Met. Jonah: On the Feast of the Dormition of the Theotokos

(OCA) - “He made thy body into a throne, and thy womb he made more spacious than the heavens.”

—Hymn to the Theotokos at St. Basil’s Liturgy

Dearly beloved in the Lord:

All of Creation rejoices in the Mother of God. This woman, full of the grace of God, shows us through her silence and humility what great glory is laid up for those who do not shut the door of their hearts to this grace. In the preceding feast, we stood with the disciples, falling to the ground with them as we beheld the flesh of Christ radiant with this glory on Mount Tabor. Today, in her accustomed modesty, the Mother of God veils the glory she shares with Christ, concealing it by the death which she also shares with Him. Yet through faith in the Church’s witness, we know that as she partook of Christ’s death, so also she partook of His resurrection, for death could have no power over her who bore our Life; and that body, from which God himself borrowed human flesh, could not see corruption in the grave.