The All Holy

 Extended commentary and homily here: (youtube link)

A homily for the Feast of the Maternity of Holy Anna

Today is the Feast of the maternity of Holy Anna. It’s through her that the Panagia was conceived. Pangia is one of the titles that our Byzantine tradition uses for Mary, it means the all-holy. She is all-holy not because she went on to become the Theotokos, the Birthgiver of God, but because that’s what she was by nature. She in fact represents a history of God working with human nature in crafting it to be what it was designed for, which was a temple of God. This is why we call it the feast of the maternity of Holy Anna because it was through Holy Anna and her ancestors that Mary became what we were meant to be.

As I said, our Lady became what we were meant to be. We might not be used to thinking in this way, but our bodies were created for eternity. God's plan for human nature was for it to become divine and his plan for this world that we live in was for it to become heaven. As we know, our ancestors frustrated this plan by their sin. However, God never changed his mind for us and the rest of the world, and you will find in the scriptures a whole history of getting us back on track. A track that begins with a people and a part of the earth that he chose to become holy, a people and part of the earth that he purified, a purification that found its fulfillment in Holy Anna when she conceived.

Going back to that plan that I mentioned in scripture for human nature. This was a plan for all of us. God may have worked through certain individuals and certain places, but he did so that we can all become what we were created for. In fact, you will find that the scriptures even speak to us of our conclusion. In the book of Revelation, it says that God will be bringing us back here. We are going to be resurrected and this earth that we live in will become heaven. It will be the permanent dwelling place of God and if that is the case we need to ask ourselves: how should we be living now? How should we be living in a body that will one day be immortal and how shall we be living upon an earth that will one day become heaven?

The apostles teach us in the scriptures that before the great day of the resurrection there will be a great purification. Everything they say will be purified by a divine fire. This fire is not meant to destroy us or the earth. God is not starting over from scratch. The scriptures speak of this in terms of how a blacksmith purifies his precious metal in the fire in order to remove the impurity.  This is important for us to understand because we need to learn to make ourselves and the world that we live in precious metal. We need to learn to be our own blacksmiths. God is going to finish what we started but it is his desire that we have something for him to finish.

In the work that he is asking from us, this work that he will finish, he is asking from us only 3 things, to love God, to love our neighbor, and to love creation. Love is the only thing that will endure the fire.  Everything else will be burnt away. Every sin, every idol word, and everything that is not worthy of being perfected by the master blacksmith. Now we might be used to hearing the first 2 things that I mention, love God and neighbor, but not the 3rd, love creation. As I mentioned, God's plan for creation, for this earth, was to become heaven. In other words, the vocation given to our ancestors in the Garden of Eden, which I mentioned that they frustrated, was to make the rest of the world the Garden of Eden, they were to perfect it, to make it a holy place. This vocation has not changed. We are still called to do this. That’s what you see in a church. A church is Eden, the place where heaven and earth meet. A church is this way because of how we love God and each other there, and as we leave our churches we need to go forth and make the world we live in our church.