Homily for the Entrance of the Most Holy Theotokos into the Temple
By Fr. Daniel Sysoev
By Fr. Daniel Sysoev
In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit!
I congratulate you all on the feast of the Entrance of the Most Holy Mother of God, the Ever-Virgin Mary, into the Temple! Throughout all time, our all-merciful and omnipotent Lord has been surrounded by the inconceivable glory of His Divine Face, surrounded by an inconceivable radiance that pours forth from His luminous essence beyond all time. This radiance is also called the glory and power of God, uncreated grace. This Divine glory originally entered the world created by God; it clothed the first man, Adam, who was created in paradise, but it departed from the first man after he rebelled against the Creator. But the Lord, desiring to return man to Himself, did not leave him completely bereft of Divine grace. The Lord led the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt and revealed His glory in the form of a pillar of fire and cloud, through which God Himself led His people into the desert. The Lord Himself sought a place to rest, parted the waters of the Red Sea, and led the Jews through it.
And by the Lord's will, His glory descended upon Mount Sinai, where Moses received revelation from God on how to create on earth an exact replica of the heavenly Sanctuary, a representation of the spiritual world. Thus, the first Temple appeared on earth, made of metals, leather, and wool, which became the future image of the greatest Temple — the Body of the Lord. And God Himself sanctified it, entering it with His glory. When Moses anointed the newly built Tabernacle with oil, the glory of God enveloped it in a luminous cloud, so that no one could even enter it. The Lord always dwelt in His Tabernacle, guiding the Jewish people, and leading them into the Promised Land, as He had promised. And by God's will, Solomon built the Temple, where the glory of God once again entered and sanctified it. When the Second Temple was built (following the destruction of the First and the Babylonian captivity), the Lord again revealed His glory over the altar, and once again the glory of God dwelt within it. The Temple became a gateway not even to Heaven, but to a super-celestial reality. A gateway to where the light of the Divine Face eternally shines.
The Temple is needed not as an end in itself, but for the education of God's people, and most importantly, to raise the greatest of God's people, who could become the loom on which the Lord will embroider His own Temple of His Body. And indeed, today we celebrate the day when the Temple of the Lord is brought into the Temple of the Lord, when the most beautiful Virgin, in whom all the virtues of prophets, patriarchs, Old Testament saints and kings, pious rulers and sages converged, enters the Temple of the Lord. In Her, all virtues were united, as in a focus of the sun's rays, and made of Her a luminous lamp, a candle. She must enter the Temple today to be ignited by heavenly fire, to touch the glory that entered this world at the moment of its creation and returned to this world to return man to itself. Today marks the beginning of the Most Pure Mary's preparation to become the Mother of God. For Mary, this day is the same as Theophany for the Lord Jesus Christ. Just as the Lord enters public ministry on the day He is baptized in the waters of the Jordan, so Mary begins her preparation to become the Mother of God right now, when, by the will of the Holy Spirit, She is introduced into the Holy of Holies.
The Holy of Holies is the heart of glory, the core of divine radiance. This power is so great and so terrifying that no one but the high priest could enter it. Even the high priest entered the Holy of Holies only once a year. He was enveloped in clouds of smoke, lest he be slain by the glory of God filling the Temple. The future Mother of God enters there and touches the source of this glory, this divine life. And thus, God kindles the heart of the Mother of God, a heart already attuned to communion with God through the prayers of her parents and ancestors and already a prepared dwelling place for God. The Lord begins to build that very heart, which will later become the repository of God's life-giving words. The Lord causes Mary, upon entering the Temple, to become a true field of good soil, into which the sown Word of God will bear a hundredfold fruit. Mary enters and begins her spiritual training, preparing to enter heavenly life. And this is the first day of the future Mother of God's contact with the very core of this life. But this contact never passes without leaving a trace. We know that when Moses saw the glory of God, it was imprinted on the skin of his face, and people could not look at his face because it was radiant.
When Mary entered the heart of this glory, the glory penetrated her more deeply than it had Moses; it entered the depths of Mary's heart, making her the most precious vessel. The Mother of God studied to become a place for God to dwell. She prayed daily and lived in the Temple. In the Old Testament Temple, people gathered for divine services three times a day (morning, midday, and at dusk). Mary, taught by the glory of God and divine grace, was the first in the world to invent unceasing prayer. She also learned Holy Scripture and knew the word of God by heart. These life-giving words of God transformed her heart and made it capable of remembering those words of God that God Himself later revealed to her when she attained her greatest glory and became the Mother of God.
Today truly is the day of the preparation of our Savior. Why Savior? Not because She redeemed us — the only Redeemer is the Lord Jesus Christ! But you and I know that our salvation simply would not have happened if Mary had not consented. The Virgin Mary possessed free will, just like any of us, and she could have refused. For her, this was especially dangerous, as adultery was punishable by death in the Old Testament. But Mary took the risk and trusted God completely, and therefore we are saved. If she had refused, we would have perished. God nowhere says He would give a second chance; He never speaks His word twice. God truly desires salvation for all people, but this salvation inevitably involves a risk for both God and man. For this risk to be realized, for us to be able to say to the Lord, "Yes!" So that Mary could say: “Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it done to me according to your word” (Luke 1:38 ), she must be raised in an atmosphere of holiness. For this purpose, the Temple was given in the Old Testament, and for this purpose, temples exist in the New Testament as well.
Today is the feast of all the temples of the earth! For today She who becomes the receptacle of God enters the Old Testament Temple, and through Her the best, most perfect Tabernacle appears on earth – the Most Pure Body of the Lord Jesus Christ, which the Savior Himself called the Temple of His Body, answering the Jews: "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up" (John 2:19).
And He said this about the Temple of His Body. Both the Tabernacle and the Old Testament Temple were built on the model of this Temple and led to it! Orthodox Christians participate in its construction, partaking of the Flesh and Blood of the Body of Christ at every Liturgy. And we enter this Temple as living stones, building a wondrous dwelling for the Holy Trinity. And the first to initiate this was the Most Pure Theotokos, who, by her consent, brought Heaven down to earth, and who also raises us to Heaven.
And our temples — physical, stone, and wooden — are needed so that we, the living stones of the living Temple of God, may enter into that very glory that was once given to Moses and the prophets, that appeared to Mary, that now rests in its fullness in the Lord Jesus Christ, so that we may grow in this glory. God was pleased to grow us through physical means, for you and I are spirits clothed in bodies. Therefore, we require both spiritual and physical nourishment: our souls require the word of God, our bodies require Holy Communion. Our souls require prayer, our bodies require prostrations. Our souls require contemplation of God, our bodies require external deeds. Therefore, the temples of God are built so that we may become accustomed to entering this glory. Here resides in all its fullness the glory of God, which dwelt in the Tabernacle of Moses, which was in the Jerusalem Temple where the Most Pure Virgin entered, and which now resides in all its fullness in the Body of the Lord! Why is the glory of God here? Because here, in flesh and blood, our Lord Jesus Christ Himself abides forever on the Holy Throne.
And the Temple of His Body is with us, and “in Him all the fullness of the Godhead dwells bodily” (Col. 2:9), as the Apostle Paul speaks about it.
Therefore, we must strive to enter the temple of God ourselves, to enter with our hearts, our minds, our thoughts. As Theophan the Recluse said, "You must always strive to enter the temple of God." Even the shortest prayer in the temple is far more valuable than a lengthy prayer rule at home, for here lies the core of glory, the very same glory that Mary touched. Moreover, we stand in a privileged position compared to the people of the Old Testament. We know that the Old Testament Temple consisted of three parts: the courtyard or narthex, the sanctuary, and the Holy of Holies. Only the priests entered the sanctuary, and the high priest entered the Holy of Holies once a year. And we now stand in the sanctuary, like the ancient Old Testament priests; we stand before the face of God, for we must be a royal priesthood and offer our entire lives as a sacrifice to Him. This is the priestly dignity of all of us, the laity. We must sacrifice our lives to Almighty God and thereby receive eternal life.
Therefore, let us learn to integrate ourselves into the life of the Church. Integrate ourselves through prayer and communion with God. Hear the ringing of the bells, and even if you cannot enter the church, pray. Try, as much as possible, to visit the church daily or as often as possible and touch the heart of glory that abides here. For the eyes of the Lord are fixed upon the Temple of God day and night, as Scripture says, and He hears all who call upon Him with a pure heart. Therefore, let us, following the example of the Most Pure Virgin, enter the sanctuary and learn the mysteries, and let us ourselves be a dwelling place for God. After all, our task is to become temples ourselves, and to do this, we must learn to organize our lives as they are in a church. In church, swearing, debauchery, and scandal are not accepted, and therefore it is not fitting for us either, since we are the temples of God. The Holy Spirit dwells in us through Holy Chrismation, and the Lord is united with us in Holy Communion. If we have touched the heart of glory, the uncreated power, the cloud-like, fiery pillar has already touched us, and He is with us. Is it fitting for us to depart from Him? Of course not!
Therefore, let us live before the pillar of fire that dwells in the temple of God, which we too share, for we are strangers and pilgrims, our homeland is in the heavens, and we too are guided by a fiery, cloudy pillar, and ahead of us walk the Lord Jesus Christ and His Most Pure Mother, leading us into the heavens, raising us to where God dwells. May the Lord help us purify our hearts and become godlike beings, just as Mary became a godlike being, who from a little girl became the most beautiful and radiant Queen of Heaven!
May the Lord save you through the prayers of the Most Pure Mother of God, the Ever-Virgin Mary!
Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.
