Αφιέρωμα στην εορτή της Κοιμήσεως της Θεοτόκου - Pemptousia

Amidst the physical and spiritual lethargy of summer, our Church presents, as a refreshing mental oasis and spiritual upliftment, the great feast of our Panagia (All-Holy). The fifteenth of August, or as many call it, "the Easter of summer," constitutes a major liturgical milestone of the ecclesiastical year. This supreme feast is, for all Orthodoxy and especially for us Greeks, who venerate the Mother of God in a special way, an opportunity to express wholeheartedly our honor toward Her sacred person, because our personal and national life is interwoven with the high protection and guardianship of the Great Mother of the world. Great pilgrimage centers of Her grace (Tinos, Paros, Vermio, etc.) will become poles of attraction for thousands of faithful this year as well. Furthermore, many other temples dedicated to Her venerable Dormition will celebrate brilliantly and honor appropriately Her departure from this world and Her entry into eternal infinity and resplendent glory.

Unfortunately, the sacred books of the New Testament mention nothing about the life of our Panagia after the Resurrection of the Lord and Pentecost. This silence is filled by the sacred Tradition of our Church, which, as is known, together with the Holy Scripture, constitutes the source of our faith. The piety, respect, and love of the faithful of the Jerusalem Church toward the Mother of God preserved certain elements of Her life, which were later recorded in the works of the Fathers and in the hymnography of our Church.

According to these, after the Resurrection of the Lord, the Mother of our Lord remained a simple but select member of the Church of Jerusalem. The apostles, the shepherds, and the faithful of the Church held infinite love and respect for Her. During the difficult times of the persecution of Christians in Palestine (Acts 8:1), our Panagia evidently became their great comforter. We do not know how many years she lived. However, she must not have tasted the pains of old age. The Lord Jesus Christ took her quickly to Himself, likely around the age of fifty.

When the hour of Her departure arrived, the Archangel Gabriel was sent once again to announce to her the will of God and Her Son. While she was praying in Her home in Jerusalem, the angel appeared, offered her a small palm branch, and said: "Hail, full of grace, Mary. I bring you a message from Your Son. The blessed hour has come for you to go near Him and to be glorified as is fitting for you. Prepare yourself, then, and in three days He will come to take your precious and immaculate soul." After this, and having recovered from the vision, she rejoiced greatly and hastened to ascend Her beloved Mount of Olives to pray, where Her Son had prayed for the last time before His Passion. She used to ascend there frequently to pray.

As she traversed the path, the unexpected happened: the trees and shrubs of the road bowed down and venerated her! The lifeless and unreasoning creation, which had encountered its hour during the crucifying Passion of the Lord and Her Son, now acquires judgment and emotion once again and venerates the Queen of the world! She headed to that spot in the garden where the Lord had prayed.

She knelt humbly, raised Her venerable hands, and gazed at the sky, and after thanking God, she pleaded for the salvation of the world. Throughout Her prayer, a heavenly light bathed Her. Her precious and holy face shone with divine energy.

She quickly returned to Her home and began to prepare the necessities of Her burial. She also gathered Her relatives and faithful friends and announced to them the will of the Lord to call her near Him. When they heard this, they were startled and began to mourn the separation from the Mother of the Lord. She comforted them, saying that this is the will of God and that from Her place in heaven, she will always intercede for the entire human race. As a consolation, she gave them two of Her garments, Her veil (the headscarf) and Her tunic, which subsequently became among the most precious treasures of our Church!

On the third day after the Archangel's visit, the Lady Mother of God, after dressing herself in Her funerary garments, called Her friends once more and lay down peacefully on Her bed. Then the following miraculous event occurred: a loud cry was heard in Her house, and a luminous cloud covered it. Immediately, the Holy Apostles were transported on clouds from the ends of the oikoumene to be present at Her departure. In the same way, the Apostle Paul, Dionysius the Areopagite, Saint Hierotheus, the first Bishop of Athens, Saint Timothy, and other prominent figures of the Church were also transported. The Lady Mother of God, after greeting and blessing everyone, delivered Her holy soul into the hands of Her Son, who descended from heaven to receive it Himself.

The gathered apostles, the presbyters of the Church of Jerusalem, and the faithful people began to sing farewell hymns to the Mother of God. Simultaneously, a host of angels was heard singing in unison from heaven! The heavenly melody was heard throughout the entire city. Fear and ecstasy seized the inhabitants of the holy city. Only the hard-hearted and envious Jews were not moved by this miraculous event.

A funeral procession was then formed, heading toward the village of Gethsemane, where Her precious relics would be buried. The wails of the faithful people, who had lost their Mother, mingled with the psalmody of the apostles. Tears of sorrow and joy flowed from their gentle faces.

Before reaching the place of burial, fanatic Jews arrived and sought to defile the departure of the Mother of Jesus, whom they hated mortally. With insults, threats, and blasphemies, they provoked the solemn procession. One of them had the audacity to approach the venerable coffin of the Mother of God, intending to throw the holy relics to the ground. As soon as he dared to touch the deathbed adorned with fragrant flowers, both his hands were immediately cut off and remained stuck to it. At the same time, he lost his sight! He then realized his shameful act and, with low cries, declared his repentance and pleaded for the Panagia to have mercy on him and heal him. And oh, the miracle, that man was healed immediately! Subsequently, he confessed his iniquity and infidelity and became a Christian. With tears in his eyes, he also followed the sacred procession. In contrast, his other companions remained cold and unrepentant in the face of the great miracle of the Mother of God!

There, in the quiet village of Gethsemane, the burial of the immaculate relics of our Panagia took place. Her God-bearing body was placed in a well-kept monument prepared by the Christians of the holy city. With sobs and tears, the holy apostles and other Christians sealed the monument and departed.

The pious tradition of our Church tells us that three days after the burial, the Apostle Thomas arrived late in Gethsemane from distant India, where he had been missionary. He insisted persistently, with tears in his eyes and great sorrow, that the tomb be opened so he could see and venerate one last time the precious relics of the beloved Mother of his Teacher. Faced with his persistence, the other apostles opened the tomb and, oh the miracle, the tomb was empty; the Lord had translated Her all-venerable body into heaven, so that she would not taste natural decay. Thomas's delay was characterized by the Church as God's economy, so that the translation of the Lady Mother of God would become known! Her empty tomb in Gethsemane remains to this day a source of sanctification for the myriads of faithful who visit it every year and a testament to Her translation into heaven.

THE CONTRIBUTION OF THE MOTHER OF GOD TO THE WORK OF THE SALVATION OF THE WORLD

The sacred memory of the Dormition of our Panagia is, as we said, a good opportunity for the pious people of the faithful to manifest their love, respect, and gratitude toward Her, who, being human, was worthy to become the most precious divine vessel, the most sacred container, to receive the infinite God into Her purest flesh, to conceive the unoriginate and immutable God in Her precious womb, to nourish the absolutely self-sufficient God from Her virginal blood, and to hold in Her venerable hands the "uncontainable All."

The sacred person of the Mother of God constitutes, according to our Orthodox theology, part of the ineffable mystery of the Divine Economy. After the Triune God, She became the central person who essentially contributed to the implementation of the plan for the salvation of the human race. She was chosen by God among millions of other girls, through countless generations, as the purest and holiest human existence, in order to become the Theotokos (God-bearer). The Fathers of our Church tell us that for the implementation of the plan of the salvation of the human race, God gave His only-begotten Son, and humanity gave the Panagia. In Her sacred person, the great meeting of God and man took place. Within Her all-encompassing body, the great reconciliation (Eph. 2:16) occurred, and from this began the salvation of the human race, the re-creation, and the theosis (deification) of fallen man.

The great Father of the ancient Church, Saint Irenaeus (+199), paralleled and compared the Mother of God with the progenitor of the human race, Eve, to show the difference between them. The virgin Eve did not make good use of the divine gifts and capacities she had received from God, but used them for evil and the subversion of the divine will. The cause and root of this rebellion was egoism and pride. If she was a bearer of arrogance, the Panagia was the model of obedience and humility. The holy father emphasizes that "... Eve (had to) be restored in Mary, so that one virgin might become a co-sponsor of another virgin and erase the disobedience of the first through virginal obedience" (Iren. Against Heresies). Also, Saint Cyril of Jerusalem (+386) wrote that "Through the virginity of Eve, death came; it was necessary that through virginity, and rather from virginity, life should appear" (Cyril. Catechetical Lectures). Her blessed response to the angel of the Annunciation, "Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word" (Luke 1:38), clearly constitutes the 'pemptousia' (the fifth/fullness) of Her contribution to the work of the salvation of the world in Christ.

The first human creature in whom human nature was restored to its ancient pre-fallen form and beauty was the Mother of God. With the descent of the Holy Spirit during the Annunciation (Luke 1:35), She was cleansed from the stain of original sin, which She also willingly bore as a participant in human nature, making Her the most immaculate vessel so that She might receive the "fire of divinity" in Her pure womb and not be consumed. From then on, She became the "Full of Grace," the holiest existence after the Triune God. In Her person, the beginning of the redemption of the world and the theosis of man took place.

The contribution of our Panagia during the earthly redemptive work of Christ was immense. She was constantly by the side of our Redeemer, from Birth to Passion, Resurrection, and Ascension. She experienced, as a mother, the bitterness of the sufferings of Her Divine Son, culminating in His crucifixion. She felt near Him the agony of the divine plan for the salvation of the world. Also, according to the ancient tradition of our Church, it was She who encouraged the persecuted first Christians of the young Church of Jerusalem.

In short, the earthly life of our Panagia was a continuous struggle and offering for the salvation of the human race. The faithful people of God know this very well; therefore, from antiquity until today, they attribute to the Mother of God the highest honor, the greatest after the Triune God. It should be noted here that only our Orthodoxy attributes the due honor to the Mother of our Lord.

The first fifteen days of August are dedicated to our Panagia. As Orthodox faithful, we participate daily in the services of the wonderful Akathist and Paraklesis canons, we fast, we confess, and we commune. We run with tears in our eyes to deposit in Her the difficulties and tribulations of our lives, pleading with Her with warmth of soul to lighten our heavy burden, because we believe unshakeably that the sweet Mother of God, even after Her venerable Dormition, continues to love and care for us humans. Within Her great heart, there is room for every person—not only for the faithful, but also for the sinners and the impious, even for those who insult Her! Her blessed position near Her Son and our God, Jesus Christ, gives Her the favor to pray for each one of us, for each of our problems. The results of Her help are tangible. That is why we sing in the famous Small Paraklesis Canon to Her: "None who run to you, being overcome, shall depart strengthened, O pure Virgin Theotokos, but they ask for grace and receive the gift, for the benefit of their petition."