On the Dormition Of the Mother Of God
Let
us be happy, beloved brothers and sisters that we belong to the
Holy Orthodox Church, worthily and rightly glorifying the Most Holy
Sovereign-Lady Bogoroditsa on
this eminent day out of all the days of the year with special
solemnity. There exist on earth many societies and entire governments
that do not consider the need and the well-founded obligation to call
upon and glorify the Tsaritsa of Heaven and earth, the Mother of Our
Divine Lord Jesus Christ, and other saints, even all the angels among
them, to serve Her with loving submission, as the true Mother of God.
And in Russia we have such heretics as the Tolstovtsy, the Pashkovtsi,
and the German Stundists who are disrespectful toward the Mother of
God, the saints, their honourable icons and holy relics. The righteous
Judge, the Lord, judges and condemns them, the Holy Church condemns
them, and all common sense condemns them. O, if only they also,
together with us, glorified the worthy Tsaritsa of Heaven and earth!
Today the Holy Church solemnly glorifies the honourable Dormition or translation of the Mother of God from earth to Heaven. A wonderful translation -- she died without serious illness, peacefully. Her soul is taken up in the divine hands of Her Son and carried up into the heavenly abode, accompanied by the sweet singing of angels, and Her most-pure body is transferred by the apostles to Gethsemane where it is honourably buried, and on the third day resurrected and taken up to Heaven. You see this on the icon of the Dormition of the Bogoroditsa. On
it is represented the life-bearing body of the Bogoroditsa lying on a bier, surrounded by the apostles and hierarchs, and, in the centre of the icon is the Lord, holding in His hands the most-pure soul of the Bogoroditsa.
The translation of the Mother of God is a paradigm of the translation in general of the souls of Christians to the other world.
We call our dead fallen asleep or passed away. What does this mean? This means that for the true Christian there is no death, which was conquered by Christ on the Cross. But there is a translation, i.e. a re-arrangement of him, i.e. his soul is in another position, in another age, in another world, beyond the grave, eternal, without end, that is the falling asleep, it is as if it were a temporary dream after which, by the voice of the Lord and the terrible trumpet of the Archangel, all the dead shall live and come forth, each to his place, either to the resurrection of life or to the resurrection of condemnation (John 5:29). This is what the Christian means by translation. We should be ready for this translation and for the day of the general resurrection and judgment, for this written indescribable world event. This preparation for the meeting of the heavenly Tsar', after death and for the dread judgment seat, is essentially the preparation of the person, in all his life, all his thoughts and complete moral change of all his being, so that all his soul would be pure and white as snow, washing clean everything that defiles the body and spirit, and is adorned with every virtue: repentance, meekness, humility, gentleness, simplicity, chastity, mercifulness, abstention, spiritual contemplation, and ardent love for God and neighbour.
Our preparation for the meeting of the heavenly Tsar; and for the inheritance of eternal life in heaven should consist of these things. The heavenly Tsar' needs souls, adorned with incorruptible virtue, souls prepared so that the Very Lord could live in them. Do not marvel that the Very Lord wants to live in us. In fact the human soul is more spacious than the heaven and earth for it exists in the image of God and if one removes sins from it, the Lord of all will settle in it and will fill it. We will come to him and make Our home with him (John 14:23) says the Lord about the souls loving Him.
And so, adherents of Christian feasts and the present feast of the Dormition of the Mother of God, brightly adorned with every virtue and translated to the heavenly tsardom to Her Son and God, cry to each and everyone about preparing their souls to be the dwelling place of the Lord, about continual repentance, and about incorruptible well-adorned Christian virtue, that your death also be unashamed, peaceful and serve as the pledge of a good answer at the dread judgment seat of Christ.
Amen.
Today the Holy Church solemnly glorifies the honourable Dormition or translation of the Mother of God from earth to Heaven. A wonderful translation -- she died without serious illness, peacefully. Her soul is taken up in the divine hands of Her Son and carried up into the heavenly abode, accompanied by the sweet singing of angels, and Her most-pure body is transferred by the apostles to Gethsemane where it is honourably buried, and on the third day resurrected and taken up to Heaven. You see this on the icon of the Dormition of the Bogoroditsa. On
it is represented the life-bearing body of the Bogoroditsa lying on a bier, surrounded by the apostles and hierarchs, and, in the centre of the icon is the Lord, holding in His hands the most-pure soul of the Bogoroditsa.
The translation of the Mother of God is a paradigm of the translation in general of the souls of Christians to the other world.
We call our dead fallen asleep or passed away. What does this mean? This means that for the true Christian there is no death, which was conquered by Christ on the Cross. But there is a translation, i.e. a re-arrangement of him, i.e. his soul is in another position, in another age, in another world, beyond the grave, eternal, without end, that is the falling asleep, it is as if it were a temporary dream after which, by the voice of the Lord and the terrible trumpet of the Archangel, all the dead shall live and come forth, each to his place, either to the resurrection of life or to the resurrection of condemnation (John 5:29). This is what the Christian means by translation. We should be ready for this translation and for the day of the general resurrection and judgment, for this written indescribable world event. This preparation for the meeting of the heavenly Tsar', after death and for the dread judgment seat, is essentially the preparation of the person, in all his life, all his thoughts and complete moral change of all his being, so that all his soul would be pure and white as snow, washing clean everything that defiles the body and spirit, and is adorned with every virtue: repentance, meekness, humility, gentleness, simplicity, chastity, mercifulness, abstention, spiritual contemplation, and ardent love for God and neighbour.
Our preparation for the meeting of the heavenly Tsar; and for the inheritance of eternal life in heaven should consist of these things. The heavenly Tsar' needs souls, adorned with incorruptible virtue, souls prepared so that the Very Lord could live in them. Do not marvel that the Very Lord wants to live in us. In fact the human soul is more spacious than the heaven and earth for it exists in the image of God and if one removes sins from it, the Lord of all will settle in it and will fill it. We will come to him and make Our home with him (John 14:23) says the Lord about the souls loving Him.
And so, adherents of Christian feasts and the present feast of the Dormition of the Mother of God, brightly adorned with every virtue and translated to the heavenly tsardom to Her Son and God, cry to each and everyone about preparing their souls to be the dwelling place of the Lord, about continual repentance, and about incorruptible well-adorned Christian virtue, that your death also be unashamed, peaceful and serve as the pledge of a good answer at the dread judgment seat of Christ.
Amen.
