Homily on the Glorious Dormition of the All-Holy Theotokos
By St. John of Kronstadt
(Delivered on August 15, 1900)
By St. John of Kronstadt
(Delivered on August 15, 1900)
“The Queen stands at Your right hand” (Psalm 44:10).
Thus prophesied from the depths of past centuries the Prophet King David; he saw by the prophetic Spirit the greatest glorification from God of the wondrous Queen, chosen from all earthly generations as a Mother of the Son of God, Who was to be incarnated by the Holy Spirit without male seed, for the redemption and salvation of the human race from sin, the curse and death. He then saw as if the present event now being celebrated by the universal Church, i.e. the presence of the Mother of God at the right hand of God Her Son in heaven, the presence which She was awarded after Her honorable dormition, burial, resurrection on the third day, and ascension to heaven with Her most pure Body. “The Queen stands at Your right hand.”
Why did the heavenly Queen stand at the right hand of Her Son and God, the Creator of all creatures, the Savior of the world? In order to eternally intercede before Him for the Christian race, which constantly implores and blesses Her, and in order to receive righteous recompense from the life-giving Right Hand of Her Son, for her supernatural service to His incarnation and upbringing, for all the sorrows and tribulations that She endured during His sufferings and death on the Cross.
Wondrous are the mysteries of God's providence for the human race! At the very creation of man, in the person of the first couple, he was honored with the greatest honor: he alone of all earthly, animate creatures, was distinguished by the image and likeness of God, having received from the Creator a verbal, free, immortal soul, having dominion over all earthly creatures and over all the earth, with the only condition and obligation to freely and willingly obey His Creator. This meant that for voluntary obedience and the exact fulfillment of God's commandment, He grants to people as a reward the eternal enjoyment of the ineffable blessings of the Kingdom of God. At the same time, it was announced to them beforehand that they would die for disobedience and violation. The reward for obedience, and the punishment for disobedience, were quite sufficient to encourage the fulfillment of the commandment and to protect against disobedience. But what the first couple could have feared, that’s what happened: instead of turning their freedom to good, to obedience to God, they turned it into evil; not submitting to God and listening to the evil enemy who deceived his first wife Eve. There occurred a bold, ungrateful violation of the covenant with God and a foolish, voluntary union with the fallen angel and his kingdom – with the spirits of wickedness in the heavenly places: and so, together with the first men, all mankind that was in their ancestry fell away from God and became enslaved to the enemy and inherited an infinitely great evil. Since this evil was not original in men, but occurred temptingly from the first author and inventor of evil, the devil, thereby allowing mercy and compassion from God to fallen man, then the Lord had compassion on His fallen, feeble creation, who had the ability to repent; and even before his creation, foreseeing his fall, He determined to redeem him in a miraculous way, worthy of God alone: by the incarnation of the Son of God from the Most-Pure Virgin, by the fulfillment through Him of all God's righteousness, desecrated by men, by teaching them faith, repentance, and all righteousness, by His sufferings and death for mankind, by His resurrection and ascension into heaven according to His human nature; the foundation on earth of the Church or the community of the saved, the granting to people of the all-powerful Intercessor for the faithful and those who hold on to the sincerely founded Church. And fallen humanity has been restored; in place of Eve's disobedience, there appeared a humble, obedient Virgin – the Most Holy Mary: she took into herself the enemy of the devil and united with Him through obedience to God, and this one, through humility and obedience to the words of God, took God Himself into Herself and was united with Him forever and united with Him all those that believed and obeyed Him. He was the author of sin and death; but this is the Author of righteousness and eternal life. And now She stands at the right hand of Her Son and God and intercedes before Him for Christians day and night.
“The Queen stands at Your right hand.” The Mother of God grieved much and suffered unjustly from lawless people, who in every way persecuted and insulted Her Son with their evil tongues and finally killed Him on the Cross. She shed many bitter tears when She saw Him hanging and suffering on the Cross and giving up His spirit.
For all Her unparalleled sorrows, tears, sighs, patience, as well as for all Her care for Her Son, She is honored with the greatest glory – the Queen of heaven and earth and the Protectress of the entire Christian race. In Her very death there is already the greatest glory – in the illumination of Her face and in the brilliance of the extraordinary light of the tabernacle in which Her Most-Pure Body rested, in the wondrous fragrance of the heavenly aromas that aromatized in the tabernacle; in the appearance of the Lord Himself with the angels and archangels, Who took in His Most-Pure hands the most holy soul of His Mother and lifted Her up to heaven to reign with Him, having no end. When Her Body was being carried to burial by the Apostles, miraculously brought on clouds from various parts of the world, a certain Jew named Jephonia, out of envy and hatred of the Most Holy Virgin, rushed to overturn the coffin with Her body, but his impudent hands were suddenly cut off by the invisible sword of the angel and cleaved to the tomb, and only for his sincere repentance was he pardoned by the Mother of God and healed. The air was filled with sweet angelic singing. After the burial, on the third day, the Mother of God Herself appeared in a glorified form to the Apostles in the refectory assembly and gave them peace and a promise to always be with them and with all sincere believers. And She has always been and is with us, sometimes in personal appearances, other times in various miraculous signs from the Holy Spirit from the Holy Icons, especially in times of calamity and popular prayers. She is with us even now, covering us and interceding for us from the righteous wrath of God; and now She has already shown help to the Russian army in China, which has victoriously entered Beijing. O Lady, Most Holy Mother of God, be with us and with Russia, until the end of time! Amen.
Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.