St. Gregory Palamas
A Homily on the Dormition of Our Supremely Pure Lady Theotokos and Ever-Virgin Mary
Both love and duty today fashion my homily for your charity. It is not only that
I wish, because of my love for you, and because I am obliged by the sacred
canons, to bring to your God-loving ears a saving word and thus to nourish your
souls, but if there be any among those things that bind by obligation and love
and can be narrated with praise for the Church, it is the great deed of the
Ever-Virgin Mother of God. The desire is double, not single, since it induces
me, entreats and persuades me, whereas the inexorable duty constrains me, though
speech cannot attain to what surpasses it, just as the eye is unable to look
fixedly upon the sun. One cannot utter things which surpass speech, yet it is
within our power by the love for mankind of those hymned, to compose a song of
praise and all at once both to leave untouched intangible things, to satisfy the
debt with words and to offer up the first fruits of our love for the Mother of
God in hymns composed according to our abilities.
If, then, "death of the righteous man is honorable" (cf. Ps. 115:6) and the
"memory of the just man is celebrated with songs of praise" (Prov. 10:7). How
much more ought we to honor with great praises the memory of the holiest of the
saints, she by whom all holiness is afforded to the saints, I mean the
Ever-Virgin. Mother of God! Even so we celebrate today her holy dormition or
translation to another life, whereby, while being "a little lower than angels"
(Ps. 8:6), by her proximity to the God of all, and in the wondrous deeds which
from the beginning of time were written down and accomplished with respect to
her, she has ascended incomparably higher than the angels and the archangels and
all the super-celestial hosts that are found beyond them. For her sake the
God-possessed prophets pronounce prophecies, miracles are wrought to foreshow
that future Marvel of the whole world, the Ever-Virgin Mother of God. The flow
of generations and circumstances journeys to the destination of that new mystery
wrought in her; the statutes of the Spirit provide beforehand types of the
future truth. The end, or rather the beginning and root, of those divine wonders
and deeds is the annunciation to the supremely virtuous Joachim and Anna of what
was to be accomplished: namely, that they who were barren from youth would beget
in deep old age her that would bring forth without seed Him that was timelessly
begotten of God the Father before the ages. A vow was given by those who
marvelously begot her to return her that was given to the Giver; so accordingly
the Mother of God strangely changed her dwelling from the house of her father to
the house of God while still an infant . She passed not a few years in the Holy
of Holies itself, wherein under the care of an angel she enjoyed ineffable
nourishment such as even Adam did not succeed in tasting; for indeed if he had,
like this immaculate one, he would not have fallen away from life, even though
it was because of Adam and so that she might prove to be his daughter, that she
yielded a little to nature, as did her Son, Who has now ascended from earth into
heaven.
But after that unutterable nourishment, a most mystical economy of courtship
came to pass as regards the Virgin, a strange greeting surpassing speech which
the Archangel, descended from above, addressed to her, and disclosures and
salutations from God which overturn the condemnation of Eve and Adam and remedy
the curse laid on them, transforming it into a blessing. The King of all "hath
desired a mystic beauty" of the Ever-Virgin, as David foretold (Ps. 44:11) and,
"He bowed the heavens and came down" (Ps. 17:9) and overshadowed her, or rather,
the enhypostatic Power of the Most High dwelt in her. Not through darkness and
fire, as with Moses the God-seer, nor through tempest and cloud, as with Elias
the prophet, did He manifest His presence, but without mediation, without a
veil, the Power of the Most High overshadowed the sublimely chaste and virginal
womb, separated by nothing, neither air nor aether nor anything sensible, nor
anything supra-sensible: this was not an overshadowing but a complete union.
Since what overshadows is always wont to produce its own form and figure in
whatever is overshadowed, there came to pass in the womb not a union only, but
further, a formation, and that thing formed from the Power of the Most High and
the all-holy virginal womb was the incarnate Word of God. Thus the Word of God
took up His dwelling in the Theotokos in an inexpressible manner and proceeded
from her, bearing flesh . He appeared upon the earth and lived among men,
deifying our nature and granting us, after the words of the divine Apostle,
"things which angels desire to look into" (1 Pet. 1:12). This is the encomium
which transcends nature and the surpassingly glorious glory of the Ever-Virgin,
glory for which all mind and word suffice not, though they be angelic. But who
can relate those things which came to pass after His ineffable birth? For, as
she co-operated and suffered with that exalting condescension (kenosis) of the
Word of God, she was also rightly glorified and exalted together with Him, ever
adding thereto the supernatural increase of mighty deeds. And after the ascent
into the heavens of Him that was incarnate of her, she rivaled, as it were,
those great works, surpassing mind and speech, which through Him were her own,
with a most valiant and diverse asceticism, and with her prayers and care for
the entire world, her precepts and encouragements which she gave to God's
heralds sent throughout the whole world; thus she was herself both a support and
a comfort while she was both heard and seen, and while she labored with the rest
in every way for the preaching of the Gospel. In such wise she led a most
strenuous manner of life proclaimed in mind and speech.
Therefore, the death of the Theotokos was also life-bearing, translating her
into a celestial and immortal life and its commemoration is a joyful event and
festivity for the entire world. It not merely renews the memory of the wondrous
deeds of the Mother of God, but also adds thereto the strange gathering at her
all-sacred burial of all the sacred apostles conveyed from every nation, the
God-revealing hymns of these God-possessed ones, and the solicitous presence of
the angels, and their choir, and liturgy round about her, going on before,
following after, assisting, opposing, defending, being defended. They labored
and chanted together to their uttermost with those who venerated that life-
originating and God-receiving body, the saving balsam for our race and the boast
of all creation; but they strove against and opposed with a secret hand the Jews
who rose up against and attacked that body with hand and will set upon
theomachy. All the while the Lord Sabaoth Himself, the Son of the Ever-Virgin,
was present, into Whose hands she rendered her divinely-minded spirit, through
which and with which its companion, her body, was translated into the domain of
celestial and endless life, even as was and is fitting. In truth, many have been
allotted divine favor and glory and power, as David says, "But to me exceedingly
honorable are Thy friends, O Lord, their principalities are made exceeding
strong. I will count them and they shall be multiplied more than the sand" (Ps.
138:17). And according to Solomon, "many daughters have attained wealth, many
have wrought valiantly; but she doth exceed, she hath surpassed all, both men
and women" (cf. Prov. 31:29). For while she alone stood between God and the
whole human race, God became the Son of Man and made men sons of God; she made
earth heavenly, she deified the human race, and she alone of all women was shown
forth to be a mother by nature and the Mother of God transcending every law of
nature, and by her ineffable childbirth-the Queen of all creation, both
terrestial and celestial. Thus she exalted those under her through herself, and,
showing while on earth an obedience to things heavenly rather than things
earthly, she partook of more excellent deserts and of superior power, and from
the ordination which she received from heaven by the Divine Spirit, she became
the most sublime of the sublime and the supremely blest Queen of a blessed race.
But now the Mother of God has her dwelling in Heaven whither she was ...
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