"Homilies on the Dormition of the Holy Mother of God"
by St. John of Damascus

ON THE HOLY AND GLORIOUS DORMITION AND TRANSFORMATION OF OUR LADY MARY, MOTHER OF GOD AND EVER-VIRGIN

By Our Holy Father John, Monk of Damascus and Son of Mansour

HOMILY II

1. No human being can worthily praise the holy passing of the Mother of God–not if he had ten thousand tongues and as many mouths! Even if all the tongues of the world’s scattered inhabitants came together, they could not approach a praise that was fitting. It simply lies beyond the realm of oratory.’ But since God loves what we offer, out of longing and eagerness and good intentions, as best we know how, and since what pleases her Son is also dear and delightful to God’s Mother, come, let us again grope for words of praise. So we shall obey your orders, O excellent shepherds so beloved of God,’ as we invoke the help of the Word who became flesh from her, who fills every mouth that is open towards him (Ps 81:11 [LXX]), and who is her only ornament, her perfect commendation. We know that when we begin to praise her, we are only paying what we owe, and that once we have offered this honor we become debtors again, so that our debt [of praise] always remains new, even when it has been discharged.

May she whom we celebrate be gracious to us-she who is above all creatures and reigns over all God’s works as Mother of God, the God who created and shaped and rules over all things. And I ask for your understanding towards me, too, O company so eager to hear God’s word; accept my good inten-tions, applaud my desires, be compassionate towards the weakness of my words. Imagine a king, given the governing

authority over his fellow men and women by God himself, whose table is always abundantly furnished and crowded with food of every kind, whose palace enchants us with the fragrance of costly ointments. If one should bring him, out of sea-son, a violet as purple as the sea, or a fragrant rose blooming amid its thorns, emerging mottled from its green calyx and gradually developing its color to full blush, or perhaps some honey-sweet fruit of autumn, he would notice not the slight value of the gift but its rarity at that time; and being a man of judgment and discernment, he would marvel at how unexpected it is, and would bestow on the peasant, in return, generous and elegant gifts. So we, too, bring this flower to the Queen in our wintertime of words; we arm an aging tongue for a contest of praise, and sharpen our mind with yearning as we might sharpen iron with a stone. And so, too, crushing words out of our mind like unripe grapes, we offer to you, connoisseurs of language and lovers of good oratory, this dim spark, this unfermented wine. May we be received still more favorably than that peasant

What should we offer the Mother of the Word but words?

Like always rejoices in like, because it recognizes it as its own.

Let us, then, open the starting-gates of speech, let us loosen the reins a little, and spur this discourse on as if we were riding a race-horse. And you, O Word of God–ride with me as my helper; give words to my stammering mind, make the track smooth for my speech, and lead my course straight towards your good pleasure, the goal of a wise person’s every word and thought.

2. Today the holy, incomparable virgin enters the heavenly sanctuary that lies above the universe. She so longed for virginity that she was transformed into it, as if consumed by the purest fire. Every virgin, after all, loses her virginity in giving birth; but she, who was a virgin before giving birth, remained

so during her labors and even after them.” Today the holy, living ark of the living God, the one who carried her own maker within herself, comes to her rest in the temple of the Lord not made by hands. David-her ancestor and God’s leaps for joy (2 Sam 6:4; 1 Chr 15:25); the angels join in the dance, the archangels applaud, the virtues give praise, the principalities rejoice with them, the powers exult, the dominations delight, the thrones make festival, the cherubim sing their hymn, and the seraphim glorify God.

They glorify him in no negligible

way, when they give glory to the Mother of glory.

Today the sacred dove, the pure and innocent soul who was also purified by the Holy Spirit, has flown from the ark-I mean from that body which received God and is the source of our life; and she has found “a place of rest for her feet” (Gen

8:9), flying up to the intelligible world and pitching her tent in the spotless land of our heritage on high.

Today the Eden of the new Adam welcomes the spiritual Paradise where our condemnation has been cancelled, where the tree of life is planted, where our nakedness is clothed again. For we are no longer naked and exposed, lacking the radiance of the divine image and stripped of the abundant grace of the Spirit; we need no longer tell the story of that tragic, ancient nakedness, saying, “I have taken off my tunic, and how shall I put it on again?” (Cant 5:3) For in this Paradise, the serpent has no means of entry–that serpent whose false promise of divinization led us to a covetousness that made us the equal only of irrational beasts. The only Son of God, who is God and of the same substance as the Father, formed himself into a human being from this virgin, from this pure soil; and so I, who am human, am made divine I, who am mortal, have now become immortal, and have stripped off my tunic of skin. For I have taken off corruption, and put on the robe of divinity.

Today the immaculate Virgin, who never involved herself

in earthly passions but was nourished on heavenly thoughts, did not return to earth (cf. Gen 3:19); being truly a living heaven, she now dwells in the tents of heaven. For who could err in calling her heaven, unless one were to say–and say rightly–that she has been lifted even above heaven in her incomparable privileges? For the maker and preserver of heaven and of everything in and beyond this universe, the craftsman of all that has been made, visible and invisible he who has no place, because he is the place of all other beings (if, indeed, place is defined as what contains the things within it): he has created a child in her, of his own power and without human seed, and has revealed her as the spacious treasure-house of that divinity that fills all things, alone and uncircumscribed.

He has gathered himself up completely in her, without suffering diminution, yet he remains wholly beyond her, abiding in himself as his incomprehensible home.

Today the treasury of life, the abyss of grace (I do not know how I can say these things with my bold, fearless lips!) is wrapped in a death that brings life. Undaunted, she draws near to death, having given birth to death’s destroyer–if one may call her departure from the world, so full of holiness and life, a death at all. For how could she, who brimmed over with true life for all, ever become subject to death’s power? Still, she yields to the law established by her own Son, and as a daughter of the old Adam she undergoes the ancestral trial, since even her Son, life itself, did not refuse it. But as Mother of the living God, it is also right that she should be brought into his presence. For if God was concerned “lest the first human being reach out his hand and take from the tree of life and eat, and live forever…” (Gen

3:21), how can she, who has received the life that knows no beginning or ending, the life free from the boundaries of both birth and death, not live herself for endless ages?

3. Long ago, the Lord God punished the ancestors of this

mortal race, who had gorged themselves on the strong drink of disobedience and had made the eyes of their heart drowsy with the wine of sin, weighing down their eyelids with sinful self-indulgence until they fell asleep in death; he banished them from the garden of Eden and drove them away. But now Mary has shaken off all the assaults of passion, and has planted again the shoot of obedience to God our Father, introducing life anew for all her race. Shall not Paradise receive her? Shall not heaven open its gates wide with joy? Surely it will! Eve once lent her ear to the message of the serpent, and allowed herself to hear the Enemy’s advice; her senses all enchanted by the deceiving charms of counterfeit pleasure, she received the sentence of grief and sorrow, undergoing the pangs of childbirth, the judgment–with Adam–of death, and imprisonment in the depths of Hades. But Mary, the truly all-blessed one, lent her ear to the Word of God, and was filled with the energy of the Spirit. She bore the Father’s good pleasure in her womb, at the angel’s word, and without sensual passion or contact conceived the very person of God the Word, who fills all things.

She brought him into the world without suffering the pains that adhere to our nature, for she was wholly united with God. How shall death consume her? How shall the realm of death receive her? How shall corruption dare to assault that body once filled with life? These things do not belong to her; they are all foreign to both the soul and the body of the one who bore God.

Death saw her and was afraid. For he had assaulted her Son, but learned from his defeat and grew wise from the expe-rience! For her the gloomy path down to the underworld remains untrodden; a straight, gentle, easy path to heaven is Opened for her. For if Christ, who is life and truth, has said,

“Where Iam, there will my servant be also” (In 12:26), is it not even more certain that his Mother will abide with him? She bore him before she knew suffering; her passing from life, too,

must be free from suffering. “The death of sinners is burden-some” (Ps 34:22 [LXXI); but since in her “the sting of death, which is sin” (1 Cor 15:56), was quelled, shall we say that the end of life was anything but the beginning of a better life, one that will know no end? “Precious,” truly, “is the death of the saints” of the Lord God of hosts (Ps 116:15 [LXX]); and precious above all the rest is the passing of the Mother of God!

“Let the heavens reioice now.’

” and the angels applaud; “let

the earth be glad” now (Ps 96:11; 97:1 [LXXI), and all men and women leap for joy! Let the air ring out now with happy song, and let the black night lay aside its gloomy, unbecoming cloak of darkness, to imitate the bright radiance of day in sparkles of flame.’ For the living city of the Lord God of hosts is lifted up, and kings bring a priceless gift from the temple of the Lord, the wonder of Sion (cf. Ps 68:30 [LXX]), to the Jerusalem on high who is free and is their mother (Gal 4:26): those who were appointed by Christ as rulers of all the earth–the Apostles- -escort to heaven the ever-virgin Mother of God!

4. It does not seem to me out of place to describe now, in what words I can- -to sketch out in at least a few scenes and im-ages-_-the marvels that came to pass at the death of this holy woman, the Mother of God, as we have learned of them in summary form from ancient times, as we say, at our mothers’ knees.

I can see in my mind this woman, holier than all things holy, sacred and venerable above all others- -the sweet vessel of the manna, or rather its true source- lying on a pallet in the celebrated Holy City of David: on Sion, that prominent and glorious mountain, where the law of the letter was fulfilled and the law of the Spirit proclaimed; where Christ, the lawgiver, brought to completion the symbolic Pasch and where the God of the Old and the New Covenant gave us the true Pasch; where the “lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world” (In 1:29), initiated his disciples into the mystical banquet, im

molated himself for them like the “fatted calf,” and trod out the grape of the “true vine” (cf. Lk 15:23, 27; Jn 15:1); where Christ was seen by the Apostles when he rose from the dead, and proved to Thomas–and through him to all the world–that he is God and Lord, possessing two natures even after he had come back from the dead, and with them two ways of acting and two autonomous wills, which shall remain in operation for endless ages.

This city is the citadel of the

Churches; she is the refuge of the disciples. Here the all-Holy Spirit was poured forth on the Apostles in the form of fire, making a great sound and communicating in many tongues. Here John the Theologian received the Mother of God into his care, and ministered to her needs. It was this city, the Mother of all the world’s Churches, which played home to the Mother of God, after her Son’s return from the dead. In this city, then, the Blessed Virgin lay, on a bed one can only call thrice blessed.

5. Having come to this point in my discourse, I am–if I may express my inner feelings- on fire with hot and restless yearning, I am seized with a thrill of awe and bathed in joyous tears, imagining that I could embrace that blessed and beloved bed, so filled with wonders. This bed has received the tabernacle from which came life itself; by its very nearness it has come to have a share in her sanctity. And this holy tem-ple-truly holy, truly worthy of God- I seemed for a moment to embrace with my own arms! I pressed my eyes, my lips, my forehead, my neck, my cheeks to her limbs, rejoicing in these sensations as if her body were present and I could touch it, even though I knew full well that I cannot see the one I long for with these eyes. How can one touch what has been lifted up into the heavenly sanctuary? But enough of this!  What honors, then, were paid her by the one who has commanded us in the Law to honor our parents?

The Apostles were scattered everywhere on this earth,

fishing for men and women with the varied and sonorous tongues of the Spirit, seeking to capture people in the net of their preaching and to save them from the pit of error by bringing them in to the spiritual, heavenly table at that mystic feast, that sacred banquet, that spiritual wedding of the heavenly Bridegroom–the banquet which the Father has spread, most royally and splendidly, for the Son who is his equal in power and who shares his nature. But by a divine command, a cloud swept the Apostles to Jerusalem from the ends of the earth as if it were itself a net, gathering eagles and drawing them in. For

“where the body is,” said Christ the Truth, “there the eagles will gather” (Mt 24:28). If this saying, after all, refers to the second coming of the one who spoke these words, to his second great and manifest arrival from heaven to dwell with us, still it is not inappropriate if we borrow it here, too, to season our discourse. The eye-witnesses, then, the servants of the Word, were there, ministering also to his Mother as they were bound to do and hoping to claim from her a blessing, as something valuable beyond price. For who can doubt the suggestion that she is the source of blessing and the fountain of all good gifts? The companions and successors of the Apostles were with them, too, to share in both their service and her blessing; for those who share in the labor will share proportionately in its rewards. And the holy community, God’s chosen ones from Jerusalem, were also standing by.

It was fitting that the most outstanding saints and prophets of old were with them, too, sharing in this holy guard of honor: those, namely, who had proclaimed beforehand that God’s Word would be born in flesh from her, for our sakes, out of love for us. Nor was the company of the angels excluded. For every creature who remained obedient to the King’s desire, and who therefore was worthy of such an honored position, had to be part of the escort for his fleshly Mother–that truly

fortunate and blessed woman, honored before “all genera-tions” and all creation (Ps 103:20f. [LXX]; Dan 7:9f; Lk 1:48).

All of them stood near her, as she was bathed in the beacon-light of the Spirit and illuminated them in turn with brilliant ra-diance, while each of them fixed the pure eyes of his spirit on her, in reverence and awe and unwavering affection. For there is not one being to whom this office does not fall–at least, no more than One alone; for no creature has received from on high supreme and incomparable Being, which, when it de-scended, would be capable of doing all things and accept no obligation to offer worship!

7. Then there must have been inspired speech, words that spoke of God! Then there must have been heavenly singing, celebrating her departure from this world! For it was right then, too, to sing the praises of the superabundant goodness of God, his greatness beyond all greatness and his power beyond power’s bounds, his self-restraint towards us beyond all height and magnitude, the richness beyond all riches of his unimaginable kindness, the inexhaustible abyss of his love. It was right to celebrate how [the Son], without abandoning his own great-ness, came down and emptied himself in the way that led to his exaltation (cf. Phil 2:6-10), supported by the good pleasure of the Father and the Spirit. It was right to sing of how the One who is above all substance took on substance in the womb of a woman, in a way above all substantial explanation,” of how he is God, yet became human–remaining both, yet the same person; of how he did not leave behind the divine essence, yet

“shared like us in flesh and blood” (Heb 2:14); of how he who

“Fills all things” (Eph 3:19; 4: 10) and “carries the universe with the word of his mouth” (Heb 1:3), came to dwell in a narrow place; of how the body of this celebrated woman, material and fragile as grass (cf. Is 40.6), received the consuming fire of the Godhead (Deut 4:24; Is 33:14; Heb 12:29), yet remained un

consumed, like purest gold. All these things came to pass by the will of God; for if God wills it, all things are possible, but nothing can be achieved against his will.

All this story became the subject of a great contest of words: not so that one might outdo the others–that kind of competition, after all, belongs to vainglorious minds that are far from pleasing God–but so that nothing might be lacking from their eagerness and force of expression, as they sang God’s praises and honored the Mother of God.’

8. It was then, indeed, that Adam and Eve, the ancestors of our race, cried out piercingly, with joyful lips: “Blessed are you, our daughter, for canceling the punishment of our trans-gression! You inherited from us a corruptible body, but you bore in your womb, for our sakes, the garment of incorruptibil-ity. You took your being from our loins, but you restored to us our well-being. You put an end to our travail, and broke through the swaddling-bands of death. You made available to us again our ancient home: we were the ones who locked Para-dise, you the one who opened the way to the tree of life.

Through our actions, sad times overtook good; but through yours, yet better times have come again out of sadness. How, then, shall you, the immaculate one, taste death? For you, death will be the bridge to life, the stairway to heaven, the ford to the banks of immortality. Truly you are blessed, O most blessed one! For who has been offered in sacrifice but the Word himself, suffering all that we have learned he did?”3

All the chorus of the saints’4 joined in the applause: “You have fulfilled the prophecies! You bring us the joy we have been waiting for! Through you, we have been released from the bonds of death! Come to us, holy and life-giving treasure come to us who long for you, for you have brought our longing to its end!”

But the throng of holy ones, still living in the body, who

stood by, took up a contrasting strain with equal emphasis:

“Stay with us,” they said, “our consolation, the only comfort we have on earth! Do not leave us orphans, O Mother, as we face danger in order to share the sufferings of your Son. Let us keep you among us, as rest in our labors and respite in our tri-als. If you wish to stay, it will surely be possible, and if you prefer to go, nothing will stand in your way. But if you go away, O tabernacle of God, then let us go with you, we who are called your people because of your Son! In you, we have the only consolation left to us on earth; to live and die in your company is the lot of the blessed! But how can we speak of your dying? For you, even death is life–and better than life, for it exceeds this life to an incomparable degree. But for us, how will life be livable, if we do not have you for a compan-ion?”

9.  This, it seems to me, is what the Apostles must have said to the Blessed Virgin, along with the whole assembly of the Church. But when they saw that the Mother of God was hastening towards the end of her life, even eager for it, they turned their minds towards hymns for the departing; for they were moved by divine grace, and lent their mouths to the Spirit, borne beyond flesh and yearning to leave this world with the departing Mother of God, even hastening ahead of her, in a way, in the intensity of their desire (cf. 2 Cor 5:1-8). And when all of them had brought to completion what desire and duty led them to do, when they had woven a colorful and abundant garland of sacred song, they received her blessing, as if it were some God-given treasure, and spoke their final words, fitting for the moment of death. They said, I imagine, words recalling how fleeting and insecure this present life is, and revealing the hidden mysteries of the good things to come.

10.  Just then, it would seem to me, something must have happened that fit these circumstances and that would naturally follow them. I mean that the King must have come to the one who gave him birth, to receive her soul into his pure and holy hands, her soul so upright and spotless. And it seems likely that she would have spoken thus: “Into your hands, my Son, I confide my spirit!’ (Ps 30:6 [LXX]; Lk 23:46; Acts 7:59) Receive the soul that is so dear to you, which you have preserved blameless. Yours is my body, too; I do not give it to the earth!

Keep it safe, since you were pleased to dwell in it, and to preserve its virginity as you were being born. Bring me close to you, so that where you are, the fruit of my womb, I too may be, and may share your home. I am hastening towards you, who came to dwell so immediately in me. And you must console my dear children, whom you have been pleased to call your brothers and sisters, when I go away from them; add a blessing to the blessing I shall now give them by laying on my hands.” Then, having spoken these words, she would have raised her hands, I imagine, and would have blessed those gathered there; and she would have heard, “Come, my blessed Mother, ‘into the place of my rest’ (Ps 132:8 [LXX]; cf. Ps 95:11 [LXXI). ‘Arise, come, my dear one,’ beautiful among all women; ‘for behold, winter has passed, and the time of pruning has come’ (Cant

2:10-12). ‘My dear one is beautiful, and there is no blemish in you’ (Cant 4:7). “The odor of your ointments surpasses all fra-grance’ (Cant 1:3; cf. 4:10).” And having heard these words, the holy woman would have committed her soul to the hands of her Son.

11. And what happened next? I imagine that the elements of nature were stirred up and altered, that there were sounds, crashes, rumblings, as well as remarkable hymns from angels who flew before her, providing her with an escort and with companions on the way. Some of them would have acted as a guard of honor for her spotless, holy soul, and would have ascended with it on its way to heaven, until they had brought the

Queen to her royal throne (cf. Ps 44:10 [LXXI); others would have surrounded her holy, sacred body, singing the songs that only angels can sing in honor of the Mother of God. And what of those [humans] who stood around that holy, sacred body?

They would have woven a tissue of reverent love, of joyful tears, around that holy, blessed temple; they would have embraced and kissed each limb belonging to that body, and that very contact would have been for them a sanctification and a blessing. Then sickness would have melted away; the cohorts of demons would have fled, rushing every which-way to their dens beneath the earth. The air, the fiery ether, the sky would have been made holy by the ascent of her spirit, as earth was sanctified by the deposition of her body. Even water had its share in the blessing: for she was washed in pure water, which did not so much cleanse her as it was itself consecrated. the deaf received perfect hearing again, the feet of the lame had their power to walk restored; sight was renewed in the blind, and the writ of condemnation was tor up for sinners who approached in faith (cf. Is 35:5f.; Mt 11:5; Lk 7:21f.; Acts

3:7; Col 2:14).

And what happened then? Her pure body would have been wrapped in fresh cloths, and the Queen placed again on her couch. Then lamps would have been brought, ointments ap-plied, funeral hymns sung; the angels would have chanted, in their own tongue, a song most fitting for them, while the Apostles and holy ancestors would have sung sacred canticles, inspired by the Spirit.

12. And then, then, the ark of the Lord would have departed from Mount Sion; borne on the glorious shoulders of the Apostles, it would have been brought, by way of a tomb, to its heavenly precincts. ” But first it is carried through the midst of the City, like a beautiful bride adorned with the unapproachable splendor of the Spirit; so its makes its way to the

sacred enclosure of Gethsemane, with angels before and beside it, covering it with their wings, and in the full assembly of the Church.

King Solomon, when he wanted to deposit the ark in the temple of the Lord, which he had built, called together “all the elders of Israel to Sion, to bear the ark of the covenant of the Lord up from the city of David, which is Sion… And the priests lifted up the ark and the tent of witness, and the priests and Levites brought it up. And the King and the whole people went in front of the ark, sacrificing bulls and sheep without number.

And the priests brought the ark of the covenant of the Lord into its place, in the innermost chamber of the Temple, to the holy of holies, under the wings of the cherubim.” (1 Kg 8:1-6 [LXX]) So now, to bring to its place the spiritual ark, not of the Lord’s covenant but of the very person* of God the Word, the new Solomon himself, King of Peace 2

and master-builder of the

universe, called together on this day the sublime ranks of heavenly spirits, and the leaders of the new covenant- I mean the Apostles–with all the holy people then in Jerusalem. And he solemnly led her soul, accompanied by angels, into the real and original Holy of Holies in heaven (see Heb 9:12; 10:20), resting on the very wings of the four “living creatures” (Ezek 1:6); he seated her next to his own throne, within the veil where Christ himself, our forerunner, has gone in his own body (ef. Heb 9:12;

10:20). But her body was carried by the hands of the Apostles, the King of Kings overshadowing it with the radiance of his invisible divinity, while the whole community of the saints ran before her, crying out holy acclamations and offering “a sacrifice of praise” (Ps 106:22 [LXXI), until the body was laid in the tomb as in her bridal chamber, and through it was given to the delights of Eden and the tabernacle of heaven.

13. It happened that Jews were present as well–those, at least, who were not wholly without good sense. And it might

not be a bad idea to add to our account, like a bit of spice in a cooked dish, what is reported on the lips of many people.?

They say that when those bearing the blessed body of the Mother of God came to the steep descent of the mountain, a certain Jewish man, enslaved by sin and committed to error, imitated the servant of Caiaphas who slapped the divine, majestic face of Christ, our God; becoming an instrument of the devil, carried forward by a bold, irrational whim, he rushed with demonic impulse towards that holiest of vessels, which even the angels approached with fear, and wildly seized the bier with both his hands, insanely trying to wrest it down to the ground. This attack, too, had its origin in the envy of the Prince of Evil. But the fruits came before the labors were ended, and the man reaped bitter grapes, worthy of his own foul purpose!

For they say that his hands failed him,’

22 and it was possible

suddenly to see the perpetrator of this dreadful deed, caught not only red-handed but completely handless, until he changed his mind and began to believe, and was converted. Immediately the pallbearers stood still; the wretched man placed both his arms on that dwelling-place of life, that bearer of miracles, and was brought in an instant from being mutilated to having healthy hands again. So a crisis can often be the mother of decisions that are for our good.? But let us return to the subject of our discourse.

14. From there, her body was carried to that holy place, Gethsemane. Again there were kisses and embraces, again words of praise, hymns and invocations and tears; they were bathed in streams of sweat from their anguish and affectionate grief. So that holy body was placed in its glorious, peerless monument; and from there it was lifted up to its heavenly home on the third day.

For it was fitting that this worthy dwelling-place of God- the spring of the water of forgiveness, which no human

ever dug; the wheatfield of the bread of heaven, which no human ever ploughed; the vine of the grape of immortality, which no human ever watered; the ever-blooming, richly fruitful olive-tree of the Father’s mercy- should not be confined within the hollows of earth. But rather, as the holy, spotless body which came from her, and which had its concrete existence in God the Word, rose on the third day from the tomb, so indeed it was right that she, his Mother, should be taken out of her grave and joined with her Son; and just as he had come down to her, so she, his first love, should be taken up to that “greater and more perfect tabernacle, …to heaven itself.” (Heb 9:11, 24)

It was fitting that she, who gave refuge to God the Word in her womb, should dwell in the tent of her own son; and as the Lord said that he must be in his own Father’s house (Lk 2:49), so it was right that his mother should make her home in her son’s palace, “in the house of the Lord, the courts of the house of our God” (Ps 134:1; 135:2). For if “the home of all who rejoice is in him” (Ps 87:7), where else should we find the cause of our joy?

It was fitting that she, who preserved her virginity undam-aged by childbirth, should have her body preserved from corruption even in death. It was fitting that she, who held the creator in her lap as a baby, should rest in the tabernacle of God. It was fitting that the bride, whom the Father took for his own, should dwell in the bridal-chamber of heaven. It was fitting that she, who gazed at her own son on the cross, and who [there] received in her heart the sword of pain that she escaped at childbirth, should look on him enthroned with his Father. It was fitting that the Mother of God should receive the blessings of her son, and be reverenced by all creation as Mother and servant of God. For a heritage always passes from parents to children; but now, as a wise man has said, the streams of the sacred rivers flow upwards! For the Son has subjected all creation to his mother!

feas,% Come, then, let us celebrate today oursclves a funeral

for the Mother of God! We do not bring flutes and revel-ers, or join in revels like those that are said to be celebrated for the mother of the so-called gods”

-the one whom, the myth-

makers say, had many children, while the truth is she had none.

These are but spirits, shadowy apparitions, bravely pretending to be what they are not, and they find their support in the foolishness of those they deceive. For how can one produce a bodiless being by sexual relations? How are they united to each other? And how can that be a god, which first did not exist, and is later brought into being? That the race of spirits is bodiless is surely clear to everyone, even to those whose intellectual eyes are blind. For Homer said, somewhere in his works, when describing the condition of those he considered gods,

They eat no bread, nor drink the fiery wine; Therefore they lack blood, and are called immortal. They do not eat bread, he says, and do not drink the wine that warms us; for this reason they are bloodless, they have no blood–yet they are called immortal! How rightly he says that “they are called” this! For they are called immortal, but are not what they are called; they have already died the death of wickedness.

But we, for whom God is the object of worship God, who has not come from non-existence into being, but who always and from all eternity is, beyond cause and explanation, beyond any notion of time or nature: we honor and venerate the Mother of God! We do not mean to suggest that the timeless birth of his divinity was from her-for the begetting of God’s Word lies outside time, of equal eternity with the Father- out we confess his second birth, a freely-chosen birth in the flesh, and we know and proclaim the cause of this birth. For he who without beginning exists without a body became flesh “for us and for our salvation,” that like might be wholly saved by its

like; and taking flesh from her, the holy virgin, without the union of human parenting, he was born, while remaining wholly God. Becoming wholly human, he is himself the whole God with his flesh, and a whole human being with his supremely transcendent divinity. So we, who recognize this virgin as Mother of God, now celebrate the feast of her dormition. We do not call her a goddess- we will have none of such pedantic classical fabling

• _for we proclaim her death. But we recog-

nize her as Mother of the God who became flesh.

16. Let us praise her, then, today with sacred songs, we who are privileged to be called and to be the people of Christ. Let us honor her with an all-night assembly.?

Let us delight in her ho-

liness of soul and body; after all, she is truly, after God, the holiest of all beings, for like always delights in like! Let us do her homage by our mercy and our compassion for the poor. For if God is honored by nothing so much as by mercy, who can deny that his mother is glorified, too, by the same thing? She has opened up to us the unspeakable depth of God’s love for us!

Through her, our age-old war against our creator has come to an end. Through her, our reconciliation with him has been forged, peace and grace have been bestowed on us, human beings join with the chorus of angels, and we who were once without honor have now been made children of God. From her, we have plucked the grape of life; from her we have harvested the flower of incorruptibility. She has become the mediator of all good things for us. In her, God has become human and the human being God!

What could be more paradoxical than this? What could be more blessed? My head spins with reverent fear at what I have just said! Let us dance to the sound of tambourines, O you who are young at heart, with Miriam the prophetess (Ex 15:20), putting to death “our earthly members” (Col 3:5)-for that is the mystic significance of the tambourine. Let us shout in our

hearts the cry of victory for the ark of the Lord God, and the walls of Jericho will fall–I mean those grim fortifications of the hostile powers (Jos 6:20). With David, let us dance in the Spirit: for today the ark of the Lord comes to its rest. With Gabriel, the chief of the angels, let us cry out, “Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with you!” (Lk 1:28) Hail, inexhaustible ocean of grace! Hail, our only salve for sorrow! Hail, medicine that banishes pain from every heart! Hail, you through whom death has been banished, and life made welcome!

17. And you, most holy of holy tombs, after the tomb of the Lord, which is the source of our life- the spring of our resurrection- I speak to you now as if you were alive! Where is that

unadulterated gold, which the hands of the Apostles confided to your keeping? Where is that inexhaustible wealth? Where is the treasure that received God? Where is the living tablet, where is the new book, in which God’s Word was ineffably written, without a hand? Where is the depth of grace? Where is the ocean of healing? Where is the life-giving spring? Where is the body of the Mother of God, that body we so love and long for?

<The tomb replies:> “Why do you seek in a tomb one who has been taken up to the tabernacle of heaven? (cf. Lk 24:5)

Why do you exact a reckoning from me about her disappear-ance? I have no power to resist the divine command. Her holy, sacred body left its wrapping cloth behind, and after sharing with me her holiness, after filling me with the fragrance of ointments and making of me a holy shrine, she was raised up and departed, escorted by angels and archangels and all the heavenly powers. Now angels take care of me; now divine grace dwells in me. I have been revealed as a source of healing, @ remedy for pain. I am a constant spring of health; I put demons to flight. I have become a city of refuge for those who flee to me (cf. Ex 21:13f; Num 35:9-34). Come to me in faith, you peoples, and draw from my river of blessings; keep your

faith above reproach (James 1:6), and come! ‘You who thirst, come to the water,’ Isaiah urges, ‘and you who have no money, come, buy without price.’ (Is 55:1) I have cried out to all, as the Gospel does: if anyone thirsts for the healing of illness, for release from the soul’s passions, for the cancellation of sin, for freedom from all kinds of assaults, for the repose of the Kingdom of Heaven, let him come to me in faith and draw from the stream of grace, so full of power and goodness (cf. Jn 7:37-39).

Just as the action of water, which like that of earth and air and the all-enlightening sun is simple and single, still adapts itself in a different way to each creature who shares in it, according to its nature, becoming wine in a grape and oil in an olive, so grace, which is simple and single, works for the good of those who share in it in various parallel ways, according to the need of each (cf. 1 Pet 4:10). I do not possess grace of my own nature. Every tomb is full of bad odors, a source of sadness, the enemy of joy; but I have been given precious ointment, I have shared in its fra-grance-an ointment so fragrant and powerful that even a tiny touch of it bestows a share in a gift that can never be lost. Truly,

‘God does not repent of his graces’ (Rom 11:29). For I have received into myself the spring of happiness, and I have been enriched with an ever-flowing well of joy.”

You see, dear fathers and brothers, what this illustrious tomb has to say to us.34

And what shall we answer to the tomb ourselves? Your grace is unceasing, ever-flowing; yet God’s power is not limited to places, nor are the gracious actions of the Mother of God. If they were restricted to her sepulcher, after all, God’s gift would inspire very few people! But in fact, it is given without measure in all corners of the world. Let us, then, make our own remembrance of her into a rich monument for the Mother of God. S How shall we do this?36 She is herself a virgin, and a lover of virgins; she is herself pure, and a lover of the pure. If we

consecrate her memory along with our own bodies, we will receive her grace to dwell within us. She avoids all impurity, and turns away from the morass of our passions. She loathes glut-tony, and is the foe of our base drive of sexual self-indulgence;

She flees from our impure thoughts like a “brood of vipers” (Mt 3:7; 12:34; etc.); she shuns wicked and frivolous talk and singing, and will have no contact with seductive perfumes.

She hates the swellings of pride, and will not accept inhumane behavior or quarreling. She rejects vainglory, that exerts itself to no purpose. She opposes puffed-up arrogance as a bitter en-emy. She loathes an unforgiving mind, as the enemy of salva-tion. She considers all vice as a deadly poison, but she rejoices in their opposites: for opposites are the cure for what they op-pose! She delights in fasting, in self-control, in the singing of psalms; she rejoices in the presence of purity, of virginity, of temperance. She bestows on these things unfailing peace, welcomes them with affection. She embraces the peaceful and gentle heart, she takes love and mercy and humility into her arms as her own children. To put it briefly, she is horrified and angered by any kind of wickedness, but rejoices in all goodness as if it were a gift bestowed on herself.

If, then, we bravely avoid the evils of our old way of life, and earnestly love the virtues and make friends with them, she will often come to visit her own servants, leading along with her the whole assembly of the just.

And she will also bring

with her Christ her Son, the King and Lord of all things. nog dwell in our hearts. To him be glory, honor, power, majesty and splendor, with the eternal Father and the Holy Spirit, now and always and for ages of ages.

Amen.