Feast honors Mary’s youth

“It is in you that He has glorified your name in every generation. It is in you that He will reveal the Redemption that He has prepared for His people in the last days.” (Protoevangelion) These are the words of the high priest Zachariah as he lifted up the young Virgin Mary in front of the temple.

In the Orthodox Church, today is the Feast Day of the Entrance of the Virgin Mary into the Temple. It is considered one of the 12 greatest church holidays. The account is not in the New Testament.

The Orthodox Church is careful to observe all events of Christian life. This is an event the early Church observed.

This event is recorded in a second-century work known as the Book of James or Protoevangelion. In the early Church, there were many books written about Christ, Christian life and events surrounding the apostles. The church decided which books were worthy of being in the New Testament. It was not until the end of the fourth century that the divinely inspired 27 books were put in place. The Protoevangelion was one book that the Church fathers considered not to be one of the 27. There are many events in the book that the Church considers valid and of importance, and this event was one.

When Mary was 3 years old, Joachim and Anna decided it was time to fulfill their promise and offer her to the Lord. Mary’s birth was considered miraculous because Anna was old, beyond childbearing years. She had no children. She always wanted a child and prayed to God that if He would grant her wish and take away her reproach among men, she would dedicate the child to God.

So when Mary was to be dedicated to the temple. Joachim gathered young girls of the neighborhood. Carrying torches, the young maidens led Mary to the temple. Joyfully, the child followed the procession. As she approached the temple, she left her parents and climbed alone up the 15 large steps to the temple’s entrance. When she ascended the steps, Mary then threw herself into the arms of the high priest, Zacharias, who was waiting for her at the temple gate with the elders. He blessed her and said, “It is in you that He has glorified your name in every generation. It is in you that He will reveal the Redemption that He has prepared for His people in the last days.”

Zacharias then took the child into the Holy of Holies – a place where only the high priest was permitted to enter once a year on the Day of Atonement. She lived in the temple until the age of 9 when she was the entrusted to Joseph. According to St. Jerome, a fourth-century saint, her life at that Jerusalem temple was also a secret. “If anyone to ask me, how most holy virgin spent the time of her youth, I would answer this is only known to God himself and the Archangel Gabriel, her constant guardian.”

According to St. Gregory Palamas, (1296-1359), the high priest saw that this child was special because she had Divine Grace within her. He wished to send her within the Holy of Holies. He persuaded everyone to welcome this, because this was the Will of God. Through His angel, God assisted the Virgin by giving her mystical food, with which she was strengthened in nature and body. She was made purer and more exalted than angels, having the heavenly spirits as servants.

According to St. Gregory, Mary was a special person because she was chosen from the beginning of time to give birth to the King of Kings. We call her blessed and the Mother of the Church because she gave birth to Christ.

Many may ask, “OK, this is a nice piece of history. So how does this affect my life?” The Feast of the Entry of the Most Holy Theotokos into the Temple foretells God’s blessing for the human race, the preaching of salvation, and the promise of the coming of Christ. Today we celebrate the memory of those things that contributed, if only once, to the Incarnation of God.

We live today, in perilous times. Our safety and our stability is constantly being challenged. Terrorism is a constant threat and we may have genuine fear. It appears that the absolutes that we may have lived by are under attack. We must realize that God is the same today, as He was yesterday, and will be tomorrow. God does not change. He is always here to help us. It is His Holy Church that provides us with the direction and comfort that we need. Let us seek God’s guidance and grace. “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me.” (Rev. 3:20)

“Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good, His Mercy endures forever.” (1Chronicles 16:34)

Have a blessed Thanksgiving!

The Rev. Thomas M. Constantine is pastor of St. John the Forerunner Greek Orthodox Church in Boardman.