I was recently struck by a passage in an article by an Orthodox writer from the Russian Church (whose name escapes me at the moment). Speaking of the Dormition Fast, he wrote that we prepare for the Feast – the Feast of the Theotokos’s Dormition – by intensifying our love for the Virgin Mary. Now, this sentiment might sound familiar, perhaps even commonplace, to you and me. My saying it was ‘striking’ might seem like an overstatement. The truth is, I found myself connecting this statement with certain aspects of our current reality. I allowed it to penetrate what we know, or at least what we profess to know. Do we truly love the Theotokos? Do we genuinely grasp what she did for our salvation?
I don't know if the author intended to challenge us with his words about our love for the Theotokos. Was he implying that our love is merely a claim? Regardless, I tried to follow the thought through. I asked some of my fellow priests in the areas where I live and serve about what I was observing in my own community. It seems that the faithful, our brothers and sisters, have largely struck this fast from their practice. The services leading up to the Feast, held here and there, are attended by only a few. How can we claim to love Jesus and His Mother if we do not follow through on what we profess in our Church? It appears we love ourselves more!
I am not targeting anyone specific in these lines. I speak generally about the community I know, without making exceptions or pointing fingers. What frightens me is the possibility that what I describe applies broadly to our reality, near and far. Are we dangerously close to losing sight of what the Church, throughout the ages, has taught us about the Theotokos? It is with a heavy heart that I write this to you.
In our prayers, one of the titles we give the Virgin is "Helper", Helper in tribulations, in sickness, in distress, and in times of war. I truly don't know whom we turn to for help in these times, the likes of which, in their difficulty, we have never experienced before. Our distress is immense. Our homeland, its fate and our own fate within it, seems like a plaything tossed about by the powerful forces of this world and its demonic influences. Many of our children have emigrated, leaving us behind. People's life savings have been plundered in this country. Medicine is scarce. Water is scarce. Electricity is scarce. Threats of war loom larger every day... To whom shall we turn? Whose help shall we seek?
There are two crucial lessons that the reality of love, our love for the Theotokos, demands we learn quickly from Mary today.
First is her Help. It is core to our faith to believe in this communion between heaven and earth, between God, the Theotokos, the Saints, and ourselves. Heaven, and the Theotokos preeminently, exists for the hope of a better world, to aid us, and for us to learn from her example how to be in these critical times. That means both seeking her assistance and, like her, assisting the people we live among – those living in fear all around us, those abandoned to various forms of death and despair.
Second, we must learn from her about Intercession to her only Son. She, along with all the Saints, stands ready to lead us to Him, praying that He might preserve this world and keep all evil far from us.
The most precious aspect of the Feast is our repentance towards it; turning back to its true meaning and embracing its grace.
