Homily One on the Nativity of the Most Holy Theotokos
By St. Justin Popovich
(Delivered in 1964, at the Monastery of Ćelije)
By St. Justin Popovich
(Delivered in 1964, at the Monastery of Ćelije)
This Holy Great Feast of today bears the joy of the whole universe, as it is said in the beautiful hymn: “Today the Most Holy Mother of God brings the Lord Christ into the universe!” It is as though God were driven out from the earth—and indeed He was driven out from the earth. God was driven out from the earth by us human beings, beginning with our first foremother Eve. The Most Holy Virgin brings God back into the world. That is a great joy. Her troparion today speaks to us of that great joy and of that great truth.
The Nativity of the Most Holy Mother of God, it is said in the troparion, “proclaimed joy to the whole universe,” to the whole world. Why? Because with her, in truth, the Lord Christ came into this world! He, because of her and through her, became man and gave us everything that He, as the God-man, could give us: He gave us all the joys of Paradise on earth and upon the earth, which became hell because of our sins, because of human sins; not because of some others, not because of the sins of the devil and his black angels, but because of man, because man fell through an indescribable fall. And the Most Holy Mother of God, giving birth to the Lord Christ, gave birth to salvation for the world. Hence, in the Orthodox Church, there are so many prayers, so many hymns to the Most Holy Mother of God.
There is never an end, and nowhere is there an end, to the hymns in her glory, to the hymns of her great spiritual struggle, of her sinless life. Truly, she brought us the remedy for death, and that is the most important need and the greatest Good News for all human beings. Death, the horror of horrors—and the Mother of God gave birth to God! Today the troparion says that “joy has shone forth upon the whole world,” because she was born who gave birth to the Conqueror of death—the Lord Christ! Yes, only she, the sinless one, only she, all-Immaculate, all pure, “more pure than the Cherubim and Seraphim,” brought that great joy to us human beings on earth, to human beings who drove God out from the earth. There are many illnesses in this world, but the most terrible illness is death. The Most Holy Mother of God, behold, appears as the first true physician who heals from death, because she heals from sin, heals from everything demonic, and returns man to God. Truly, she has made God dwell, brought God into this world and into man—both.
What is Holy Communion? Holy Communion is endless joy… Holy Communion is the bringing of the Lord Christ into our sinful and fallen souls, the bringing of Him into this world. Through Holy Communion we receive the Lord Christ risen from the dead. Therefore the Most Holy Mother of God is truly “more glorious than all the Cherubim and Seraphim”; without her there would be no salvation for us, without her there is neither Paradise nor Heaven. Without her there is no remedy for death, and she gives us the surest remedy for death by giving birth to the Savior and making us worthy of His holy Body and His holy Blood, of Communion and of life by Him and in Him and through Him. Therefore human beings on earth can never glorify the Most Holy Mother of God sufficiently, never sufficiently express her spiritual struggle, her sinless life, never express sufficiently her who gave us Paradise.
And where is Paradise? Paradise is in the Lord Christ. When you bring Him into yourself, through Holy Communion or through any great or small prayer, behold, you drive every sin out of yourself. And behind sin there always stands hell; behind sin there always stands the devil. The Most Holy Mother of God has given us in herself the best example of how the Lord Christ is served, how God is served. He is served only through a perfect, sinless life. Therefore there is never an end to our repentance on earth, because unclean spirits are always lying in wait for us, which drive out from our being everything that is paradisiacal, everything that is divine, and bring in what is sin, bring in what is hellish.
And you, when you stand in prayer before the Most Holy Mother of God, what are you actually doing? You are bringing God into yourself, and when He enters into you, He drives out every sin, every darkness. Yes, the Lord Christ, by the Nativity of the Most Holy Virgin, also brought us that great joy, the joy of the universe, and that remedy, the all-important remedy for death. For there is no joy if death is our last station. There is no joy in this world if death is not conquered, and the Lord accomplished this; and the Most Holy Mother of God gave birth to Him for such a struggle. Therefore there is never an end to our gratitude to her, and we must never cease with prayer to her. She is always our Hope, always our Protectress, always our Deliverer from every sin, and that means from every spiritual death.
And we, glorifying the Most Holy Mother of God today, through her Nativity in truth heal ourselves from death, heal ourselves from everything mortal, heal ourselves from sin and passions, and thus rise again from death and conquer every death. For the Most Holy Mother of God led us from virtue to virtue, from faith to love, from love to mercy, from mercy to fasting and to all the other virtues, so that we too might conquer everything that is mortal in us and serve the Lord Christ, who for our sake became man, for our sake took death upon Himself so that He might rise again and give us victorious powers over everything that is mortal; that means, over everything that separates us from God, that separates us from the Lord Christ. For the Most Holy Mother of God leads each one of us along the path of salvation, along the path of the great joy that she brought us today, so that we might become worthy, to some extent become worthy through our spiritual struggles, through our prayers, although weak and powerless, to become worthy of the Kingdom of Heaven, for the sake of which the Lord came into this world also, to give it to us; so that we might make it a reality through our entire life, so that even here on earth we might live Heaven and serve the Lord Christ, and this we can always do successfully only if we are led and guided by the Most Holy Mother of God, to whom are due honor and glory, now and always and throughout all the ages. Amen.
Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.
