THE HOLY THEOTOKOS

 All of us Orthodox, those who attend regularly and those who attend only occasionally—even those who rarely grace us with their presence!—have to be aware of the great love and respect which we hold for the person of Jesus Christ’s mother, Mary, the Holy Theotokos and Ever-Virgin.  It is one of the most major elements of our worship: the demonstration and constant reiteration of our unceasing love and respect for her who dedicated her entire existence to her Son and to His mission upon this earth. 

 Of course, the Holy Theotokos is one of those basic elements which non-Orthodox often have trouble understanding, regarding our Church and our practices.  The minute they hear about Mary and the Saints, they believe—either because they have been misled by their leadership, or they themselves have totally misunderstood what they have seen and heard—that we Orthodox worship Mary and the Saints!  There could be nothing further from the truth about our True Faith.  We worship God the Holy Trinity, Him Who is simultaneously One in Three, and Three in One, Unity in Trinity, and Trinity in Unity—and only Him!  We are not polytheists.  Rather, we are the truest and the most complete and the most fulfilled of all monotheists—for the True God has been revealed to us!

 The Virgin Mary was and is a human being, not a divinity of any kind.  In her humanity and at the moment of her conception of her Divine Child, she achieved perfection.  And we Orthodox quite literally demand that that humanity be kept intact, without any suggestions of godliness, because only then does she stand as such a beacon of hope.  If she, as a true human, reached perfection, perhaps it is possible for us to do the same?  It is true of course that our sainted poets and hymnographers down through the centuries have sometimes come dangerously close to the precipice of assigning her god-like attributes and descriptions—and there is certainly that Icon of Perpetual Succor in which she is depicted with a crown, a crown whose origins are not Orthodox, and which has no place in Orthodox iconography.

 Holy Scripture gives us some of the details of the Virgin Mary’s life, but not all. The events preceding her birth, the names of her parents, her dedication to the Temple in Jerusalem at only three years old, and the details of her demise—which we Orthodox call the “Dormition,” or “Falling Asleep,” and which we commemorate on August 15, as the last Major Feast of the Ecclesiastical Year—all of that comes from sources other than the Bible.  But what the Bible does tell us is most interesting and enlightening.

 The Old Testament—e.g. the Books of Isaiah, Micah, etc.—for instance, contains many prophecies of Christ’s birth, and of the virgin by whom this was to be accomplished.  And it is in the New Testament Gospels of Matthew and Luke that we read of Mary’s role in the whole series of events before and after that birth; but they are not only narratives of events.  When the Archangel Gabriel miraculously visits Mary in Nazareth, and when Mary and Joseph are visited by the shepherds in Bethlehem, and later when the Magi arrive from the East with their Gifts; when Christ is taken to the Temple for the prescribed forty-day blessing; and when He at twelve years old absents Himself, and Mary and Joseph are forced to go looking for Him back in that same Temple in Jerusalem—the Gospel texts permit us to understand that Mary is absorbing all these incredible events having to do with her Son, and that little by little she is understanding them.  We quickly perceive that the opinion that Mary had no idea of her Son’s mission, and that it all was a surprise to her, is not only ludicrous, but out and out un-Biblical!

 She is the “Theotokos,” the Birth-Giver of God.  Just as all mothers do, she gave of her own flesh as her Son grew in her womb; she was not just a incubator for the Son of God, but His real mother.  The heresiarch Nestorius in the fifth century had a major problem with that term—and thus he became the leader of one of the most insidious false teachings in the history of Christianity!  He refused to accept the ‘omo-ousion’ in the Creed, i.e. that the Father and Son are of the exact same essence, consubstantial.  And because of that, to him the term Theotokos was anathema; he was willing to say Christotokos—affirming in other words that Mary did give birth to the Son, but to a son in whom the combination of the human and the divine was not real, not permanent, to a son whose death on the Cross was the death of Jesus the man only, not Christ the divine Son of God.                                                    

 For many of the same reasons, although it is not often admitted as such, there are many of our contemporary fellow Christians—and there always have been—who also either deny or simply ignore the use of the term, Theotokos.  And, as a matter of fact, one is often left with the impression that they would rather overlook the very existence of Mary.  The official line is that she is only one of those coincidental, unimportant personalities in the Bible.  She is relegated almost to the status of Pilate’s wife, or Simon of Cyrene, who play their role in a single verse, and then disappear from the narrative.  In the opinion of this writer, the reality is that they embarrassingly do not know what to make of her; she is an enigma to them.

 The Virgin Mary is the Mediatrix par excellence for all Orthodox Christians; it is she who represents us before the Throne of her Son.  Is her mediation necessary?  Can we not go directly to the Lord?  Of course we can.  But just as we appeal to our mother to help us before our father in a particularly difficult situation,, so do we appeal to Mary for her help.  It may not be necessary, but why not take advantage of such love?  The icon of the Holy Theotokos the Platytera, which appears in most Orthodox churches in the apse, on the wall behind the Altar Table, is a most lovely icon and one of great meaning and symbolism.  Christ the Child sits on His mother’s lap, and she spreads her arms, ready to receive in love and protection all those who believe in her Son.  The history of our Church is replete with examples of the Virgin’s miraculous interventions in human history, when she on numerous occasions offered her assistance to us.

 As already mentioned above, in August, and as the last Major Feast of the Ecclesiastical Year 2006/2007, we will commemorate the Dormition of the Holy Theotokos, that is, her demise from this earth.  And also as we have already mentioned, the details and traditions of this Feast are exo-Biblical, i.e. not from the Bible.  Holy Tradition tells us that Mary was given the ability by her Son to know the date of her departure from this life.  As that day approached, she called the Holy Apostles to her bedside so that she could take her leave of these men who had worked so closely with her Son.  And when she died, they remained to offer the proper funereal rites.                                                                                                  

 A further tradition states that St. Thomas was not able to reach Jerusalem in time, because he had to travel all the way from India where he was doing the work of the Lord.  When he finally did arrive, he asked the other Apostles to open her tomb so that he might pay his final respects.  And when they did so, lo and behold, the tomb was empty; her body was not there!

 It is from that latter tradition that many believe—and indeed in the Roman Catholic Church it is a dogma which the faithful must believe—that the Virgin Mary was received into Paradise directly; she consequently does not wait to be judged at the Second Coming of her Son.  And thus the Feast Day of August 15 in the Roman Catholic Church is called the “Assumption” of the Blessed Virgin Mary.  While there are many Orthodox who do accept this individually, it is not a doctrine of the Church.  Rather, it is called a ‘theologumenon,’ i.e. a question of faith to which there is no revealed answer, and therefore it may be discussed within certain boundaries without fear of error.

 There are other questions concerning the Virgin Mary which also separate us from our Roman Catholic brethren.  But perhaps, nonetheless, it can be reasonably said that our similarities regarding our love and respect for Mary far outweigh our differences.  It is to her that we appeal when we are in dire need; it is to her that we appeal when the world seems almost too burdensome; it is to her that we appeal when all other avenues seem blocked—she is our intercession, she is our mediation, she is our explanation!

 Give me the names of your living beloved relatives and friends, and I will commemorate them throughout the period of the Dekapentavguston—along with mine and Presvytera’s.  The blessings which she and I have received from the Lord through the Good Offices of the Panagia are too numerous to list; there simply is not enough paper.  

FATHER DEMETRIUS