In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit!
Dear brothers and sisters, this much-suffering world we live in was once a beautiful Paradise. At the creation of the world, as stated in the Book of Job, the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy. And in the Book of Genesis, after each day, it is said, God saw that it was good; and of all creation it is written, And God saw every thing that He had made, and, behold, it was very good (Gen. 1:31), and the Lord rejoiced in His works.
But a terrible tragedy occurred: in a proud impulse, man rejected God’s commandment and freely turned away from the pure joy of communion with God through obedience. He fell away from the incorruptible light of being into the darkness of his own lusts, into the gloom of non-existence. And man heard fearsome words from God: I will greatly multiply thy sorrow… Cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life (Gen. 2:16,17).
And lo, instead of a blessing came a curse; instead of everlasting joy, unmitigated sorrow. Under this terrible burden, in this longing for the lost Paradise, humanity languished and groaned, and with it all creation. Until that great day arrived, foreordained in the creative counsel of God—the day we celebrate today—the manifestation in the world of Her Who was destined to be the Joy of all joys, the joy of all creation: “For all things rejoice with joy and are renewed; Heaven and earth rejoice together, O God, because the Virgin Bride of God is born on earth as promised.” Her coming into the world was determined in the Lord’s eternity as God’s own dwelling-place. She is higher in creation than the angels, serving as the most holy center of the created and the uncreated, and as the virginal heart of the entire universe.
But what is this joy to the world that is proclaimed today to the whole universe? It is Her Nativity. Wherein lies the power of Her pre-election? It is in Her perfect holiness and purity, in Her capacity to contain the full abundance of the Grace and love of God through Her boundless humility, obedience and devotion to the sacrificial will of God, For He hath regarded the low estate of His handmaiden (Lk. 1:48). Therefore, at the Annunciation, the Archangel Gabriel addressed Her with the words, Hail, thou that art highly favored… For thou hast found favor with God (Lk. 1:28: 30). In the Most Pure and Most Blessed One, the Divine plan and its human reception united in perfect harmony. And the Creator could not but rejoice, calling into being this purest, holiest and most beautiful creation.
The Lord says to Her in the Song of Songs, Behold, thou art fair, my love; behold, thou art fair (Cant. 1:15); and She, the Bride of the Lamb, answers Him, Behold, thou art fair, my beloved, yea, pleasant (Cant. 1:16). In Her, the once broken harmony of the worlds is restored through creation’s obedient transparency to the perception of the Divine. In Her, the symphony of being sounds as the sweetest song: My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Savior (Lk. 1:46, 47). All creation rejoices in Her, and Her very name—Mary—gladdens the soul. And the Church unceasingly, in countless wondrous hymns, calls on Her to rejoice; for She is the center and glory of God’s creation, embodying the holiness of humanity—called and capable of fulfilling this calling in the fullness of God-manhood through Her most pure Divine motherhood.
But the Mother of God, prior to Her Divine motherhood and as a condition for its acceptance, had to manifest through Her personal spiritual feat the full power of perfect chastity and ever-virginity, as the realization of the wisdom of the Cross of God and the glory of the Cross in creation. And as this living and personal manifestation of God in and through creation, in a new being where the Holy Spirit not only hovers above the abyss but also penetrates the depths of the creature, sanctifying, quickening, and deifying it. She, the Mother of God, is the joy of the world, universal joy, the perfect joy in the Holy Spirit, the joy of all joys granted to all creation; and it is in this very joy that the Church on earth and in heaven rejoices today.
The life of the Holy Trinity has a cruciform character, and the image of the Cross is imprinted on all creation. Therefore, both the renewal of creation and its new joy could only come through the Cross: “For, behold, through the Cross joy has come into all the world.” Only the measureless sorrow of love, revealed in Gethsemane and on Golgotha, could conquer the sorrow of sin, the sorrow of death, and the sorrow of the devil. Hence, the joy proclaimed today to the entire universe is the joy of the Cross, that God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life (Jn. 3:16). The perfect power and fulfillment of this cruciform joy are revealed to us in the Most Pure Mother of God; because She loved more than all, She also suffered more than all. And by the voluntary acceptance and meek bearing of Her unfathomable cross as God’s Mother—the cross of Her maternal love—She became for all people, for all nations, and for all creation the Joy of all joys, the Joy of All Who Sorrow, and the Seeker of the Lost.
And so today, in the quiet light of Her feast, shrouded in the veil of Her humility, She silently reveals to us the Heavenly mystery of immutable, eternal joy. The highest bliss is in love—in sacrificial and crucificied love. To give one’s life so that others may live; to make another’s pain one’s own; to voluntarily accept sorrow and grief so that others may be comforted; to take on oneself a curse and sin, so that others may be set free and obtain a blessing.
Such is the path of Christ, such is the path of the Mother of God, leading from death to life, from darkness into light, and from sorrow into eternal joy. And She, the Most Pure One, the Joy of all joys, the Tenderness—as She revealed Herself to St. Seraphim of Sarov—still tells us that the highest joy and Heavenly bliss consist in this: “To weep out of love for God and for one’s brother, day and night,” as St. Silouan the Athonite said. And this is Her Theotokic mystery—the mystery of weeping love, with which may She, the Mother of God, illumine all our ways, that we may be free from sinful darkness, and that the light and power of Her cross-bearing joy may abide in our hearts. For She is born this day, and the Church is adorned with the splendor of the royal priesthood. For, beholding the gate facing the East being born, She awaits the coming of the Great High Priest. She is born this day, and all creation rejoices, and we, all generations, humbly call Her blessed, the wondrous Child of God, Mary. Amen.
