Dartmouth

The Announcement of Jesus Christ's Victory over Sin, Death, and Evil

Gospel (in Greek, evangelion) is an ancient concept. And while many modern-day Christians take for granted that it literally means 'Good News', when the term was applied to the first four books of the New Testement, it meant a very specific type of Good News—the victory of a King over a territory, leading to an expansion of his Kingdom. A "Gospel", then, was the proclamation of three things by a herald sent into a city ahead of his master: 1) Who this conquering lord and master is; 2) What he has accomplished or who he has overthrown and defeated; and 3) What this lord therefore expects as a result, from those in the newly conquered territory, when he arrives to rule over them. When the term was applied to what we now know as "the Gospel", then, it was done so with a very particular understanding of what the incarnation (Christ, the second person of the Trinity, taking upon himself human nature) means.

Who is Jesus Christ?

Jesus is the eternal Son of God, the Second Person of the Holy Trinity (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit). Being God, he is not created, existing before all things. He is the Creator and Most High God, one God with the Father and the Holy Spirit. He is the Word of God, the one who reveals the Father. Through the power of the Holy Spirit, the Son of God was conceived and became human in the womb of the Virgin Mary without help from any earthly father. He is therefore one Person who is fully God and fully human. He is not half-God and half-human, nor is he human only in appearance, nor is he a human being Who was adopted by God to become divine. He existed before the Incarnation as fully God by nature, and took on human nature when he became incarnate. He is called Messiah or Christ, the Anointed One of God sent to accomplish the divine mission.

What did Jesus Christ accomplish?

Seeing that humanity was marred by the fall and living under the cloud of evil 'powers and principalities'—oppresive tyrannical governments like Rome, participating through ritual with the demonic, the true enemies of God—in his love Christ came to earth, defeated those oppresive powers by healing, exorcism and ultimately by the kenosis of suffering death on a cross. By dying, he destroyed Death and the power it held over human beings, rising again fully alive on the third day. On the 40th day from his resurrection, he ascended bodily into heaven, having promised his disciples that he would remain with them always. Jesus' great act of love rescued the human race from dependency on participation in the demonic, from slavery to sin, and from the power of death. He did not leave humanity subject to these forces or condemn us because of them but released us from them and brought mercy, forgiveness, and hope. Sin is a rupture between us and God, an alienation from the creation and each other—it is to forsake harmonious communion. In his life, death, and resurrection, Christ healed people of their sins, cleansed the whole world from sin, and opened the way to eternal life with God and peace with each other and all the world. At a time known only to God, Jesus will be gloriously revealed to the world as King (sometimes called the Second Coming), raising all mankind from the dead and rendering justice to both the living and the dead. This is referred to in the Bible as the Day of the Lord.

What does Jesus Christ expect of us?

When the Day of the Lord comes, those he finds faithful to his commandments will be exalted in glory to join him forever and rule with him over creation, while the unfaithful will be cast out from his Kingdom, which will have no end. To be "saved" is to be part of that Kingdom. It is on the basis of faithfulness to his commandments that he will render justice. God's justice is to set things right, to put things in order. Faithfulness means to love and worship Christ, to keep his commandments, to love our neighbors as ourselves, and to honor our family and church and civil rulers. He expects that we will not engage in idolatry (worship of anything but God), immorality (including sexual immorality), dishonesty, violence against the innocent, greed, envy, exploitation of the poor and weak, or theft — anything which puts ourselves first and him and others after. He expects that we turn away from every kind of sin, serving together with the angels, who share his rule and remained obedient to him. He expects that when we do fall short of these things, that we would offer up to him a contrite heart through confession and repentence, and return again and again to the path of faithfulness. As Christ tells us, "He that shall endure unto the end will be saved." (Matt 24:13)

Adapted from orthodoxintro.org

To answer his question, it is necessary to first recognize that the most common answer given in the West today is reflective of the "Penal Substitutionary Atonement": that Christ died on the cross to satisfy the just wrath of God the Father afforded us due to our sin, and impute righteousness to us that we might be considered worthy of salvation. However, the concept of penal substitution appears no where in the Early Church writings, councils or hymnography. In fact, prominent protestant theologian J.I. Packer admits "…Luther, Calvin, Zwingli, Melanchthon and their reforming contemporaries were the pioneers in stating it". It is therefore a very late understanding, even a misrepresentation, of scripture found in the gospel and epistles.

What is the problem with penal substitutionary atonement?

From the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese Website:

The problem with this doctrine is not in the idea of "substitution". Early church fathers, of course, understood the meaning and redemptive work of the cross as a "substitution" (i.e., Christ in place of us). St Athanasius himself writes:

"Thus taking a body like our own, because all our bodies were liable to the corruption of death, He surrendered His body to death in place of all, and offered it to the Father (Ed. note: an offering, not a penalty). This He did for sheer love for us, so that in His death all might die, and the law of death thereby be abolished because, when He had fulfilled in His body that for which it was appointed, it was therefore voided of its power for men."[3]

Later the Saint writes that His death on the Cross was a "sufficient exchange" for all."[4] Later yet he writes of His death on the cross as "a debt owing (my emphasis) which must be paid"[5] And finally he writes, "He died to ransom all…"[6]

For Saint Athanasius the words exchange, debt, and ransom are used to explain the expiatory work of Our Lord on the Cross on our behalf. Contrast this with the more legalistic and penal (IE punishment) explanation of John Calvin in his Institutes of the Christian Religion: "Thus we perceive Christ representing the character of a sinner and a criminal … and it becomes manifest that he suffers for another's and not for his own crime."

What is the problem with the theory of penal substitution? The problem has been expressed well by a contemporary writer:

"The penal satisfaction theory is entirely legalistic. It assumes that the order of law and justice is absolute; free forgiveness would be a violation of this absolute order; God's love must be carefully limited lest it infringe on the demands of justice. Sin is a crime against God and the penalty must be paid before forgiveness can become available. According to this view God's love is conditioned and limited by his justice; that is, God cannot exercise His love to save man until His righteousness (justice) is satisfied. Since God's justice requires that sin be punished, God's love cannot save man until the penalty of sin has been paid, satisfying His justice. God's love is set in opposition to His righteousness, creating a tension and problem in God… According to this legalistic theology, this is why Christ needed to die; he died to pay the penalty of man's sin and to satisfy the justice of God. The necessity of the atonement is the necessity of satisfying the justice of God; this necessity is in God rather than in man. And since this necessity is in God, it is an absolute necessity. If God is to save man, God must satisfy His justice before He can love and save man."

For many who want to know Our Lord, the God of love, the idea that God the Father required Christ to suffer punishment in order to somehow appease or satisfy His sense of righteousness or justice is an abhorrent idea, keeping many people from accepting the actual love and mercy of God and perverting a correct understanding of the nature of God the Father.

How Orthodox Christians understand the "ransom" and to whom it was paid?

Saint Athanasius writes,

"For by the sacrifice of His own body He did two things: He put an end to the law of death which barred our way; and He made a new beginning of life for us…"[7]

To whom did He make the sacrifice?

"It was by surrendering to death (my emphasis) the body which He had taken, as an offering and sacrifice free from every stain, that He forthwith abolished death for his human brethren by the offering of the equivalent." [8]

The Saint teaches that Christ died, not to appease God the Father, but to rescue mankind (you and me) from death! That was "to whom" he sacrificed himself—the existential/ontological reality of death; that

"through this union of the immortal Son of God with our human nature, all men were clothed with incorruption in the promise of the resurrection. For the solidarity of mankind is such that, by virtue of the Word's indwelling in a single human body, the corruption which goes with death has lost its power over all."

This may seem like small difference, perhaps even a nuance; however it is a difference that is significant, as it correctly represents the nature of God as "the lover of mankind," rather than a cosmic egotistical despot or a slave to divine legalism, and the work of the cross as a supreme act of sacrificial love by Our Lord, in which the Holy Trinity was acting (and continues to act) in one accord.

The Divine Liturgy is the common activity of the Orthodox Church. It is the official action of the Church formally gathered together as the chosen People of God. The word church, as we remember, means a gathering or assembly of people specifically chosen and called apart to perform a particular task.

The Divine Liturgy is the common action of Orthodox Christians officially gathered to constitute the Orthodox Church. It is the action of the Church assembled by God in order to be together in one community to worship, to pray, to sing, to hear God’s Word, to be instructed in God’s commandments, to offer itself with thanksgiving in Christ to God the Father, and to have the living experience of God’s eternal kingdom through communion with the same Christ Who is present in his people by the Holy Spirit.

The Divine Liturgy is always done by Orthodox Christians on the Lord's Day which is Sunday, the “day after Sabbath” which is symbolic of the first day of creation and the last day—or as it is called in Holy Tradition, the eighth day—of the Kingdom of God. This is the day of Christ’s resurrection from the dead, the day of God's judgment and victory predicted by the prophets, the Day of the Lord which inaugurates the presence and the power of the “kingdom to come” already now within the life of this present world.

The Divine Liturgy is also celebrated by the Church on special feast days. It is usually celebrated daily in monasteries, and in some large cathedrals and parish churches, with the exception of the week days of Great Lent when it is not served because of its paschal character.

As the common action of the People of God, the Divine Liturgy may be celebrated only once on any given day in an Orthodox Christian community. All of the members of the Church must be gathered together with their pastor in one place at one time. This includes even small children and infants who participate fully in the communion of the liturgy from the day of their entrance into the Church through baptism and chrismation. Always everyone, always together. This is the traditional expression of the Orthodox Church about the Divine Liturgy.

Because of its common character, the Divine Liturgy may never be celebrated privately by the clergy alone. It may never be served just for some and not for others, but for all. It may never be served merely for some private purposes or some specific or exclusive intentions. Thus there may be, and usually are, special petitions at the Divine Liturgy for the sick or the departed, or for some very particular purposes or projects, but there is never a Divine Liturgy which is done exclusively for private individuals or specific isolated purposes or intentions. The Divine Liturgy is always “on behalf of all and for all.”

Because the Divine Liturgy exists for no other reason than to be the official all-inclusive act of prayer, worship, teaching, and communion of the entire Church in heaven and on earth, it may not be considered merely as one devotion among many, not even the highest or the greatest. The Divine Liturgy is not an act of personal piety. It is not a prayer service. It is not merely one of the sacraments. The Divine Liturgy is the one common sacrament of the very being of the Church itself. It is the one sacramental manifestation of the essence of the Church as the Community of God in heaven and on earth. It is the one unique sacramental revelation of the Church as the mystical Body and Bride of Christ.

As the central mystical action of the whole church, the Divine Liturgy is always resurrectional in spirit. It is always the manifestation to his people of the Risen Christ. It is always an outpouring of the life-creating Spirit. It is always communion with God the Father. The Divine Liturgy, therefore, is never mournful or penitential. It is never the expression of the darkness and death of this world. It is always the expression and the experience of the eternal life of the Kingdom of the Blessed Trinity.

The Divine Liturgy celebrated by the Orthodox Church is called the Liturgy of Saint John Chrysostom. It is a shorter liturgy than the so-called Liturgy of Saint Basil the Great that is used only ten times during the Church Year. These two liturgies probably received their present form after the ninth century. It is not the case that they were written exactly as they now stand by the saints whose names they carry. It is quite certain, however, that the eucharistic prayers of each of these liturgies were formulated as early as the fourth and fifth centuries when these saints lived and worked in the Church.

The Divine Liturgy has two main parts. The first part is the gathering, called the synaxis. It has its origin in the synagogue gatherings of the Old Testament, and is centered in the proclamation and meditation of the Word of God. The second part of the Divine Liturgy is the eucharistic sacrifice. It has its origin in the Old Testament temple worship, the priestly sacrifices of the People of God; and in the central saving event of the Old Testament, the Passover (Pascha).

In the New Testament Church Jesus Christ is the Living Word of God, and it is the Christian gospels and apostolic writings which are proclaimed and meditated at the first part of the Divine Liturgy. And in the New Testament Church, the central saving event is the one perfect, eternal and all-sufficient sacrifice of Jesus Christ, the one great High Priest who is also the Lamb of God slain for the salvation of the world, the New Passover. At the Divine Liturgy the faithful Christians participate in the voluntary self-offering of Christ to the Father, accomplished once and for all upon the Cross by the power of the Holy Spirit. In and through this unique sacrifice of Christ, the faithful Christians receive Holy Communion with God.

For centuries it was the practice of the Church to admit all persons to the first part of the Divine Liturgy, while reserving the second part strictly for those who were formally committed to Christ through baptism and chrismation in the Church. Non-baptized persons were not permitted even to witness the offering and receiving of Holy Communion by the faithful Christians. Thus the first part of the Divine Liturgy came to be called the Liturgy of the Catechumens, that is, the liturgy of those who were receiving instructions in the Christian Faith in order to become members of the Church through baptism and chrismation. It also came to be called, for obvious reasons, the Liturgy of the Word. The second part of the Divine Liturgy came to be called the Liturgy of the Faithful.

Although it is generally the practice in the Orthodox Church today to allow non-Orthodox Christians, and even non-Christians, to witness the Liturgy of the Faithful, it is still the practice to reserve actual participation in the sacrament of Holy Communion only to members of the Orthodox Church who are fully committed to the life and teachings of the Orthodox Faith as preserved, proclaimed and practiced by the Church throughout its history.

In the commentary on the Divine Liturgy which follows, we will concentrate our attention on what happens to the Church at its “common action.” By doing this we will attempt to penetrate the fundamental and essential meaning of the liturgy for man, his life and his world. This will be a definite departure from the interpretation of the Divine Liturgy which treats the service as if it were a drama enacted by the clergy and “attended” by the people, in which each part stands for some aspect of Christ’s life and work (e.g., the prothesis stands for Christ’s birth, the small entrance for the beginning of his public ministry, the gospel for his preaching, the great entrance for Palm Sunday, etc.). This latter type of interpretation of the Divine Liturgy is an invention, which, although perhaps interesting and inspiring for some, is nevertheless completely alien to the genuine meaning and purpose of the Divine Liturgy in the Orthodox Church.

Taken from OCA.org

The sacraments in the Orthodox Church are officially called the “holy mysteries.” Usually seven principle sacraments are counted: baptism, chrismation, holy eucharist, reconcilliation (confession), matrimony, holy orders and the unction of the sick.

In reality, however, there is no set number of sacraments. The practice of counting the sacraments is more familiar with the Roman Catholic practice. It is not an ancient practice of the Church and, in many ways, it tends to be misleading since it appears that there are just seven specific rites which are “sacraments” and that all other aspects of the life of the Church are essentially different from these particular actions. The more ancient and traditional practice of the Orthodox Church is to consider everything which is in and of the Church as sacramental or mystical.

The Church may be defined as the new life in Christ. It is man’s life lived by the Holy Spirit in union with God. All aspects of the new life of the Church participate in the mystery of salvation. In Christ and the Holy Spirit everything which is sinful and dead becomes holy and alive by the power of God the Father. And so in Christ and the Holy Spirit everything in the Church becomes a sacrament, an element of the mystery of the Kingdom of God as it is already being experienced in the life of this world.

Viewing the Church as the new and eternal life of the Kingdom of God given to man by God through Jesus Christ in the Holy Spirit, we understand first of all that for life to exist there must be birth. The birth into the eternal life of God is the mystery of baptism. But birth is not enough for living; there must be the ongoing possibility of life: its power, energy and force. Thus, the mystery of chrismation is the gift of the power to live the life of Christ which is born in man by baptism. It is the gift of the “all-holy and good and life-creating Spirit” to man.

Life also must be sustained. This is normally done by eating and drinking. Food is the nourishment which keeps us alive. It is man’s communion with creation which keeps him existing. But, naturally speaking, our normal eating and drinking does not keep us alive forever. Our natural communion with the world is a communion to death. We need eating and drinking of a special food which nourishes us for eternal life. This food is the “mystical supper of the Son of God,” the body and blood of Christ, the mystery of the holy eucharist—the communion to Life Itself.

For life to be truly perfect, holy and good, there must also be a particular mystery about marriage and the bearing of children. In this world all who are born are born to die, and even the most perfect of human love stands under the condemnation: “…until death do you part.” The mystery of Christian marriage transforms human love, childbearing, and family communities into realities of eternal proportion and significance. In marriage we are blessed by God for unending friendship and love. We are blessed so that the fruit of our love, the begetting of our children and the life of our families will be not “unto death” but unto life everlasting.

Until the final establishment of the Kingdom of God, our life remains under the attack of its demonic enemies: sin, sickness, suffering, sorrow and death. The mystery of penance is the remedy for spiritual sickness. It allows us to turn again to God, to be taken back, to be forgiven and to be received once more into the life of God from which our sins have separated us. And the mystery of holy unction is the remedy for our physical sickness which is the power of sin over our bodies, our inevitable union with suffering and death. Holy unction allows us to be healed; to suffer, not “unto death” but, once more, unto life everlasting. It is the incorporation of our wounds into the life-creating cross of Christ.

The mystery, finally, which allows the perfection of divine life to be ours in all of its fullness and power in this world is the mystery of the Church itself. And most specifically within the Church, we have the mystery of holy orders: the sacrament of priesthood, ministry, teaching and pastoral care. The clergy of the church—bishops, priests, and deacons—exist for no other purpose than to make manifest, present and powerful in the Church the divine life of the Kingdom of God to all men while still living in this world.

Thus, from birth to death, in good times and bad, in every aspect of worldly existence, real life—life as God has created and saved and sanctified it to be—is given to us in the Church. This is Christ’s express purpose and wish, the very object of his coming to the world: “I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly” (Jn 10.10).

The Church as the gift of life eternal is by its very nature, in its fullness and entirety, a mystical and sacramental reality. It is the life of the Kingdom of God given already to those who believe. And thus, within the Church, everything we do—our prayers, blessings, good works, thoughts, actions—everything participates in the life which has no end. In this sense everything which is in the Church and of the Church is a sacrament of the Kingdom of God.

Adapted from Fr. Tom Hopko's writing on OCA.org

If someone believes the gospel of Jesus Christ, and wishes to place their allegence in Jesus Christ (what is often called "having faith"), he or she starts by repenting. To repent is to turn toward God, again and again, both away from sin (any path that 'misses the mark') and also toward a path of growth in obedience and love. As both Jesus and his forerunner John the Baptist said, "Repent, for the Kingdom of God is at hand." Repenting, the believer humbly approaches the Church—which is Christ's Body, his active presence in the world—to be baptized, beginning the process by contacting the local parish pastor and doing as he instructs.

Baptism mystically unites the believer to Christ and makes him or her a Christian, part of his Body the Church. Before baptism, the believer is trained by the clergy and other teachers to be a faithful Christian. This is referred to as 'catechesis' and the person receiving instruction is called a 'catechumen'.

Then, after an appropriate amount of time (typically about one year), the Sacrament of Baptism is performed. In some traditions this is a separate celebration, and in other traditions it is performed during Divine Liturgy. In either case, baptism is understood to be the mystical act of a person's death and resurrection in and with Jesus. Christian baptism is man's participation in the event of Easter. It is a "new birth by water and the Holy Spirit" into the Kingdom of God (Jn 3.5).

Baptism in the Church begins with the rejection of Satan and the acceptance of Christ. Before being baptized, a person—or his sponsors or godparents for him—officially proclaims the symbol of Christian faith, the Creed. Because the godparent speaks on behalf of the child, sponsors his entrance into the Church and "receives" the child out of the baptismal waters into the Church and cares for his spiritual life, the godparent himself must be a member of the Church.

After the proclamation of faith, the baptismal water is prayed over and blessed as the sign of the goodness of God's creation. The person to be baptized is also prayed over and blessed with sanctified oil as the sign that his creation by God is holy and good. And then, after the solemn proclamation of "Alleluia" (from Hebrew, meaning "God be praised"), the person is immersed three times in the water in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

Through the act of immersion, the baptized person dies to this world and is born again in the resurrection of Christ into eternal life. He is clothed with the "garments of salvation" symbolized by the white baptismal robe which is the "new humanity" of Jesus himself who is the new and heavenly Adam (See Jn 3, Rom 5, 1 Cor 15). Thus, the words of the Apostle Paul are chanted as the newly-baptized is led in procession around the baptismal font three times as the symbol of his procession to the Kingdom of God and his entrance into eternal life: "For as many as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. Alleluia"—Gal 3.27

After baptism, the new Christian remains faithful through worship, through receiving the Holy Eucharist (and other sacraments as appropriate), through daily prayer, through guided asceticism (such as fasting), through almsgiving and other acts of charity, and through all kinds of self-denial and active love—increasing in love, in humility, discernment, and maturity. Repentance does not end with baptism.

When a Christian fails to be faithful to God in this life, God continues to give the opportunity to repent, to live the angelic life. The return to faithfulness is always possible in this life, and God always extends forgiveness and healing to those who return to Him. The word gospel literally means "good news," and so it clearly is. In this process, men and women, rich and poor, young and old—people of every culture and background, without exception—have equal access to becoming like the angels, participating forever in God's life and glory by His grace, mercy, and love.

Adapted from orthodoxintro.org and from Fr. Tom Hopko's writings on OCA.org

In the Orthodox Church the icons bear witness to the reality of God’s presence with us in the mystery of faith. The icons are not just human pictures or visual aids to contemplation and prayer. They are the witnesses of the presence of the Kingdom of God to us, and so of our own presence to the Kingdom of God in the Church. It is the Orthodox faith that icons are not only permissible, but are spiritually necessary because “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us” (Jn 1.14). Christ is truly man and, as man, truly the “icon of the invisible God” (Col 1.15; 1 Cor 11.7; 2 Cor 4.4).

The iconostasis or icon screen in the Orthodox Church exists to show our unity with Christ, his mother and all the angels and saints. It exists to show our unity with God. The altar table, which stands for the Banquet Table of the Kingdom of God, is placed behind the so-called royal gates, between the icons of the Theotokos and Child and the glorified Christ, showing that everything which happens to us in the Church happens in history between those “two comings” of Christ: between his coming as the Saviour born of Mary and His coming at the end of the age as the King and the Judge.

The icons on the royal gates witness to the presence of Christ’s good news, the gospel of salvation. The four evangelists who recorded the gospels appear, and often also an icon of the Annunciation, the first proclamation of the gospel in the world. In Greek the gospel is the evangelion, the authors of the gospels the evangelistoi, the annunciation the evangelismos.

Over the doors we have the icon of Christ’s Mystical Supper with his disciples, the icon of the central mystery of the Christian faith and the unity of the Church in the world. It is the visual witness that we too are partakers in the “marriage supper of the lamb” (Rev 19.9), that we too are blessed by Christ “to eat and drink at my table in my kingdom” (Lk 22.30), blessed to “eat bread in the Kingdom of God” (Lk 14.15).

Over and around the central gates are icons of the saints. The deacon’s doors in the first row (for the servants of the altar) usually have icons depicting deacons or angels, God’s servants. The first row also has an icon of the person or event in whose honor the given building is dedicated, along with other prominent saints or events. Depending on the size of the iconostasis, there may be rows of icons of the apostles, the major feasts of the Church, the prophets and other holy people blessed by God, all crowned on the top by the cross of Christ.

In recent centuries the iconostasis in most Orthodox churches became very ornate and developed into a virtual wall, dividing the faithful from the holy altar rather than uniting them with it. In recent years this development has happily been altered in many places. The iconostasis in many church buildings now gives first place to the icons themselves and has become once more an icon “stand” or “screen” (stasis) rather than a solid partition.

Besides the iconostasis, Orthodox Church buildings often have icons or frescoes on the walls and ceilings. The “canon” of Church design is to have the icon of Christ the Almighty in the center of the building, and the icon of the Theotokos with Christ appearing within her found over the altar area. This latter icon is called the “image of the Church” since Mary is herself the prototype of the entire assembly of believers in whom Christ must dwell. In the altar area it is also traditional to put icons of the saints who composed Church liturgies and hymns. Directly behind the altar table there is usually an image of Christ in glory—enthroned or transfigured or resurrecting, and sometimes offering the eucharistic gifts.

Adapted from Fr. Tom Hopko's writing on OCA.org

No, the activity we describe as 'worship' is reserved for God alone. However, we do refer to her as "Mother of God". Why? Of course the Trinitarian God has no mother in the strictest sense of the word. But the only-begotten Son of God, equal to the Father and the Holy Spirit, entered the world through Mary’s womb, and took upon human nature through this process without activity from any human father, and for this reason, we celebrate her using the Greek term Theotokos i.e., God bearer.

The Church wants to emphasize the point that the heavenly Father did not just select the man Jesus to be His Christ when He was baptized, or even at the Lord’s birth. Prior to when He was given the name Jesus, even before He was conceived in Mary’s womb, He was God through Whom the whole universe was created. That’s why we sing to her with such radiant and impressive titles. She was chosen to give birth to her Creator.

She deserves more honor from us even than the highest of the ranks of angels surrounding the throne of the Lord almighty, because no cherub brought the Son of God into our world as a man. Far transcending any possible comparison we might conceive of in glory, greater than the seraphim is she to us, because no angel could have been commissioned by the heavenly Father to save us from sin, death and separation from God’s kingdom, yet He found a way to do all three by having His only-begotten Son enter time and space, born as one of us, to lead us back to the relationship that the Holy Trinity planned for us before the world was made.

She is the “true Theotokos,” because there can be none other than her, unique not only on earth but in all that God created, without a match among the angels. True also in being without any stain or blemish found in other humans, be they as holy and near perfection as St. John the Baptist. True as well in the sense of wholeness and integrity, wholly devoted to caring for that most special Son from conception to birth and throughout His life on earth, even to the Cross and beyond, ever growing herself in wisdom and awareness of what her role in our salvation was about.

Thus we honor, glorify and magnify the Theotokos and Mother of Light, as she is called elsewhere, expanding our awareness of what she has meant for our salvation, and what she continues to do for our sakes by her constant prayers on our behalf. She has a mother’s heart, and we are invited to touch her heart with our pleas for ourselves, our loved ones, the Church and the world. As a woman, she understands the feeling of having given birth to a child while retaining some connection to Him long after the umbilical cord has been severed.

We pay her respect if for nothing else than for the dignity we accord any woman, especially the mothers of our friends and acquaintances. Nothing is more boorish than to enter a home as a guest and ignore the mother of the host. One could hardly visit an Orthodox Church even for the first time and not be struck by the array of icons of the Theotokos. I wonder how one goes about ignoring her, even if to focus attention on Jesus Christ?

Father Sergius Bulgakov advised us that we are commanded by our baptismal vows to shout the Name of Jesus Christ and the gift of salvation from the rooftops and in the market places; however, when a person is brought to the Lord Jesus, then whisper to him or her the name of the Mother of God. Indeed, our prayers for her, our veneration of her role in our journey to the Kingdom of God, and the place in our hearts reserved for her develop as we progress on the way to spiritual discovery.

Adapted from Fr. Vladimir Berzonsky's writing on OCA.org