Delivered in the Church of the Tikhvin Icon of the Mother of God, Moscow, March 31, 2012, the Saturday of the Laudation of the Mother of God.
Photo: hram-preobrazhenskiy.ru
Your Eminences! Most worthy Fr. Arkady! Dear fathers, brothers, and sisters!
I congratulate you with all my heart on the Saturday of the fifth week of Great Lent, the day we celebrate the Laudation of the Most Holy Theotokos.
This is a special day—after the week of the Veneration of the Cross, when we remembered the Cross of Christ, in this fifth week of Great Lent we glorify the Mother of God. The connection between the main theme of the previous and current weeks is not coincidental; the Mother of God had no glory during her life, no praise. Her entire life was the bearing of an enormous cross. The days of her life are practically hidden from us, up until the moment when the Savior came out to His service publicly. But the narrative of the years of Christ’s service contains little testimony to what went on in the family of our Savior and Lord Jesus Christ, on what was happening in His mother’s heart. We can only guess at how her maternal heart suffered for her Son, Who from the first days of His preaching entered onto the path of implacable war with evil and lies, with the powers of this world, which were in opposition to divine truth. Each of the Savior’s words was penetrated with this truth, and therefore they aroused hatred, slander, and envy, even to the point of readiness to physically destroy the One Who dared to openly and honestly tell people God’s truth.
But didn’t the heart of the Most Holy Theotokos break when he heard about all the evil-intentioned acts being prepared against her Son? Didn’t her heart also grieve when on the third Passover of the Savior’s public service, the Pharisees came to Galilee from Jerusalem, because He had not gone to Jerusalem, for the hour had not yet come, yet they were already making preparations to get their revenge against Him? And the Pharisees came to Galilee, a peaceful and quiet country, in order to catch His every word and then report them to the Sanhedrin—so that they could without fail accuse Him of transgressions against the Law, against the people. Could the Most Pure Mother of God have been distant from this? Of course not—she was next to her Son, she saw and heard everything, she could not but understand what was happening, that it was only a matter of months before the terrible end. This was not fleeting suffering, and not only what would be the apogee on Golgotha—this was hour-by-hour, minute-by-minute suffering, this was her lifetime cross, with no glory whatsoever until her very death. The glory of the Theotokos was made manifest at her physical death, her ascent to heaven; and that is why we so solemnly celebrate the Dormition of the Most Holy Theotokos—for this was the manifestation of her glory on earth.
And today we give glory to the Most Holy Theotokos—to her who bore throughout her life a very special cross, who showed us an example not only of a holy life, purity of mind and heart, and love, but also patience, courage, and the ability to worthily and salvifically bear an extremely heavy cross—which is the only thing that can save a person. The Most Holy Theotokos was taken up to heaven not only because she manifested in herself the very great gift of divine grace, but also because she supported that gift by her life. By her patience, suffering, and sorrows she multiplied that gift, offering her whole life to God as a great sacrifice. And today we glorify the Most Pure Mother of God and learn from her how to bear our cross unto salvation; we glorify her as the intercessor for the human race, who having passed along the sorrowful paths of her earthly existence, now stands before her Son and our Lord in glory; and we believe that she prays for us, strengthening each of us to bear our own cross, strengthening each on the path of salvation in the realization and proclamation of divine truth.
May this day fill our hearts with joy, for before us is a great example of salvific cross-bearing crowned by the immortal glory of the Theotokos, who stands before our Son and God. Through her prayers may the Lord preserve our Church, our Fatherland, and all those who have recourse to her holy name with faith and love. Amen.
