By Fr. George Dorbarakis
There are many hymnographers of this feast of the Mother of God, the event of which is not recorded at all in the New Testament. The incident of her entrance into the Temple is found in the so-called Apocryphal Gospels, as is the case with other feasts of the Panagia, in texts that our Church did not consider valid, due to the heresies or even fabrications inherent in them. However, within these there are also true events, which our Church does not hesitate to retrieve and celebrate, seeing not only their truth, but also their usefulness. And this is an element that reveals the absolute self-awareness of the Church, as the “pillar and bulwark of truth,” a self-awareness such as gives it the right and the comfort to choose what it considers true and good, even if this comes from texts that are not considered canonical.
A first element that the hymnographers of the feast emphasize is that the Entrance of the Theotokos itself, as well as the events before them, such as her Birth, but ultimately everything related to the Panagia, have the character of the paradoxical and inexplicable for human standards. “O you whose wonders surpass all understanding, All-Immaculate! Your birth is beyond comprehension; the manner of your growth is extraordinary; all things pertaining to you are strange and marvelous, O Bride of God, and inscrutable to mortals.” The reason for this is the fact that the Panagia was the one par excellence Graced by God, the vessel of the Holy Spirit, so in all aspects of Her life she was under the direct supervision of God. It is no coincidence that the word of God already foretold Her, according to the so-called Protoevangelium – in the first promise of God about His coming into the world through a woman, after the fall of the first created beings into sin – She was constantly prophesied by the Prophets of the Old Testament, reaffirming the Protoevangelium, She was glorified by the Holy Apostles, She was the boast of all the martyrs of Christ, She is the intercessor of our salvation: “…She was chosen from all generations to be the dwelling place of the ever-living Christ and God of all.” “You are the proclamation of the Prophets, the glory of the Apostles, the boast of the Martyrs, and the renewal of all the people of the earth, O Virgin Mother of God.”
The entire Service of the feast naturally highlights the holiness of the Panagia – holiness above the Cherubim and Seraphim, since she was “chosen… above all creation, visible and intelligible” – but it focuses particularly on the very event of her Entrance into the Temple. The general assessment is that the Panagia enters the Holy of Holies at the age of three, already existing as the Holy of Holies herself. “Existing as the Holy of Holies, modest one, you loved to dwell in the Holy Temple.” The Hymnographer’s lyrics, which proclaim the maturity of the young Panagia, are indeed of great inspiration: “She who is three years old in body, and many years old in spirit;” “a developing flesh and a perfect soul.” And this should not surprise us: “Where God wills, the natural order is overcome.” It seems absurd that she who was chosen for the most important work in humanity: to become the Mother of God as a man, should not have the grace of maturity already from an early age. Only someone who approaches the things of faith with the criterion of his dry logic could claim such a thing. But such an approach is one step away from heresy, rather it already constitutes heresy: our attitude towards the Panagia reveals our attitude towards Christ. The dogma, for example, that our Panagia is “Theotokos,” is a consequence of the faith about Jesus Christ, as God and man. And vice versa.
With the entrance of the Panagia into the Temple, the purpose of which is her preparation to become the Mother of God (“prepare to become a dwelling-place for Jesus”), one also understands what the hymnographers point out as a consequence: the abolition of the shadow of the Mosaic Law, because the truth, the incarnate God, comes through the Panagia. “The letter has passed away, the law has been obscured like a shadow.” The troparion that says that the daughter of God, as David characterizes her, becomes, by His will, His mother is very beautiful. “The forefather David praised you long ago, Virgin, Bride of God, calling you the daughter of Christ the King, you who gave birth to Him and nursed Him." And the verse of the Synaxarion is equally beautiful, which establishes the ministry in this of the Archangel Gabriel: the one who fed her in the Temple will soon greet her, bringing her the gospel; she will become the Mother of God. “Within the Temple, Gabriel feeds you, O Daughter, and shortly He shall come to you and say 'Rejoice'.”
Her feeding by the Archangel Gabriel, in the Holy of Holies, is not, according to the Hymnographer, without symbolism. It refers to the One who will bring into the world in a few years and who is the true bread “coming down from heaven.” “You were fed with heavenly bread, O Virgin, faithfully, in the Temple of the Lord, you who gave bore the Word, the Bread of Life for the world.” And of course, this fact is not without symbolism, without an “archetypal” dimension, but also her entire life in the Temple: her unceasing prayer, her conversation with angels, her study of the Law and the Prophets, her ministry there in the Temple. In other words, things that constitute a “hesychastic” life, that is, the Panagia is rightly considered the model of all the great Hesychasts and true Theologians of our Church.
There is much to say about the richness of the hymnology of this Theometoric feast. For there are exquisite hymns not only about the life of the Panagia inside the Temple, but also about her lamplit procession to the Temple, a procession “accompanied by Virgins and Mothers,” since she was both, as well as about what was shared as a dialogue at the gate of the Temple between her parents and the priest Zechariah. Omitting all this, we will simply bring to the surface a verse that we think alone shows the significance of all this enormous spiritual magnitude that is heard in the name “Panagia.” It is about the assessment of the priest Zechariah, as he sees the little Mary being brought to the Temple. Zechariah therefore “cries out with a loud voice: the expectation of the sorrowful has arrived.” The Panagia is the one who redeems us from sorrow. Given that there is no person on earth who does not experience sorrow, even from the time of his fall into sin, the Panagia is the most precious good we have, the one who one would say is “Pandora’s treasure” - Hope. And this is because through her “the Joy of the world,” Christ, came into the world. And this alone is enough for us. In whatever sorrow and difficulty we may have, contemplating Her has already begun the solution and the coming of joy. So “rejoice, O peoples, and be glad.”
Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.
