The Most Holy Theotokos as a Living Holy Scripture
Pastoral Encyclical for the Feast of the Dormition of the Theotokos (2025)
By Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos and Agiou Vlasiou
By Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos and Agiou Vlasiou
First of all, I would like to wish you, my beloved brethren, "Many Years" with the blessing of God and the intercession of the Theotokos, on today's bright day of her Dormition, the Mother of Christ, that you have a good time during your holidays in our Diocese and in the mountainous villages of Nafpaktia and Agiou Vlasiou, with health of body and soul. Every Sunday of Summer, in the sermons that were sent and are read during the Divine Liturgy, the divinely-inspired books of Holy Scripture, both of the Old and New Testaments, are briefly presented, which narrate the creation of the world and man, but also his re-creation, and God's love and philanthropy are intensely seen, especially towards man who is His most perfect creation.
In the Old Testament, the Lord of Glory, the Son and Word of God, appeared to the Prophets and Righteous Ones in the Light and guided them, especially preparing them for His incarnation. And in the New Testament, this Lord of Glory took on flesh, became man and taught us, performed miracles, suffered, was crucified, resurrected, ascended into heaven and sent the Holy Spirit, Who made the Church His Body. This has a special significance for the Most Holy Theotokos, whose Dormition and Metastasis into heaven we celebrate today, because the pre-incarnate Word of the Old Testament took on flesh and became incarnate through the Most Holy Theotokos. Thus, our Panagia was the bridge between the Old Testament and the New Testament.
The Virgin Mary was born and grew up while the whole world was still living before Christ, that is, during the period of the Old Testament; she entered the Temple of Solomon, in the Holy of Holies, until her Annunciation. And according to the Annunciation, the Son and Word of God took human nature from her and the New Testament begins with the incarnation of Christ. Thus, in her womb this meeting and union in Christ of the Old and New Testaments took place, the two Testaments (Covenants) of God were united. This shows the greatness of the Most Holy Theotokos. She was not a good, virtuous woman, she was not a Prophet and an Apostle, a Saint, even All Holy, although she had all these characteristics, but she was a living Holy Scripture, because within her womb, as I said before, the union of the Old and the New Testaments took place, God was united with man, the Lord of Glory with the God-man. Thus, she was the last man and saint of the Old Testament and the new man and saint of the New Testament.
The Most Holy Theotokos lived in the Holy of Holies from the age of three until the Annunciation, in the most blessed part of Solomon's Temple, where no one entered except the High Priest, and he entered once a year, on the day of the Feast of Atonement. In the Holy of Holies, the Jews kept the most sacred objects they had from their exodus from Egypt and their journey to the Promised Land. These were the Tablets of the Law, Aaron's Rod that sprouted, the Jar that held the manna that God sent during their journey in the desert.
This event, in a prophetic way, was fully applied to the person and work of our Panagia. Essentially, these holy objects typified the Most Holy Theotokos, for she is the “animate book of Christ,” “the volume inscribed with the Word by the Father's finger,” “the untilled land which has sprouted God the ear of wheat,” “the unfading rose," "the only one who budded forth the unfading apple,” “the jar that contained manna,” as we chant in the Service of the Salutations of the Most Holy Theotokos. The Prophets of the Old Testament prophesied the Most Holy Theotokos, as did the Prophet Isaiah eight hundred years before the appearance of Christ and His Mother. “Behold, the virgin shall conceive in her womb, and bear a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is God with us” (Matt. 1:23).
Going even further, we can see the Most Holy Theotokos in the perspective of the future age, for she is not only the woman in whom the Old and New Testaments met in Christ Jesus, after she gave her flesh to the Son and Word of God to become incarnate, but she is also the type of the future age. This is shown by today’s feast of the Dormition of the Most Holy Theotokos. As a human, the Panagia also died, but immediately after her death her soul was taken up by her Son and God, and after three days Christ resurrected her body and now she is in heaven and from now on participates bodily in heavenly glory.
It is clear that what will happen to all people at the Second Coming of Christ, with the resurrection of the bodies, has been accomplished in the Most Holy Theotokos. Thus, she not only lived in the New Testament before the Apostles, who would hear Christ, and knew her, but she also lived after the Second Coming of Christ, before Christ even came to His Second Coming. This shows the amazing person of the Most Holy Theotokos.
Thus, just as our Panagia became the unity between the Old and New Testaments from the moment of the conception of the Son and Word of God in her womb, so she lives from now on in the Heavenly Kingdom with her body, as the saints will live after the Second Coming of Christ.
This is seen in the Revelation of John the Theologian, which is a book that shows the heavenly Divine Liturgy and the path of the saints of the Church to experience this heavenly Divine Liturgy. There, among other things, it is written: “And a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars... and the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God” (Rev. 12:1-6).
All this shows the exalted, blessed, and all-pure person of the Most Holy Theotokos. In her, not only were the Old and New Testaments united in Christ and is the living Holy Scripture, but she also united the earthly life of the Church with the heavenly life of the Church, enjoying from now on what the saints will experience with their bodies, after the Second Coming of Christ. Christ is our model and our life, according to the word of the Apostle Paul: “When Christ, who is our life, appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory” (Col. 3:4), but also our Most Holy Mother of God, as the Most Holy Theotokos, is the model of life in Christ, since she was the first to taste Pentecost before Pentecost, with her Annunciation, just as she also experienced the Second Coming of Christ before His Second Coming.
We have a great honor and blessing that she loves us and protects us, but also a great honor that we love her and have the opportunity to invoke her intercession, with the Services of Salutations, of Supplications, but also with Vespers, Matins and the Divine Liturgy of the feast of the Dormition of the Theotokos. We should celebrate her spiritually, magnify her in an Orthodox manner, implore her with repentance, glorify her in Christ Jesus.
With these thoughts, I wish you many Christ-centered and Theometoric years.
Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.
