In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit!
The army of the holy Right-Believing Prince Andrei Bogolyubsky (†1174; commemorated July 4/17) always kept an icon of the Mother of God with the Infant Christ and a holy cross. Before battles, the prince and his warriors would pray in front of the icons. In 1164, the prince fought against the Kazan Bulgars. On August 1/14, after the victory, the army was blessed to see a miraculous outpouring of Divine help. Radiant rays from the icons of the Savior and the Mother of God covered the entire host with light.
It later turned out that the Byzantine Emperor Manuel I Komnenos (†1180), who was fighting the Hungarians on the same day, saw a similar sign from the icon of the Savior and the Theotokos, and won the victory.
Both rulers gave thanks to God and established a celebration of thanksgiving to the All-Merciful Savior and the Most Holy Theotokos on this day. This day is also popularly called the First Feast of the Savior (“the First Spas” in Russian). And it is called the Procession of the Honorable Wood of the Life-Giving Cross of the Lord because on this day the cross is brought out to the middle of the church for veneration. In some places on this day believers would go to springs and lakes to bless the water.
This custom originated in Constantinople, which at this time of year often suffered from epidemics. On the eve of August 14, a cross would be prepared at the Hagia Sophia Church and then carried around the city for blessing until the Feast of the Dormition of the Mother of God.
In common parlance, the following names are used for the three nearest feasts of the Lord: “the Savior’s Feast on the Water” (thanks to the Blessing of the Waters, August 14); “the Savior’s Feast on the Mountain” (the Transfiguration of the Lord, August 19); and “the Savior’s Feast on Canvas” (the commemoration of the Icon of the Savior, “Not-Made-by-Hands”, August 29).
Similarly, all the great feasts dedicated to the Lord, and every Sunday, like the Resurrection of the Lord, remind us where and to Whom we are going and Whose we are. In the Epistle to the Romans, the Apostle Paul says: For whether we live, we live unto the Lord; and whether we die, we die unto the Lord: whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lord’s (Rom. 14:8).
Our faith is called Christianity because Christ is at its center. We look to Him, we strive towards Him, and we become like Him.
The Savior came to restore our access to the lost blessed eternal life, which now depends on our choice and zeal.
During His earthly life, as written in the Gospel, Christ proclaimed the living God of the fathers, correcting distorted concepts of God through simple human parables and showing that the Kingdom of God is near and attainable.
Christ proclaimed the God Whose love we do not need to earn, because God is Love. God loved us first, as St. John the Theologian testifies: Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us (1 Jn. 4:10).
Christ proclaimed God and showed us in Himself a true man, called to be the image and likeness of God.
St. Gregory Palamas says that “God assumes human nature to show to what extent it is free from sin and so pure that it was possible to unite it with Himself in hypostasis” (Homily 16. On Holy and Great Saturday). That is, Christ was born in our human body to show how worthy and pure it is, so that we can also unite with God in our bodies. This is the meaning and the highest purpose of human life. Christ, being human, demonstrated through His earthly life that this is possible for us.
The Savior gave us the ideal of human perfection, and the saints showed by their lives how to attain it.
Three fathers used to come to St. Anthony the Great every year. Two of them asked him about thoughts and the salvation of the soul, while the third always remained silent and asked nothing. After a long time, Abba Anthony said to him, “You have been coming here for so long and you have never asked me about anything.” And he replied, “For me, Father, it is enough just to look at you” (The Sketis Patericon).
The Church reminds us over and again, on weekdays and feast-days, to look on the Savior in such a way that we can gaze on Him, the ideal of human perfection, and not only look, but also strive towards Him.
In this sense, St. Nicholas (Velimirovic) of Zica and Ohrid compares Christ to a mirror: “Christ is that mirror in which everyone sees himself as he truly is. This sole mirror has been given to humanity so that all people may look into it and see what they are like. For in Christ, as in the purest mirror, each person sees himself as sick and ugly, and yet also sees his beautiful original image, which he once was and must become once again” (Homily on the Gospels. The Gospel of the Repentant Zacchaeus).
The day after the Dormition is the commemoration of the Icon of the Lord Jesus Christ, “Not-Made-by-Hands”. Like the gift to Prince Abgar, Christ wiped His Face on the fabric of our being and imprinted it in us as yet another reminder of Himself. So that, seeing the image of Christ in our neighbor, it might be easier for us to love one another and to love properly, as children of God. We are icons for each other. One person is heavily soot-stained or dusty, another is clearer, but in each the Face of Christ is imprinted—the ideal of a human and a reminder of what we can be. Amen.
