The Dormition of the Theotokos
Two Homilies by Fr. Mark McNary
St. Peter Antiochian Orthodox Church
Fort Worth, Texas
I. Assumption Day Homily
August 15, 2020
– Today we celebrate one of the 12 Great Feasts of the Church, the Assumption (Dormition) of the
Blessed Virgin Mary.
– Dormition (falling asleep) Assumption (her being taken into Heaven into the blessed arms of
her Son and glorified there).
Introit: “Rejoice we all, and praise the Lord, celebrating a holy day in honor of the Blessed
Virgin Mary; for whose Assumption the Angels rejoice and glorify the Son of God.”
Collect: O God, who this day didst take to thyself blessed Mary, the ever-virgin Mother of thine
only-begotten Son.
Fr. Thomas Hopko: “In the Orthodox Church the Virgin Mary is the image of those who are being saved.
If Jesus Christ is the Savior, Mary is the image of the saved.” (When we look to her we see
ourselves)
Fr. Alexander Schmemann: “She is, in every aspect of her life, not the great exception, but rather
the great example.
– The Holy Spirit brought the Apostles to her side at the time of her falling asleep. God
wanted to reveal something extraordinarily important to all of them.
– They had witnessed the Resurrected Jesus Christ. Now He wanted them to see something
extraordinary, the future of all who would remain in Christ Jesus.
– I tell you that today, and one of the very reasons it is one of the 12 major feasts of the
Church, is that it is a day that highlights the great Christian hope we are to have. That is, the resurrection of all in Jesus Christ.
– In fact, you will find in the teachings of the Church that this Feast Day, the
Assumption/Dormition of the Blessed Virgin Mary is considered a Summer Pascha. A celebration of
Resurrection in the Summer.
– Why? At Pascha, we celebrate the Resurrection of Jesus Christ trampling down death by death
and being shown in the glory of the Resurrection.
– Today, we celebrate that which was made possible by the Resurrection of Jesus Christ…that is,
the resurrection of us all joining Him in trampling down death by death and our being glorified as
He takes us to Himself.
A) The Icon
a. We see the Apostles, minus St. Thomas, surrounding the Blessed Virgin as she was falling asleep
in Christ.
– Any many explanations of the truths written in this Icon, they say “In every face is sorrow
combined with sweet joy. This is what the Orthodox call joyful sorrow, a characteristic of the
faithful who live with the expectation of the Resurrection.”
– Why sorrow? Because the Mother of our Lord indeed fell asleep, her body died. And they loved
her, honored her, and loved fellowship with her.
– Why sweet joy? Because the saw and experience the Resurrected Jesus Christ and they knew that
death had been conquered.
– Their joy would be strengthened by what they would witness together after her falling asleep.
– The Apostle Thomas was unable to be present as she fell asleep but arrived just a few days
later. He desired to see her one more time, so they opened the tomb.
– There they discovered that her body was no longer there.
– You see, the Apostles were not only given the gift of witnessing the Resurrection of the Body
of Jesus Christ after His Crucifixion…
– But now they would be given a glimpse of the very fulfillment of true life over death for
every Christian, for on the last day at the return of our Lord Jesus Christ even our bodies will be
raised anew from the tombs and glorified as He brings us to Himself.
Apolotykion of the Dormition “…in thy falling-asleep thou wast translated into life”
b. Back to the Icon
– At the bottom we see the Blessed Virgin fall asleep.
– But just above her, what do we see?
– We see her translated. We see her in the icon fall asleep and at the same time we see her Son
our Lord wrap her up in His loving arms and bring her to Paradise with Him.
– The Church teaches us to notice something about her being in the arms of her Son.
– In the icons of the Blessed Virgin Mary, what do we see? We see the Mother of our Lord holding
Him in her arms; and she is moving our attention by leaning her head and pointing with her hand
toward Him.
– In the icon of the Dormition/Assumption we have almost the opposite.
– Now, she who bore Christ our God in her arms now is now born in the arms of her Son into
Paradise; resurrected and glorified because her Son is the Resurrection and redeemer of us all.
B) Conclusion
– In the Dormition/Assumption of the Blessed Virgin we rejoice with joy and take great
comfort…because we see the fulfillment of us all because of Jesus Christ the Resurrection and the
life.
– Those of us who have lost those we love hear on earth who have fallen asleep in the Lord, let
your hearts turn be filled with joy when you look at our Lord holding His Mother…for those who fall
asleep in Christ are translated by Him into Paradise and we will fellowship with them for a lot
longer there than we had here.
– And let us not fear our mortality in an unholy way. For if we remain in Christ, when we fall
asleep this translation will happen for us. And what a joy and comfort that is.
– Today is one of the 12 major feasts of the Church because it takes the Resurrection of Jesus
Christ and ties it directly to what is afforded to us…our resurrection, our being translated
through death to life eternal…our overcoming of death because of Christ’s overcoming of death.
“Rejoice we all, and praise the Lord, celebrating a holy day in
honor of the Blessed Virgin Mary; for whose Assumption the
Angels rejoice and glorify the Son of God.”
II. Homily on Day 5 of the Assumption Octave
August 19, 2020
This can be understood as an extension of the Homily from Saturday, August 15
- Today we celebrate once again the Feast of the Assumption of the BVM as we are still in the Octave of that celebration.
- Last Saturday, we reflected on the reality that when we see her falling asleep (her Dormition) and her body being taken into heaven and glorified there by and in the arms of her Son, our Lord Jesus Christ…
- We see the absolute glorious future of all those who remain in Christ.
- In other words, to see her resurrection is to see our own resurrection because Jesus Christ is the Resurrection.
- My mind has been very much on the resurrection in this Octave of the Assumption, because during this season I have gone through the falling asleep of the Archpriest Michael Keiser and the Archpriest Fr. Anthony’s mother, Leda Gray.
- So I thought today I would share with you just a few of my favorite meditations, points of focus, on the resurrection in times such as these:
1 Cor. 15 : 51 Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed— 52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. 53 For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. 54 So when this corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.”55 “O Death, where is your sting? O Hades, where is your victory?”
- We see this clearly in the Assumption of the BVM, corruptible in the twinkling of an eye putting on incorruption.
- Glorified there in the arms of her Son her Savior, and glorifying Him as she gestures toward Him proclaiming that He is the Resurrection and the Life.
St. Romanos the Melodist (6th century) “In considering the tomb and those in the tomb, we weep, But we should not…They have come from temporal life, released from its sorrows; They are at peace, waiting for the receiving of divine light. The Lover of man has them in His charge, and He has divested them of their temporal clothing in order that He may clothe them with an eternal body. Why, then, do we weep in vain? Why do we not trust Christ, as He cries: “He who believes on me shall not perish, For even if he knows corruption, after that corruption, He will be resurrected and he will rise up Saying, ‘Thou art the Life and the Resurrection'”?”
- What do we really have to fear in this life when we hear such words of truth?
- One of the greatest truths we remember regarding the Resurrection comes from the Gospel reading in the Requiem Mass surrounding the death of Lazarus and his being raised from the dead.
(St. John 11: 21-25) Martha says to Jesus, “If you had been here my brother would not have died.” Jesus comforts her by saying “your brother will rise again.” Martha agreed, “Yes, Lord, I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.” Jesus tells her, “I am the Resurrection and the Life, He that believes in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live.”
- The Christian hope is not founded on some event that will happen for all souls in the future (though a magnificent event will happen).
- But our hope is not in an event. Our hope is in a person apart from Whom there can be no Resurrection, no life.
- Our hope is in Jesus Christ who said to Martha then and to us today, “I am the Resurrection and the Life.”
- Those who remain in Him, one with Him, cannot obtain anything else but Resurrection and Life because He is both; He is the source of life; the life that overcomes death.
- As we continue in the Octave of the Feast of the Assumption which concludes Saturday, set your eyes on the very core meaning of this Octave; that is, set your eyes upon the One Who is the Resurrection and the Life.
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