Homily on the Fourth Sunday of the Great Fast being the Feast of the Holy Annunciation
Luke 1:24-38.
Today the Holy Church celebrates a great Feast – that of the Annunciation of Our All-Holy and Ever-Virgin Mary, the Holy Theotokos. This Feast is one of the great Feasts in the calendar of the Church in that it represents the beginning point of our redemption. That is to say, in this event, the All-Holy Trinity reveals His desire to bring man back to Him – ultimately to offer man a way in which he can re-enter into communion with Him after the fall of Adam and Eve. Now without the ‘yes’ of the All-Holy Theotokos, Christ would not have come into the world- meaning our salvation would not have happened. This event is one of the greatest miracles performed by the All-Holy Trinity in that, a virgin became pregnant without any conjugal act. Now, this is important for it shows that anything is possible for the All-Holy Trinity a fact that seems to be forgotten these days by people – it appears that many people these days tend to place man at the centre of their world view rather than the All-Holy Trinity!
Imagine what it must have been like for the All-Holy Theotokos a young woman sitting around minding her own business – suddenly there appears the angel Gabriel who tells her:
“Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son and shall call His name JESUS. He will be great, and be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David. And will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end (Luke 1:30-32).”
Now for a young women of her time, this message would have been both confusing and potentially distressing; for what the angel was saying that she would conceive without her betrothed Saint Joseph. This being the case meaning that she potentially faced a life of ostracization and a life being shunned by the Jewish community! However, her faith made her realise that she would not face such a disastrous fate for the All-Holy Trinity would help her and like the prophet Samuel (1 Samuel 3:10) by her actions she said, “Speak Lord your servant is listening.”What great a gift she gave the world for by her co-operation our Lord and Saviour was born showing us that the All-Holy Trinity desires a relationship with that which He created – us His children. This shows us then that the All-Holy Trinity will never leave us His children as orphans a sentiment echoed by our Lord and Saviour in Saint Johns Gospel where He says:
“I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you. A little while longer and the world will see Me no more, but you will see Me. Because I live, you will live also (John 14: 18-19).
What this shows us is that Christ will be with us always, in that in the great feast of Pentecost Christ’s promise of the gift of the All-Holy Spirit to the Apostles was fulfilled (John 14:16). What this means on a deeper level is that Christ has promised us that the Church His Body will always be guided by the All-Holy Spirit and what follows is that the Church cannot fall - for the attacks of Satan will ultimately fail (Matthew 16:18)! What this also means is that via the grace of the All-Holy Spirit we the Church have the Holy Mystery of Ordination. This Mystery guarantees that Christ will always be there to feed His people through the Holy Mystery of the Holy Eucharist.
Furthermore, this Mystery of Ordination means that people can be forgiven that which weighs them down- their sins. So truly the All-Holy Trinity has not and will not leave us His people as orphans for through His incarnation, death, and resurrection He has destroyed that which held us back from coming into communion with Him (this being symbolised by the veil in the temple being torn in two at the moment of Our Lord and Saviour’s death (Matthew 27:51). Therefore, let us rejoice and be thankful for all the great gifts Our Lord and Saviour has bestowed upon us His people - for truly He has shown us the depth of His love by His birth, death and resurrection!
Likewise, He has shown that we will not be left as orphans for He gave us His mother at the foot of the Holy Cross as our protectress (John 19:26). This is why we know that the All-Holy Theotokos is our mother and through her prayers, great things can happen. This is why all Christian sects that deny her role as an intercessor to Christ are wrong - for they have missed that which is clearly expressed in the scriptures - the fact that our Lord and Saviour intended the All-Holy Theotokos to be our mother and intercessor for He says in John 19:26, ‘Woman, behold your son’. It is in these words that Christ shows His will in that He indicates that we are to hold the All-Holy Theotokos in high esteem.
Also, He shows us that she is indeed an intercessor for our needs. Indeed, many great miracles and protections have been wrought through her intercession to Christ; the first of which being the changing of the water into wine at the wedding in Cana of Galilee (John 2: 1-11). What is significant in this story is that as soon as she says to her Son, “They have no wine” (John 2:3) He performs His first miracle – a sign that the All-Holy Theotokos is much loved by Him but also, a potent intercessor to Him on our behalf - in that what she asks for He will do. This is why to attack the role of the All-Holy Theotokos as intercessor is misguided for Christ has shown us that He desires us to have her as our mother and intercessor. In many ways, the Protestant sects seem to take whatever they want from the Holy Scriptures and ignore what they do not like. For instance, why do they deny the efficacy or need for the Holy Eucharist when the scriptures are literally full of references to the Holy Eucharist (John 6:53; 1 Corinthians 10: 16-21; 1 Corinthians 11: 25-30 to name a few)? This seems like a selective reading of the scriptures and really does show their non-apostolicity! Meaning that their denominations do not come from the true Church and are like boats on a stormy sea without an anchor to stabilise them! Remember, the anchor of the Church which grounds it is Christ who is our Bishop!
Furthermore, how did the disciples at Emmaus recognise that they were talking to the risen Lord (Luke 24: 13-35)? Well, quite simply they recognised Him when He offered the Eucharist in front of them (Luke 24: 30-31)! In many ways, Christ in this account is showing us that He intends the Church to offer the Holy Mystery of the Eucharist and that the Holy Mystery of the Eucharist should be at the heart of the life of the Church! Also, in the Holy Mystery of the Eucharist, our Lord and Saviour is truly present this is why the Holy Church treats the Mystery of the Eucharist with such reverence – something that is often not present when non-apostolic sects try and imitate the Eucharist with crackers and grape juice. Let us pray for these non-apostolic sects that in the fullness of time they may be drawn into the truth which is the Orthodox Church.
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