"Homilies on the Dormition of Our Most Holy Lady, the Mother of God"
by St. Andrew of Crete

ON THE DORMITION OF OUR MOST HOLY LADY, THE MOTHER OF GOD. By St. Andrew of Crete

HOMILY II

[1.] All you who have come to this venerable sanctuary of the Mother of God, draw near me, I beg you, and help me today as I struggle to speak, overpowered by the loftiness and the profundity of this wonderful occasion. Let us ascend the summit of the heights, so to speak, and let us hesitantly peer from there into the mysteries of God. Let us listen to a funeral oration!

The saving Word, who is good beyond all goodness, who subsists in himself above all being yet has lived out on earth, in flesh, the whole of God’s plan for our sakes-who fulfilled the ancient prophecies about himself by revealing our reality in himself and his whole reality in us–has now filled heaven and earth with glory, and has made all creation rich with his sacred splendor. He has conquered the author of evil, after grappling with him on the cross, and by his own struggle with death he has destroyed its tyranny over us. He has devastated the unspeakable regions of the underworld and all their domination, sealing up hell’s voracious belly so that it might never again hold the godlike souls of his holy ones in its power.

It was right, in my judgment, that the lawful claims marked out by the ancient curse should not simply be declared void.

For it was God’s voice that ordered those once formed from earth to return there, so that human nature might not be freed from its bondage to growth and decay until it had first been made earth again. And it was necessary that “he who was made like his brothers and sisters in all things except sin” (Heb

2:17) should show in himself all the marks of our nature.

Though he was God, he became human out of love for human-ity, and tasted our sufferings for one reason only: to show how close he had drawn to us, so that by the passion of the impassible one we might be placed outside passion’s power. For this same reason, he accepted even the experience of corruption, he mingled with the dead and entered the cheerless realm of the underworld, so that we might escape the bonds that awaited us there and might pass over to the world of incorrup-tion. Nevertheless, we shall not escape bodily death as a result, since we have received our immortal being and have been created anew not in our nature, but only by the gift of grace.

[2.] Why do I say all this, my brothers and sisters? What has led me to speak of these things? Simply this: if we are to touch on the mysteries of [Mary’s] supernatural departure, we must, at least briefly, turn our attention in the direction of our Lord and God Jesus Christ, and then, in proper order, link what we say about him to our subject of today. For since it is the necessary lot of all human beings to die once (cf. Heb 9:27), since this is simply the inescapable fate of our nature–indeed, at the start of our history we received this sentence from our creator, because of our disobedience for this reason the Lord died once and for all, becoming the ransom for the one death that faces us all, in order to free us all, in a single act, from death’s bitter tyranny: to free “those,” as the sacred writer says, “who all their lives were held fast in slavery by fear of death” (Heb 2:15). “What?”, some may ask; “shall we, then, not die that death?” Indeed, we shall die; but we shall not remain enslaved by death, as once we did when we were bound by it through the legal bond of sin. “If that is true,” someone may reply, “then death is not really death!” There are indeed some, in fact, who will escape it; but “they shall be changed,” according to divine revelation (1 Cor 15:51). It is death’s tyr-anny, real death, when we who die are not to be allowed to return to life again. But if we die and then live again after death–indeed, live a better life–then clearly that is not so much a death as a sleep (koíunous; “dormition”), a passage into a second life, which brings us as migrants from here to there and sends us on our way by giving us complete release from earthly cares. The author of Proverbs expressed this more clearly than I when he said, “Death, for a man, is rest” (cf. Sir 38:23). For by death God puts an end to his labor, so that he no longer has to act in the way that his nature requires. What else can we understand death to be, but the separation of soul from body, which calls forth our hope for resurrection by so separating our bodily parts that they must be joined together again?

This leads us to believe, in hope, that we will be brought to share in incorruption and enjoy a better lot, since we are no longer enslaved to sin by a life caught up in the desires of the flesh–a life, in other words, directed towards sensible things.

[3.]If, then, he is Lord of life and death, the life of all people and the resurrection of the dead–if he is “the light of the world” (In 8:42), who “with his own death annihilated the one who had power over death” (Heb 2:14)-then surely, in the love for humanity that constrained him (cf. 2 Cor 5:14f), he would not have thought it right to bypass even this law of death and leave it unfulfilled. Intending, rather, to be like us in all things, and to prove that he had strictly followed the same path that we do, even down into the earth, he chose to be held by the same bonds that hold us, “walking in the midst of the shadow of death,” as Scripture says (Ps 22:4 [LXX]). So he spent three days in the depths of the earth, where the souls of those who died before him lay wrapped in unbreakable chains. He proclaimed the good news to them, as St. Peter tells us: “Going also to the spirits in prison, he preached to them” (1 Pet 3:19).

How, then, can it be anything but completely and undeniably Clear that the souls of all people, even those of the saints, enter into that place of darkness but are not detained there: none, that is, but those who have brought death on themselves by sinful self-indulgence in this life? (see Lk 16:19, 25) For surely the souls of all who submit to God’s law and show, in the Holy Spirit, a heavenly pattern of life while they are still in the flesh, will be taken from there to a place of light that more befits the holy state of the saints–a place over which the Lord keeps watch, and which his eyes and his word guard forever (cf. Zach 4:10 [LXX]). As for the beauty and greatness of that place, its infinite blessedness and its loveliness that exceeds even the mind’s power to comprehend, they will doubtless see all these things more clearly and more profoundly who have drawn closer to God than we have; when they have come to the end of this life’s course, they will receive the rest that is reserved for them by the Providence that so wisely guides all things.

So the souls of the saints will go through the gates of the underworld, as we have explained, “for the disciple is not above his master” (Mt 10:24). But I do not believe they will be detained there as souls were once, when, as Scripture says,

“sin ruled along with death” (Rom 5:21). They shall pass through [those gates]-listen carefully! -not to be destroyed, but to be examined and to be initiated there into the strange mystery of God’s plan of salvation: I mean the descent into the underworld which Jesus, the source of our life, willingly accomplished for our sakes, having undergone death on a cross even though he was himself above both suffering and destruc-tion. In addition, souls will be taught the supernatural meaning of what he accomplished there: how great and wonderful a victory the Savior won in that battle, when he destroyed the everlasting gates [of the enemy].

[4.] All of this, then, we recall from sacred Scripture; and what has just been explained to you is not beside the point of what we are about to say. In fact, it now flows most fittingly from this, I think, for us also to try and grasp the hidden, glorious mystery of the dormition of her who was holy from her birth and always remained a virgin: to discourse also of these things before a people who love what is good, and who long to gaze on the good more deeply. Indeed, if I must speak the truth, the death that is natural to the human race even reached as far as Mary: not that it held her captive as it holds us, or that it overcame her–far from it! But it touched her enough to let her experience that sleep that is for us, if I may put it this way, a kind of ecstatic movement towards the things we only hope for during this life, a passage that leads us on towards transformation into a state like that of God. Mary’s death was, we might say, a parallel to that first sleep, which fell upon the first human being when his rib was removed to complete the creation of our race, and he received flesh to take the place of what had been taken away. In the same way, I think, she fell into a natural sleep and tasted death, but did not remain held by it; she simply followed the laws of nature and fulfilled God’s plan, which the Providence that guides all things laid down for us from the beginning. Her role, surely, was to show us clearly the way she has moved through transformation from a corruptible state to an incorruptible one- something that is only thinkable if a natural dissolution of these elements of our body should take place first, and if then the life that has melted away should be forged anew.

If, as the saying goes, “there is no one who will live and not see death,” then she whose praises we sing today is clearly both human and more than human, since she kept the same law of nature that we must keep, yet in a way not like us but beyond us, it seems, and beyond the reason for which we are forced to suffer it. This, then, is how I suggest you understand her descent into the underworld: the period of time for which death and bodily decay held power over ner-in my judgment, at least–was only as long as was necessary for her to move, at natural speed, through unknown regions and to come to know them first-hand, regions where she had never set foot before and which she was now crossing as in a journey through foreign, uncharted territory.

[5.] Be gracious towards us, O Virgin, vessel of God and bearer of life; forgive us as we dare to penetrate the unknown, as we search the hidden mysteries of your life, as we struggle to understand what God has determined to accomplish in you, the unsearchable abyss of his judgments. The attempt to gaze at these mysteries with the mind’s eye puts fear even into those blessed with the highest intellectual gifts; how much more frightening, then, is it to us who are fleshly in mind, who can only cover the wild beast within us in sheep’s clothing! All we have tried to show thus far, with great timidity, is that you shared with us in the laws of nature. But the higher wonders achieved in you, O most blessed one-wonders that you also share by first-hand experience-are too pure and too divine, as you know better than we, to be expressed in our human words.

Your only-begotten Son, who brought all the ages into being, has clothed you with fitting glory and radiance before all oth-ers, because he was conceived and given human substance in flesh that you provided. Your glory is such that none of us, perhaps not even one of the higher angels, can grasp it with our minds. Let it all remain honorably wrapped in the mysterious obscurity of God, and preserve its reality and its truth un-shaken, until the final restoration of all things.?

[6.] But that you might not send us away without some share, at least, in the story of the marvels God has worked in you, speak a word to us, as Mother of the Word, and tell us how you finally did depart from this world. For now every hearer of God’s word, past and present, stands and turns his ear towards you, hoping to hear your voice, just as once Israel longed to hear the voice of God. And your voice, now sounding from on high more powerfully than any trumpet (cf. Ex 19:9-16), proclaims, “I broke none of the laws of human nature, but having accomplished all in a new, yet fully appropriate way, ‘I magnify the Lord in my soul, and rejoice in my spirit’ (cf. Lk 1:46), while in my body I am changed and take on a new form, sharing by grace in God’s own being. And the source and final form of that transformation into God, I confess, is the form taken by him who is God above all, and who became flesh in an indescribable way in my womb, when he remade his own humanity into something divine. Through a share in the Spirit, he bestowed this grace on us, whom he had never abandoned, when he ascended from earth to heaven along with that body.

Moved by his care for the human race, he looked upon the lowliness of his handmaiden’ (Lk 1:47) and decreed an end to the curse of the first Eve. By his appearing in the flesh, he has overshadowed ‘those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death’ (Lk 1:78; cf. 1:35), rising ‘like the dawn from on high’ (Lk 1:78), and he has ‘guided our feet into the way of peace’ (ibid.). Though he is truly God, he became human in me, in a spiritual way, from a virgin’s blood,’ bringing about a conception and growth that were unknown to our nature. So, by a new relationship of both natures, he destroyed the old order and brought in the new order that will never grow old, so that all things might become new–in truth, a new creation–through this new, most praiseworthy incarnation of the Word.

“When was it ever heard, after all, before our time, that a woman had become Mother of God? Or that God called himself a woman’s son? Or that a human form was revealed, by a divine birth, as being above the cherubim and as ruling all things? Who ever taught God’s worshippers, both in heaven and on earth, to worship as Lord, in one indivisible act of adoration, clay made divine, earth raised on high? Who ever raised the farthest bounds of humble, earth-bound humanity to heaven, letting it float upwards, by divine gift, past the limits of its nature? Who ever made the inaccessible seem accessible, blazing a new and unknown path for the inhabitants of the earth, so that human beings might be revealed as fellow-citizens with the angels? These were the ‘great things’ that so clearly came to pass in me; these were the reasons I received such glory and brilliance as my lot. Therefore, with good rea-son, ‘henceforth all generations shall call me blessed; for the Mighty One has done great things for me, and holy is his name’ (Lk 1:48f.). What, after all, is greater than to be called-and to be – the Mother of God?

[7.] “As for my departure from human company, you may derive a clearer understanding of it by considering that place from which my material, earthly dwelling- I mean my virgin body, of which God took hold to form, from different elements, the one Jesus”-was transported to its new home. Anyone who chooses can confirm what I am saying with his own eyes. For before the gaze of those who look on holy things with faith, there stand here clear images (ElkóvES), eloquent representations of my passing.’ This tomb [which you see in the icon] is that one carved out of rock, which stands intact even today, proclaiming with soundless voice the evidence of my burial. The hollows of that rock are incontrovertible witnesses that my body lay within it, showing -in sacred art- the gracious form of my limbs. And this foremost of torrents, Kedron, by which the whole scene is surrounded, trumpets forth these miracles loud and clear: it is the Valley of Weeping (cf. Jg 2:5; 2 Kg 5:23 [LXXJ), I tell you, where the tomb of Josa-phat, king of Judah, was erected (but cf. 1 Kg 22:57), and where the blessed passion of the impassible one had its beginning. There the Savior often met with his disciples (In 18:2); there he prayed on his knees to his Father in heaven, asking that the cup, which in accord with God’s ineffable plan he had previously desired, be taken away (Mk 14:36 par). There he was kissed by his betrayer, and became the prisoner of those who murdered God. Those who have visited the place will know all of this more reliably from their own experience.’

Let anyone who doubts what I say go there himself, and learn my meaning first hand; but let the believer be content with what I say, and learn from images about what he has not seen, so that he may come to marvel at marvelous things!

“This, at any rate, is how my burial took place. As for the manner of my passing over [to heaven], it had its own peculiar dignity, above the lot of every other mortal, even though the change itself will be common to you all. My passing was greater than words can say or ears can hear, even though it resembled the pattern of earlier events. What is this place of my rest? Is it a place perceptible by the sense, or graspable by the to form, fre mind? Not at all! Who, then, can see it, who shall understand it? No creature, except those who have come here by that freedom from passion that only limitless grace can supply, and who have been found worthy to enjoy in this place the delights of being made like God. As my ancestor David said, ‘[I will go] into the place of the wonderful tabernacle, as far as the house of God, with cries of rejoicing and praise, and the sound of celebration’ (Ps 41:5f. [LXX).”

[8.] So speaks the Mother of God, from whose tongue drips the sweet nectar of the Spirit, for “grace has been poured out upon her lips” (Ps 44:3 [LXXI). What may we say beyond this, brothers and sisters? We can only marvel at the immensity of God’s provident care, which guides all things so wisely; we can only say, “O depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How inexorable are his judgments, how unsearchable his ways,” and all the words that follow (Rom 11:33f.). These things are certainly the work of God’s hand, and are above human understanding. Even to turn one’s mind to such things brings fear to the most noble and purified heart; how much more, then, to me, whose lowly mind creeps along the ground and can think of nothing but matter and clay and the other things that change and pass away! For this reason, I tremble and reel at the thought that the greatness of this day might be spoiled or made trivial by the sordid efforts of my brazen yet ineffectual oratory.

Someone truly eager for knowledge might well wonder why none of the sacred writers, as far as we know, wrote about the immaculate, supernatural passing of the Mother of God, or left us any account of it at all, in the way they composed the divine book of the Gospels or gave us other revelations of the mystery of God. Our answer is: she whom God took as his own fell asleep much later [then the events of the Gospels]for it is said that she had reached extreme old age when she departed from this world. Or perhaps the times may not then have favored a full account of these events; it was not appropriate for those sowing the seed of the news of God’s saving plan to speak in detail of these things, at the same time they were writing the Gospels, since these events needed another, specific and very deliberate kind of treatment, not possible at that mo-ment. If, on the other hand, the reason for their silence is that the inspired writers were only telling the story of God’s plan of salvation up to the end of the Word’s presence among us in flesh, and that they simply did not [choose to] reveal anything that happened after Jesus was taken up from the earth, I can accept this as well. But lest some wonder why we have so much to say, while tradition is completely silent about today’s mys-tery, I think it would be good to add to my own words what have been able to find [in the tradition], to support and confirm what I propose for your reflection. For even if the mystery appears only obscurely in sacred literature, it has not remained completely unmentioned in their pages.

19.] It was, in fact, referred to by a man learned in sacred doctrine, who, they say, investigated holy things with wisdom and erudition, and to whom hints of the mysterious representations of super-celestial minds were revealed, in a way worthy of the angels. In addition, the indescribable revelations that were made to Saint Paul were passed on to him, because of his outstanding purity: revelations that included the divine names–names more radiant than light, names the very universe cannot contain, because they lie beyond all obscurity and ineffability. “Who was this?” you ask me. Should I omit his name, and let the man be known to you simply by the characteristics that mark him, as the lion is known by his claws? I think the man is not wholly unknown to anyone even somewhat aware of his great gifts; so let us mention his name, in the hope that will make his word more credible.

The man was Dionysius. He knew much about divine reali-ties, heard great secrets about heaven and about the many forms and shapes of the unspeakable names of God. In his holy book On the Divine Names, in the third chapter-where he is writing about what power there is in prayer, and about the blessed Hierotheos, and about reverence and the way one should write of God- he digresses to tell us various things about that holy man [Hierotheos]. He writes to Timothy [the addressee of the book] as follows:

“We have observed this rule very carefully, that we would not attempt to paraphrase what the divine guide [i.e., Hi-erotheos] himself said clearly, or give in explanation the same thing as his own words. Once he was with our inspired hierarchs, a time when, as you know, we and you and many of our holy brethren had come together to gaze at the body that was our source of life, the vessel of God.

James, God’s brother, was there, and Peter, our leader, the senior and most outstanding among those who spoke of God. After we had seen her, it seemed right to all the hi-erarchs, as each was able, to sing the praises of the limitless power and goodness of that weakness that gave birth to God. Hierotheos, as you can imagine, surpassed all the other participants in this sacred event, except for the divine spokesmen [- the Apostles] themselves. He was wholly in ecstasy, rapt completely beyond himself; he experienced a union with the realities he was praising. Because of all he heard and saw, because of what he knew and of what exceeded his knowledge, he was recognized to be an inspired man–a singer of God’s praises.”

[10.] O truly divine mind and tongue, to be initiated into such mysteries and to utter such sounds! Who will provide my ears even with distant echoes of these heavenly songs of praise? If those who lived on such an exalted plane, whose minds’ contemplation was so unmingled with lowly things, admired his hymns so greatly, what must the objects- -or more precisely, the object–of that praise be? Dionysius’ words continue:

“But what shall I tell you about what they said there of God? Unless my memory deceives me, I know I often heard from your own lips phrases from those inspired songs–such is your care not to approach divine things in a careless way. Let us, then pass over those sacred events, because they cannot be communicated to the masses and because you know about them yourself already.”

So writes Dionysius, the exalted interpreter of our knowledge of God, the soaring eagle, the one mind most adept at depicting the divine. It is right, I think, not to rush hastily past what he has written, but to stay with it as long as we can, and to penetrate the depth of his thought;” the knowledge we long for will be revealed to us there more vividly, and more clearly, too. And you, my venerable audience~-you must consider the meaning of what I am about to say, so that you may grasp the point of these mysteries we are celebrating, and know what a great multitude has gathered here [i.e., in the icon of the Dormition], and who they are. Let the holy seer lead us on, proclaiming this wonder as a prophet proclaims his oracles!

[11.] Come, then, let us descend the steps of unforgettable Sion (cf. Ps 137:1)for there we had gathered in my dis-course, a short while ago, there where the Mother of God had her earthly dwelling. It is time now to accompany her virgin body on its way from there, in a funeral procession. The Mother of God has committed her soul to him in whose hands all our souls rest; she has finished her life in the flesh. So, having begun the solemn cortege, let us join to our opening hymn a commemorative ode fitting for a funeral; in that way our words will flow in abundance, and what we have said already will reach full clarity in explanation. To do this each of you must come with me, dear friends–walk on to that holy place, Gethsemane, and see it with the radiant, joyful eyes of your mind; imagine these marvels clearly for yourself, and join what I have already said with the story’s end. If you gaze on the events themselves, you will not need long speeches to lead you to true knowledge; 2 «for all things are clear to those who understand, all paths straight for those who have discovered knowledge” (Prov 8:9 [LXXJ).

There [in Gethsemane] you will find a splendidly decorated Church, and rich, shining ornaments will surround you.

Beneath this superbly constructed house of God, recognize the bridal chamber, the tomb of the virgin Mother of God. Gaze with eyes of faith at the reclining limbs of that royal lady, as she is painted by the sacred artist. The chamber, hollowed out of the rock by other-than-human hands, has been dug at no great distance from the place of her funeral rites; there her holy tabernacle [i.e., her body] has been carried. You will find there

the assembly of holy teachers, all gathered together at the right moment and recognized by the mysterious working of the contemplative mind. The sacred seer tells us that they had arrived at the same time, in God’s inexplicable providence a gather. ing of holy men beyond easy counting.

112.] In order to grasp more easily the meaning of what they said, come, let us be drawn into the mysteries by the Holy Spirit, and let us make the Mother of the Word the patroness of our words, too. As giver of good gifts, she is nearby, teaching us and explaining the things that are beyond our comprehension. And come to my aid as well, O teacher initiated into the vision of the incomprehensible, O priest of the true tabernacle!!

Be a guide

for one who longs to linger with you; lead my understanding directly to the meaning of what I seek, and let me grasp it in mystical contemplation.

The divine author shows us in his own words that nearly the whole company of holy apostles was gathered for that great and venerable event, that climactic spectacle in the life of the Mother of God. All the disciples, scattered over the whole earth, were brought together then at once; he himself was with them, along with the wise and holy Timothy and Hierotheos.

For he writes, “When we, as you know, and you and many of our holy brothers had come together to gaze at the body that was the source of life, the vessel of God…” The “body that was the source of life” we understand as none other than the virginal tabernacle that received God, from which the one who exists beyond all essence took the humanity that he made di-vine. Coming in truth to [share in our essence, he made it his own in a super-essential way. The phrase here [of Dionysius] does not refer to the Lord’s body, since those who after his passion believed in him were not all present with him before his passion. And by “inspired hierarchs,” I understand him to be referring clearly to the members of the company of disci

ples, as the principal spokesmen of the Word. It is nothing to wonder at, if the Spirit that once raised Elijah and carried him off in heaven’s fiery chariot now brought them together all at once, in the Spirit, through the clouds. All things are easy for God, as we know from the story of Habakkuk and Daniel.14

[13.] How many do you imagine there were then, dear friend, gathered from all points of the compass to be with her?

Dionysius speaks of “many of our holy brethren,” so it seems clear that the seventy, those appointed disciples of Christ in second place, were also present in that divinely chosen gather-ing. For it was right both that [the Twelve], the protagonists and willing witnesses of the mystery [of Christ] should be there, and that some others, too, should be brought together by the Holy Spirit in that moment- -others who stood next to them in rank, because they shared after them in the responsibility of speaking divine things. Dionysius makes this clear when he adds, “James, brother of God, was there, and Peter, the leader and first in seniority among those who spoke of God.” One is struck with wonder at the thought that all of them arrived at the same time!

What happened then, what events followed when they all had arrived in Jerusalem, accompanied by an immense crowd, Dionysius’s next statement makes clear. “After we had seen her,” he says, “it seemed right to all the hierarchs, as each was able, to sing the praises of the limitless power and goodness of the weakness that gave birth to God.” Let us consider, then, what they had seen-_-what this beauty was, and what godly language they used to praise the loveliness in which the Lord delights–if the eyes of our minds can conjure up such things!

The sight that then appeared so radiant and beautiful to those inspired men would have been, I imagine, the splendid, shining vision of the Virgin’s earthly frame: the condition in which the Mother of God’s body appeared, radiating life and all light,

far above us and yet a body like our own. Jesus, the author of our life, has made available to us, from this body, the source of divine life; he transformed the first springing-forth (drapxn) of our redemption into a spring of life (Guns dpxnv),’ shaping it anew for his own purpose in a supernatural way, from the Virgin’s womb. “If the first-fruits (dnapx”) are holy,” the Apostle says, “then the whole mass is so as well; and if the root is holy, then the branches are also” (Rom 11:16).

1. ] The body of the Mother of God, then, is a source of life [for us], because it received into itself the whole life-giving fulness of the Godhead; it is the precious bridal-chamber of virginity, the heaven above us, the earth that brings forth God, the first-fruits of Adam’s mass made divine in Christ, exact image of [creation’s] original beauty, divinely confirmed guardian of God’s unspeakable judgments, dwelling-place of human perfection, spiritual book of God’s words of redemption, inexplicable depth of the endless “full-ness that fills all things” (Eph 4:10), impregnable fortress of our hidden hopes, treasury of a purity beyond our understand-ing, royal robe of the Word who is beyond all beginnings and who became a human being, earthly palace of the heavenly King, celebrated workshop for God’s dealings with us, utterly suitable material for the divine embodiment, divine and perfect clay for the sculptor of all creation–from whom he who is above all substance came to share, wholly and truly, in our substance, and took on a substance like ours, for our sake. 16

] Oh, truly blessed were those eyes, and the lips that praised these things! Who could interpret these mysterious sights with the tongue? Who is the most shining vessel of spiritual light? She was the lamp, by which our nature supernaturally received the sun of justice.! She is the spiritual mirror for the ray that shines forth from the Father. By her ra-diance, we are illuminated with the God who is, before the

morning star (cf. Ps 110:3). She is the throne exalted on high, on which the Lord of Hosts is seated, in the vision of that most far-seeing of all the prophets, Isaiah (Is 6:1). She is the standard of royalty for the heavenly race, the sanctuary where all sacred worship and sacrifice takes place, the spiritual altar for the divine holocaust, the tongs for the purging coal (Is 6:6f.), the Levites’ staff (cf. Num 17:16-26), the root of Jesse (cf. Is

11:10), the sceptre of David (cf. Ps 89:44?)-mother of him who formed us, nurse of him who nourishes us, gate for the rising Christ, who ascends from the depths of dawn (cf. Lk 1:78), narrow bosom sheltering the one who contains all things, spotless vestment of the lamb who is shepherd (cf. Apoc 7:1417), unyoked heifer of the fatted calf, pure fleece drenched by the heavenly dew (cf. Jg 6:36-40), virgin earth for Adam’s re-creator (cf. Gen 2:7), heaven for him who made earth into heaven, great vision of the prophets: vision which the saints [of old] saw “in many patterns and many modes” (cf. Heb 1:1), when they taught us in symbols of their mystic conceptions of God and prefigured the great mystery of God’s plan of re-demption. She is the great world in miniature, the world containing him who brought the world from nothingness into being, that it might be the messenger of his own greatness.

[16.] How could they fail to wonder as they saw her, lying on her funeral couch with her bodily powers now at rest-_-her who had been so honored and graced by the God who creates and contains all things? This, I believe, is what the sacred seer means when he speaks of “the limitless power and goodness of the weakness that gave birth to God.” What they all saw surely filled them with fear: the bearer of life, now borne away by death; her who spoke with God, now voiceless; her who bore life in her womb as in an ark, now dead, breathless, lying on a couch. If these things are <not foreign to our nature, still they are no less wonderful.!

There are spiritual mysteries here, for

one who can see God’s work in a spiritual way: childbirth and virginity (cf. Lk 1:34f.); words that speak of divine care and judgment, exaltation and submission, greatness and humility (cf. Lk 1:46f., 52). Here the form of her body obscured the brilliant rays of the sun. Here mortality becomes immortal, blinding the eyes of the beholders. Here are riches that fill all heaven and earth. It is a new spectacle, the most spectacular of all we have witnessed. What is this but the Mother of God, his tabernacle, lying on the ground: she from whom God came forth, manfully bearing our humanity as his trophy Christ the head, in whom the mass of our nature, formed from the earth, was transformed and made divine?

This was what they saw; this is the story–and greater, in all likelihood, than what we have so poorly narrated here!

What was their song? What did they celebrate? May Christ be with us, and give us words to recount this, for he is Word and Wisdom and Power; may he guide our minds on his way, towards the shining splendor of the heavenly anthems.’ And may our minds always be able to see these things clearly; may we be illumined and strengthened by them in him, Christ our Lord, to whom be glory and power, with the almighty Father and the life-giving Spirit, now and always and for ages of ages.

Amen.