s mountain is a mountain of plenty, the
mountain where God is pleased to dwell” (Ps 67:16f. [LXX]).
The company of Apostles lift you up on their shoulders, the
true ark of the Lord God, as once the priests lifted up the typological ark that pointed the way to you; placing you in the
tomb, they carry you, as through another Jordan (cf. Jos 3:15),
into the true land of promise-to the “Jerusalem which is
above, the mother of all the faithful” (Heb 11:10), whose
builder and craftsman is God. For your “soul did not go down
into the underworld, nor did your flesh see corruption” (Ps
15:10). Your immaculate, completely spotless body was not
left on earth, but you have been transported to the royal
dwelling-place of heaven as queen, as lady, as mistress, as
Mother of God, as the one who truly gave God birth.
Oh, how could heaven receive one who is called “wider
than the heavens”? How could a grave contain the one who contained God? Yet surely it did receive her, surely it did make
room for her; for that body was not “wider than heaven” in any spatial sense. How, after all, can something three cubits long, something that grows more frail each day, be compared with the
breadth and length of heaven? But in grace, surely, she surpassed the measure of every height and depth; for nothing can
be compared with what is divine. O sacred, wonderful, august
and adorable monument! Angels come to venerate it, standing
by in much reverence and holy fear; the demons tremble; human beings come forward in faith, showing it honor and worship, venerating it with eyes and lips and yearning of soul, and
drinking deep of its inexhaustible store of blessings.
Just as if one should store up costly ointment in his clothes
or in some other place, and later remove it, some trace of the fragrance would remain when the ointment is gone, so now, too,
that holy, sacred and spotless body, full of divine fragrance, that
boundless spring of grace, even though it was first placed in the
tomb and then taken away again to a better, higher place, still
did not leave that tomb without honor: it gave it a share of divine
fragrance and grace, and left it as a source of healing and of all
good gifts for those who approach it in faith.
We, too, have sat in attendance upon you today, O Lady – Lady, and once again, Lady – Mother of God who knew
not man! We have fastened our souls on you as our hope, letting
ourselves hang on you-mind, soul and body-as on a strong
and unbreakable anchor. We have given you honor, as far as we
could, with “psalms and hymns and spiritual songs” (Eph 5:19;
Col 3:16), though we can never honor you worthily. For if, as a
holy writer [St Basil the Great] has taught, honor towards our fellow servants demonstrates respect for our common Lord, how can we neglect to
honor you, who gave your Lord birth? How shall we be less
than eager to do it? Shall we not count you more precious than
breath itself, necessary though that is, and more valuable to us
than life? For so we may express even more fully reverence for
our own Lord. But why do I even speak of reverence for the
Lord? The precious gift of recalling you, surely, is reward
enough to those who commemorate you devoutly, an excess of
joy that will never be taken away. What pleasure does not fill
such a person? What blessings does he lack who makes his
mind the storehouse of your holy memory?
This is our sacrifice of thanks to you, the first-fruits of our
words, a dedicatory offering of our impoverished intelligence,
moved by its longing for you to forget its own weakness. Receive our desires kindly, since you know they exceed our
power. And you, good Lady, bearer of our good Lord, watch
over us; lead and guide our lives where you will; put the urges of
our most shameful passions to rest, calm the tossing of their
waves, lead us to the safe harbor of God’s will, make us worthy
of the blessedness to come, the sweet light of his own face, who
is God the Word, made flesh from you. With him, may there be
to the Father glory, honor and majesty, with his holy, good and
life-giving Spirit, now and always and unto ages of ages!
Amen.
– Excerpt from St John of Damascus' First Sermon on the Dormition of the Mother of God (transl. Fr Brian Daley)
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