Message of Fr. Vazken Movsesian, parish priest of St. Andrew Armenian Church, Cupertino, from the Nakhagoch Newsletter. Electronic version archived on: SAIN-- St. Andrew Information Network -------------------------------------- c. 1991 Fr. Vazken Movsesian Address comments to: dervaz@sain.org -------------------------------------- August 1991 On the Sunday closest the 15th of August, the Armenian Church celebrates the feast of the assumption of the Holy Mother of God. To answer some of the questions that are raised regarding St. Mary, we reprint excerpts from an article in "Making God Real in the Orthodox Christian Home" by Father Anthony M. Coniaris (adapted for the Nakhagoch). To the Orthodox Christian August is a sacred monthÑa month that brings with it a feeling of intensified reverence. It is the month of the Blessed Theotokos (=Mother of God, Asdvadzadzin in Armenian). For in August (18, 1991), we celebrate the most solemn of feasts related to the Mother of God, namely, falling asleep and assumption. Why do we honor Mary above all the saints? Nicholas Cabasilas, one of the great theologians of our Church, best answers this question when he writes, "The incarnation (god becoming man in the person of Christ) was not only the work of the Father, by His power and by His spirit, but it was also the work of the will and faith of the Virgin. Without the consent of the immaculate, without the agreement of her faith, the plan was as unrealizable as it would have been without the intervention of the three divine Persons Themselves. It was only after having instructed her and persuaded her that God took her for His Mother and borrowed from her the flesh that she so greatly wished to lend Him. Just as He became incarnate voluntarily, so He wished that His Mother should bear Him freely and with her full consent. This, then, is why we honor the Virgin so greatly. It was in the person of the Virgin that humanity gave its consent to the Word becoming flesh, to God becoming man and coming to dwell among us. The Blessed Mother said yes to God. She said yes for all of us. And God came down to earth to live in your life and mine. It was as if the human race were a little dark house, without light or air, locked and latched. The wind of the Spirit had beaten on the door, rattled the windows, tapped on the dark glass, trying to get inÑand yet the Spirit was outside. But one day, a woman opened the door, and the little house was swept pure and clean by the wind. Seas of light swept through it, and the light remained in it; and in that little house a Child was born and the Child was God. The Blessed Asdvadzadzin said yes for the human race. Each one of us must echo that yes for our own lives. We are all asked if we will surrender what we are, our humanity, our sins, our self to God and allow Christ to fill the emptiness. The surrender that is asked of us includes complete and absolute trust; it must be like Mary's surrender, without condition and without reservation. To surrender all that we are, as we are, to the Spirit of Love in order that our lives may bear Christ into the worldÑ that is what every Christian is asked. MaryÑthe Mother of GodÑmade this possible for us. As the first Eve led us away from God, the Second Eve (Mary) brought God to us. Her yes was for herself and for us. She said yes to God and He came to dwell in her womb. She brought God to the world. We, too, can say yes to the Highest and He will come to dwell in us so that we, in turn, may bring Him to our world today. Do Orthodox Christians Pray to Asdvadzadzin? We do not pray to Asdvadzadzin Mary. We pray only to God. We ask Mary and the saints to pray for us. We ask them for their prayers much as we would ask living friends to pray for us. Asdvadzadzin and the saints are living and they are friends as members with us of the same family of God (Body of Christ). Thus we are encouraged to ask for their prayer support. Was Mary's Body Taken Up to Heaven? Although it is not a dogma (official teaching), the Orthodox Church believes that upon death Mary's body was translated to heaven. There are two instances of bodily ascension occurring to humans that are mentioned in the Bible: Enoch (Eccl. 44:16 and 49:14) and Elijah (2 Kings 2:11). The Church's official book states concerning the bodily ascension of Asdvadzadzin: "Upon coming to the grave and not finding the Ever-holy Body of the Theotokos, the disciples became assuredly convinced that she ascended to heaven in the body after those days, living the same as her Son, for she was resurrected and translated from the dead." Like her Son, Mary underwent physical death but her body, like His, was afterwards raised from the dead and she was taken up into heaven in her body as well as in her soul. The resurrection of the body which all Christians await, has in her case been anticipated and is already an accomplished fact. --Fr. Vazken -------------------------------------- c. 1991 Fr. Vazken Movsesian Address comments to: dervaz@sain.org --------------------------------------