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.