“Thy womb has offered to Christ, the Lamb of
God, our substance to be His fleece; therefore in our hymns we all honour thee
on this day of thy nativity from Anna.” (Canticle one, second canon, 4th verse,
from Matins for the Birth of the Mother of God, by St. Andrew of Crete)
Many
converts to Holy Orthodoxy have trouble making a personal connection with Mary,
the Theotokos. They understand and accept the theology and the reasons why she
is venerated and called upon for intercession, but on a personal, intimate or
emotional level, there is not much connection. Part of the problem, I think, is
that many have not come to an Orthodox understanding of nature/substance and
person.
In the
western theological tradition, substance is something that exists, and from which
persons are derived. That is, substance precedes person. For example, it could
be imagined that the substance of man existed before the first man was created.
It is as if the existence of “humanness” necessitated the creation of humans,
who are manifestations or examples of human substance. (May all philosophers
please forgive my imprecise wording, but I think this catches the general
western tendency of thought.)
In the
Orthodox Tradition, you might say person precedes nature (nature and substance
are synonyms in this context: nature coming from Greek works and substance in
works derived from Latin), although this is not quite correct either.There is
no person without nature, nor nature without person: There is no humanness
without actual human beings. And so you might well ask, “What has this to do
with my relationship with Mary?”
Take a
look again at the verse above from Matins of the feast for the Birth of the
Mother of God. In the Incarnation, Christ takes on human nature/substance to be
his “fleece” from the womb of a person: Mary, the daughter of Joachim and
Anna.Christ didn’t pull human nature out of the air. He didn’t take on
“general” humanity (as though such a thing could be imagined). He took the
humanity of a particular, specific person: He clothed himself in the fleece
that Mary’s womb offered. Notice that it was offered.
Mary
participated in the incarnation not only in her biology but also in her
intention. She offered herself to God and thus became worthy to bear God. God
comes and dwells in those who invite Him, who offer their whole lives to Him.
That is, God’s works among men are synergistic, works of cooperation: man’s (or
woman’s) “yes” makes possible the works of God among men. Most especially the
great work of salvation, the incarnation of the Word of God, was possible only
through the “yes” of the daughter of Anne.
And this
woman, Mary the Theotokos, whose birth we celebrate today now stands at the
right hand of Christ as his Mother and Bride where she continues to offer herself
to her Son and Lord (see Psalm 44 LXX). And here is a great mystery, in as much
as each of us is in Christ, she too is our mother.
Heaven is
a crowded place. Somehow many western people imagine a heaven where they alone
commune with God alone. This is more a description of hell than heaven (for
hell is always described as a lonely place). Certainly the Bible and Church
Tradition know of no such lonely heaven. The biblical language always likens
heaven to a crowded place, like an imperial court, with ranks of angles and
seas of people led by elders who are likened to judges and (especially in Old
Testament images) to gods.But this heavenly court is not presented as a modern
court of law, where impersonal law is supposed to reign supreme. Rather this is
the court of the King of kings, the Son of God and the Son of Mary, a human and
divine person who asks for advice (although he doesn’t need it—see 3 Kingdoms
22: 19-23, for example) and is moved by the intercessions of His fiends
(Abraham and Moses, for example) and especially the intercessions of His Mother
(see John 2, the wedding in Cana).
When we
pray, we do well to remember that we are presenting our selves before the
heavenly court, not just the King, but the whole “cloud of witnesses” who have
gone before us. And since this is not a court of law (except in the sense that
the King is the Law), but the court of the King of kings who is willing to be
entreated by His friends, we do well to get to know His friends, the Saints and
most particularly his Mother, whose “yes” opened the door for the world’s
salvation.
Source: http://www.pravmir.com/getting-know-mother/
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