The Entrance Of The Theotokos Into The Temple
Metropolitan Moses
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son,
and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
On this day we celebrate the Entry into the Temple of the Most Holy Theotokos at the tender age of three years old and her progress in her mystical union with the Most High God. Today a new genesis unfolds before all. In the first Genesis our Creator and God created the heaven and the earth and all that in them is, and when all was ready he took virgin earth and made man, breathing His Spirit into him. But alas, through our first parent’s disobedience God’s original plan was frustrated and the race of man became subject to death (and this was so that sin might not be made immortal, as the Fathers teach). Adam and his offspring made from earth, were doomed to return to the earth, yet they were given a promise of redemption.
Now, when the fullness of time came, we see the Virgin, born of a promise from God proclaimed by the archangel Gabriel to barren Joachim and Anna, born as an answer to prayer and fasting. From the race of men God formed a new marvel that far surpasses that of old. This young child, who, though of the same nature as us and made of the earth like unto us, by her entry into the Holy of Holies is being prepared to become a new creation. The Virgin enters in and the whole world is made new. Though a tender child of three, the Virgin begins an unprecedented life of mystical converse with the Most High. She, who by the unceasing direction of her will towards the Sun of Righteousness, has become a vessel of the Holy Spirit and in an extraordinary way the Heavenly Tabernacle. And, “God’s Angels hymn her with songs of praise,” as it says in the Kontakion for the feast.
We celebrate the great acts of God and the co-operation and synergy of the Most Holy Theotokos with the Divine Will for our salvation. Through her entrance and progress into the Holy of Holies, we enter into the Holy of Holies, that is, the mystery of our salvation begins: the great mystery of the Incarnation and dispensation of her Son and our God culminating in a new life wherein we participate in the life of the Holy Trinity. God made this new heaven and she walks the earth and enters the Temple that we might be lifted up from the earth and become temples of God and inheritors of His everlasting habitations in the heavens.
In the service for the Feast of the Entry of the Theotokos into the Temple Zacharias is referred to as the Great High Priest, when he was not the High Priest of Israel. Why is this so? The title given unto him is based on a spiritual interpretation of these events that were veiled from the people, in that Zacharias ministered to the Theotokos, the Heavenly Tabernacle and Vessel of the Uncontainable One, who dwelt in secret in the Holy of Holies.
As Moses grew up in the midst of the household of Pharaoh and the Egyptians did not understand that he would one day lead Israel from bondage. So also, this little child in the midst of the Temple was almost invisible to the many thousands that frequented the environs of the Temple and they could not conceive the fact that the Most Holy Theotokos would be the source of our liberation from the bondage of sin.
When did this all happen and where? We can avoid the many arguments concerning dates and say that we approximate and fix the year that the Most Holy Theotokos made her entry into the Temple in either 11 or 12 B.C.. And who built the Temple? We know that it was Herod, who is called “the Great” by historians, lived from 73 B.C. to 4 A.D. He was an Idumean, the son of a military man named Antipater who, with the help of the Romans, ruled from “behind the throne” of the legitimate ruler from the Hasemonian dynasty, Hyrcanus. After the death of his father, Herod married the daughter of Hyrcanus, in an attempt to legitimatize his link to the ruling house of the Jews, but he was always ready to kill whomsoever he perceived to be a threat to his rule and control of what was essentially a Jewish vassal kingdom of the Romans. Without Roman rule, Herod would not have a place in the Jewish kingdom. At a time when it seemed his rule was threatened, he killed his father-in-law Hyrcanus. Later he arranged that his brother-in-law Aristobulus be made High Priest. Aristobulus was from the Hasemonian dynasty and a legitimate choice for high priest. For this reason he was extremely popular with the Jews and fearing his popularity, the tyrant Herod had him drowned in an “accident.” From this point on, the high priests were not of the legitimate lineage and were put in place by the tyrant Herod, i.e., not according to the proper order.
Shapiro, A modern Rabbi comments, “As a result of Herod's interference and the ever-spreading Hellenistic influences among the Jewish upper classes, the Temple hierarchy became very corrupt. The Sadduccees, a religious group of the wealthy, who collaborated with the Romans in order to keep their power base, now controlled the Temple, much to the chagrin of the mainstream Jewish majority, the Pharasees, and of the extreme religious minority, the Zealots.”
This was the state of things “in the fullness of time” when our Creator fulfilled His promises. These events were prophesied to take place when ‘a ruler failed from the house and lineage of Judah.’
Just as today, there were faithful adherents to Holy Tradition on one hand, and those that were “Hellenize-Secularized” and being lead astray on the other. There was a tyrant then, there are tyrants now. At that time there were priests who were faithful to all aspects of Holy Tradition and the proper order concerning the things of Israel. Yet, sadly, we see also that there were priests who gave lip service to their ministry yet were ready to compromise themselves for the sake of the tyrant and serve not God, but men, just as we see today. Again and again history witnesses to the fact that legitimate spirituality and compromised ethics do not mix.
When we look at the historical setting for this feast, we are confronted with cooperation and synergy with the Divine Will on one hand and egoism and arbitrary disregard for Holy Tradition on the other. And as we face the problems of today we see that every generation is confronted with the same choice. Let the tyrants of the world conspire, let them violate the order of things Divine, there will be a day of reckoning for all. Our life may be hidden and we may be seen as insignificant in the eyes of the world, but if we imitate our Lady, the Most Holy Theotokos and live a life of mystical converse through prayer and direct our will to the Will of God, we also can become vessels of the Holy Spirit.
May we ever be faithful to the Divine Will and let us rejoice and set our gaze on high praising and blessing the Theotokos. To her, then, with a great voice let us cry aloud: Rejoice, O thou fulfillment of the Creator’s dispensation. Amen.