In the name of God the Father, Christ Jesus His Son and the Holy Spirit, One True God. Amen
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus
We have begun this journey of the Advent season through ‘Koodosh Eetho‘ or ‘Sanctification of the Church‘ wherein we sanctified or set ourselves apart from the world to become the living temples of the Most High God. We continued this journey through ‘Hoodosh Eetho‘ or ‘Dedication of the Church‘ wherein we dedicated ourselves to meet the purposes of God for which we have been placed in this world, no matter our circumstances and no matter what doubts would be swirling in our thoughts. In face of all the trials and temptations around us which lead us to question our faith, this Sunday we dedicated ourselves to stand firm in our attestation that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and we are His living body.
Last Sunday we commemorated the Annunciation to Zecharias, the High Priest by Angel Gabriel about the birth of St. John the Forebearer in their old age. We learnt that there is a purpose in our barrenness in our life and God desires to have us fruitful. We only need to have trust and faith in the purposes of God in our life and in sight of all the unbeknownst blessings showered upon us, of which many are higher than our thoughts, we are called to keep silence and pray so that His wisdom may guide our thoughts.
Today, on the Fourth Sunday of the Advent season, the Holy Fathers have chosen the Gospel portion of the Annunciation of the Angel Gabriel to Mary about the birth of the Messiah, Jesus Christ. This feast of Annunciation is so important to meditate and contemplate upon that this feast of Annunciation is celebrated twice in a year. The Orthodox Church celebrates this feast on March 25 as well as on the 4th Sunday of the Advent season. The feast of Annunciation follows the Feast of the Presentation of Mary to the Temple, which is commemorated on November 21.
You may learn more about the Feast of the Presentation by clicking on the link in this line.
Sing and rejoice, O daughter of Zion, For I come and I will dwell in the midst of you, says the Lord
Zechariah 2:10
A Woman full of Divine Grace
When we contemplate on today’s Gospel portion, we find that this is one of the few extensive passages where we are able to understand the character of Mary. Throughout the Christian history, Mary has been adorned with many titles such as ‘Queen of Heaven’, the ‘Mediatrix’ (Mediator), and most importantly, the ‘Theotokos’ (God bearer, for she bore God in her womb for nine months). Liturgical hymns speak of her as the flower that bore the fruit, the golden censor, the New Jerusalem, the ewe that bore the Lamb, and her womb is said to be more spacious than the heavens.
But before all these titles, we can see one of the earliest titles given to Mary, when Angel Gabriel addresses her:
Hail, O favored one, the Lord is with thee!”
Mary when chosen by God as His most perfect creation for Jesus Christ, the Son of God, to come into the world, the Angel Gabriel, God’s messenger, spoke extraordinary words to Mary: “Hail, full of grace”, in Greek, “Kaire, kecharitomene”. The Angel does not call her by her earthly name, Miryam, Mary, or any other titles but ‘Kecharitomene’, ‘Full of Grace’, as if this were her real name.
Biblical scholars explain that the reference “Full of Grace” indicated that Mary was the object of God’s grace and was chosen from a long time in the past, as prophesied in Isaiah 7:14,
Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Emmanuel.”
When we look at the life of Mary, can we see a life that is filled with God’s grace? The life and the events that occurred in her life is nothing short of painful, because her life was filled with pain, even from a young age. Let us take a glance at them:
- Being born to old parents would have obviously placed her in a difficult situation we cannot fathom…
- Given to the Temple to live there and grow up without the company of girls her age
- She lost her parents while she was in the Temple
- She was given in marriage to a man who was much older than her in age and with less means to support her financially
- She became pregnant out of wedlock
- She found no home or safe place to deliver her child, for when women delivered their child in presence of a nurse or an elder woman and in safety of clean place, she delivered her child in a manger in the presence of animals with Joseph looking after her
- A troubled apprehension would have crept in her when Simeon told her that her heart would be pierced and her baby is destined for greatness
- Though her joy was short-lived, she had to run from Bethlehem to Egypt to protect her child from certain death…
- Once she would have started settling in Egypt, Joseph would have asked her to pack up and move back to their own country and settle in Nazareth
- The loss of Joseph at an early stage when they were living in Nazereth and while Jesus was still a young boy
- Seeing Jesus go about town to town doing His miracles and listening to His teachings and finding that people were ridiculing her only son and was also plotting to kill Him
- Finally, seeing Him on the Cross on Calvary
What a life our Mother had lived. A life filled with so much pain and sorrow in her young age. If anyone of us were to bear such a burden today, we would be ridiculed as unfortunate and we would possibly have some mental disorder and would have to be admitted to a mental asylum or placed under care.
When we look at the life of our Blessed Mother, we can understand that the life that she lived was through the grace of God alone and not by human will power. But let us now learn what is Grace of God to truly understand what I meant:
Grace of God is the love of God shown to the undeserved; the peace of God given to the restless; the unmerited favor of God. Grace of God is God reaching downward to people who are in rebellion against Him. It is an unconditional love toward a person who does not deserve it.
Grace is most needed and best understood in the midst of sin, suffering, and brokenness. In a world full of earning, deserving and merit resulting in judgement, grace is getting what we do not deserve. Though everyone is desperately searching for it, it is not about us. Grace is fundamentally a word about God: His un-coerced initiative and pervasive, extravagant demonstrations of care and favor. Michael Horton writes,
In grace, God gives nothing less than Himself. Grace, then, is not a third thing or substance mediating between God and sinners, but is Jesus Christ in redeeming action.”
God was preparing Mary from a very young age to be able to bear the sword that would be piercing her. It is not because God is a sadist that He enjoyed treating Mother Mary so, but it is because He was looking at a bigger picture of redemption of the whole mankind. It is the grace of God that helped her persevere in her life and hold on to the blessings that He had given her.
In our life, whenever we are faced with trials and problems that cause us too much mental struggle, we tend to look inward and draw ourselves up into a cocoon. Mary, undoubtedly, would have done so as well. But the grace of God allowed her to pick herself up and open the shell that would have surrounded her and walk stronger in her faith with God. She would have learned to trust God and His plans from a very young age and fulfill His calling in her life. She learned to trust God and His plans for her when she lost all those who were dear to her, her parents, her husband, her only son. But it is the grace of God which helped her to become who she is currently – a blessed among the woman, for she bore the Almighty God within her.
Synergy of Divine and Human Will
My second thought is based on the response that Mary gave to the Angel bearing tidings of joy (or is it really joy that she had or was it a time for concern of safety for herself?) After the Angel explained to Mary on how she would conceive in absence of a man in her life and also gave her a sign of a similar miracle in the life of her relative, Elizabeth and Zecharias, Mary replied and said:
Behold the handmaid of the Lord! Let it be to me according to your word.”
Luke 1:38
When we contemplate about the conception of Jesus and Mary’s participation in it, do we think that she was compelled to fulfill the will of God, regardless of her spiritual relationship with God? Was she a mere instrument overwhelmed or even “used” by God for the sake of God’s eternal purpose? Was the Virgin Mary randomly chosen for the role of being the Mother of God?
If we were in the place of Mother Mary, what would have been our reaction to God asking us to bear His Son in us? What will we think of our daughters as young as 13-14 years, if they were to carry Jesus in their womb at such an young age? What would have been Mary’s answer if God had not trained her from an early age to trust in Him and fill her with His Grace?
Scripture tells us that God will not give us more than we can bear. The Lord asked Mary to bear his Son when he knew she would be able to accept it. The request came when the time was right and in direct correlation to the grace that was already in her. She was “full of grace” before the Annunciation. By learning to cooperate with God in the small things of life she made herself able to cooperate with him in the very big thing we call the Incarnation.
God did not force Mary to accept His wish, but it was Mary’s free will that prompted her to agree to the plans of God and answer in the yes. That is the reason why Mary is called the second Eve, because the first Eve exercising her free-will disobeyed God by eating the fruit in the Garden of Eden and punishing the whole creation with her sin, while Mary, the second Eve, with her exercising her free-will chose to bear God within her which led to the redemption and the sanctification of the whole creation.
Mary’s response to the situation placed before her is of the highest obedience to God. The Incarnation is not only the work of God, but it involves the free response of mankind in the person of Mary. This obedience shows us the power of synergy of human and divine will. (The word synergy denotes the harmonious combination and balance between divine grace and human freedom that can occur between God and human beings.)
In the same manner, the Lord will not force us to walk the way of truth and liberation. He will not force us to walk the way of self-denial and compassion. He will not force us to walk the way of purification, enlightenment and theosis. The choice is ours and the power is in us to make it. It is a power granted to everyone born into this world. You want to know the will of God. Here it is: he wills that everyone be saved.
But the question we would have to ask ourselves is, how much do we really want to do the will of God? Are we really willing to walk in the ways of the Lord and do what He asks us to do? If we desire it deeply, He will empower us to fulfill it. If not, then God must wait for us to get to the point where our hearts are open before he reveals to us what he wants us to do.
God does not compel, but seeks our free co-operation to be a “co-worker” with God in the process of salvation and deification. In this way, God respects our human self-determination, or what we refer to as our freedom or “free-will”. It is the Virgin Mary’s free assent to accept the unique vocation that was chosen for her from all eternity that allows her to become the Theotokos, the God bearer.
The Incarnation of the Word was not only the work of the Father, Son and Spirit – the first consenting, the second descending, and third overshadowing – but it was also the work of the will and faith of the Virgin. Without the three divine persons this design could not have been set in motion; but likewise the plan could not have been carried into effect without the consent and faith of the all-pure Virgin. Only after teaching and persuading her does God make her His Mother and receive from her the flesh which she consciously wills to offer Him. Just as He was conceived by His own free choice, so in the same way she became His Mother voluntarily and with her free consent.
Saint Nicholas Cabasilas’ Homily on the Annunciation
One might be wondering how do I become filled with the divine grace and how do I become a co-worker in fulfilling the will of God.
First, we must make a commitment to nurturing in ourselves a life that is “full of grace”. How do we do this: by stopping long enough to look deeply into our life. This we need to do often, not once or twice in a lifetime, but at least once or twice a day, consistently and faithfully. Self-knowledge is a gift that comes to those who seek it and is called in our spiritual tradition the greatest of all the gifts of the Spirit. This is the beginning of repentance.
The goal is to allow the heart to “settle like calm water” so that the face of Christ and our neighbor can reflect in the crystal, clear stillness. As long as there is turmoil within, we can expect the same without.
Secondly, we need to straighten out those things in us we find that are bent. When we look inside and find the things that are unhelpful (as St. Paul says), that cause pain to ourselves and others we must start to jettison them. There is much we can do to help ourselves. Then we can trust that God, seeing our desire and effort, will come to our aid. Where our thoughts, words and deeds are harmful to ourselves and others we need to commit to changing them. It is possible to make real progress in living as children of God by watching what we think, say and do. Mary’s training in the Temple most certainly have had this in mind. For example, we know that it is God’s will that we love one another. Can we not begin to root out of us everything opposed to love? This is what it means to purify one’s heart. St. Augustine warns that “if your eyes are clogged with sand, would you not have to wash them out before you can see the light.” “Take a look at your heart,” he continues. “Everything you see in it that might sadden God, remove. God wants to come to you.”
Thirdly, we must learn to guard our hearts from all that would keep us from the narrow path and pray. In the sixth homily attributed to Pseudo-Macarius we read, “This is the true foundation of prayer: keeping watch over your own thoughts and giving yourself to prayer in great tranquility, in great peace…push ahead towards God.”
Most of all we need to believe that God loves us and wants to come to us. God desires above all to reveal himself to us. Ask yourself this question, “How often in my 24 hour day do I consciously touch God?” He is there all the time. He can be touched at every moment. The only thing that is lacking is the effort needed which is really, in the end, very small. We are like Mary in this respect: we share the same nature and have the same potential. We differ only in that potential’s fulfillment.God will probably not ask us to participate in anything as grand as the Incarnation, but there are many things left to do in this world and we are the ones called to do them.
May the love of God the Father, grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with us all during these days of the Advent and may the intercessions of the Most Holy Theotokos help us and guide us to become the true temples of our living God.
Your brother in Christ Jesus
Source:
- https://www.stmaryorthodoxchurch.org/orthodoxy/sermons/2007/annunciation
- http://ww1.antiochian.org/node/22550
- https://www.christianity.com/theology/what-is-grace.html
- http://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/news/20200830/mary-kaire-kecharitomene-hail-full-grace
