LOVERS are wont to speak of what they love, and to let their fancy run on it by day and night. Let no one therefore blame me, if I add a third tribute to the Mother of God, on her triumphant departure. I am not profiting her but myself and you who are here present, putting before you a spiritual seasoning and refreshment in keeping with this holy night. We are suffering, as you see, from scarcity of eatables. Therefore I am extemporising a repast, which, if not very costly nor worthy of the occasion, will certainly be sufficient to still hunger. She does not need our praise. It is we who need her glory. How indeed can glory be glorified, or the source of light be enlightened? We are weaving a crown for ourselves in the doing. “I live,” the Lord says, “and I will glorify those who glorify Me.” Wine is truly pleasant to drink, and bread to eat. The one rejoices, the other strengthens the heart of man. But what is sweeter than the Mother of my God? She has taken my mind captive, and held my tongue in bondage. I think of her by day and night. She, the Mother of the Word, supplies my words. The fruit of barrenness makes barren minds fruitful.
We keep today the feast of her blessed and divine transfer from this world. Let us then climb the mystical mountain, where beyond the reach of worldly things, passing through the obscurity of storm, we stand in the Divine light and may give praise to Almighty power. How does He, who dwells in the splendour of His glory, descend into the Virgin’s womb without leaving the bosom of the Father? How is He conceived in the flesh, and how does He spontaneously suffer, and suffer unto death, in that material body, gaining immortality through corruptibility? And, again, ascending to the Father, He drew His Mother, according to the flesh, to His own Father, taking into the heavenly country her who was heaven on earth.
Today the living ladder, through whom the Most High descended and was seen on earth and conversed with men, was taken into heaven by death. Today the heavenly table, she, who contained the Bread of life, the fire of the Godhead, without knowing man, was taken from earth to heaven, and the gates of heaven opened wide to receive the gate of God from the East. Today the living city of God is transferred from the earthly to the heavenly Jerusalem, and she, who conceived her first-born and only Son, the First-born of all creation, the Only Begotten of the Father, rests in the Church of the first-born: the true and living Ark of the Lord is taken to the peace of her Son. The gates of heaven are opened to receive the receptacle of God, who, bringing forth the tree of life, destroyed Eve’s disobedience and Adam’s penalty of death. And Christ, the Cause of all life, receives the chosen mirror, the mountain from which the stone cut without hands filled the whole earth.
She, who brought about the Word’s divine Incarnation, rests in her glorious tomb as in a bridal-chamber, whence she goes to the heavenly bridals, to share in the kingdom of her Son and God, leaving her tomb as a place of respite for those on earth. Is her tomb indeed a resting-place? Yes, more renowned than any other, not shining with gold, or silver, or precious stones, nor covered with silken, golden, or purple adornments, but with the divine radiance of the Holy Spirit. The angelic state is not for lovers of this world, but the wondrous life of the blessed is for the servants of the Spirit, and passing to God is better and sweeter than any other life. This tomb is fairer than Eden. And may I not speak of the enemy’s deceit in the first [Eden]: of his, so to say, clever counsel, his envy and covetousness, of Eve’s weakness and pliability, the bait, sure and tempting, which cheated her and her husband, their disobedience, exile, and death. Let us not speak of these things so as not to turn our feast into sorrow.
