Homily: Entrance of the Theotokos

 If you do not want to read (watch it here on YouTube)

Today is the Feast of the Entrance of the Theotokos into the temple. According to tradition, at a young age Mary was dedicated to temple service. At some point during this service, she was recognized by the high priest who was given prophetic insight into her role into the salvation of the world. The priest had then brought her into the temple where she had then entered into the holy of holies and where, as we sang in our Troparion, she proclaims the coming of Christ to all.

In order to understand the significance of this feast today we need to understand that prophetic insight that the priest had for bringing Mary into the temple. In order to do that we need to understand the temple. The temple in the OT, in its design, is filled with maternal imagery and the greatest image was called the ark of the covenant. The creation of the Ark was based on what Moses had seen when he was given the commandments, when he talked to God in the heavenly temple. The Ark was a copy of what he had seen.  Moses saw the real temple and he beheld in this temple the wisdom of God. Sophia as she is called by King Solomon in the book of Proverbs. Moses was commended to copy what he had seen. In doing so he was given the blueprints for temple worship. We read about this worship in the Davidic kingship rituals that are in the Psalms.  In these rituals, those that went before the Ark in the temple were believed to be reborn as sons of God, God's representation on earth. Unfortunately, at some point in history,y the ark was lost and in losing this there would be no more sons of God, no real representation of God on earth.

By the time of the events that we are celebrating today, there were many beliefs about how the temple would be restored and how a divine son would be in the world again. The son became known as the messiah. The problem was that in order to be a messiah there needed to be an encounter with the ark. This is why the high priest brought Mary into the temple; he was bringing the Ark back to its rightful place. The difference is that this ark was not the copy, of what Moses had built, it was the actual thing that Moses saw, It was the real thing, it was that wisdom of God, that which would give birth to thee Son of God.

As you see above behind me in the icon (there was an icon behind me of the Theotokos) the Theotokos remains in her proper place in the true temple, the temple that’s not made with human hands, not the copy, she is the true ark in the temple, she is what Moses had seen, she is the divine wisdom Solom spoke about, Sophia, and as of such, she is still giving birth to children of God. We are her children and today we are going to renew that bond with her when we partake of her flesh in the Eucharist. As our Byzantine Father St. Symeon the New Theologian teaches, in the Eucharist our Lord gives us his flesh, making us what he is, his flesh becomes our flesh as we receive it our body, it becomes our very own, in doing so he becomes our brother and God becomes our Father, and Mary becomes our mother. For it is from her flesh that he becomes one of us and he gives us this flesh that he gets from her today, which makes her become our mother in every way.

As her children, she is counting on us to make her family grow. She wants to be mother to us all. In order for that to happen we need to go out into the world and show people the benefits of being her children. There is an unfortunate word that the bible uses for people that are not her children. The Bible calls them the children of wrath. The people of this world are living under the bondage of the devil and some of these people will end up in an unfortunate fate if we don’t do something about it. These people need to see an alternative to the way that they are living now.

Showing these people an alternative is not complicated. When our Mother appeared as our Lady of La Salette she said we need to obey. Obedience is the path for how the world will be saved.  Our obedience to the teachings of Christ is what will save us and those around us. Its what makes the presence of the Holy Spirit active in this world. Our obedience reveals the power of the holy spirit and is what shows the world that we are in fact her children and today that is what our Mother is asking from her sons and daughters. Be obedient. Show people the Holy Spirit. Obedience is the key. As our Lord said in the gospel today blessed are those who hear the word of God and Keep it. Blessed are the obedient. Glory to Jesus Christ.