The Feast of the Nativity of the Theotokos at the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem

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On Sunday 6/19 September 2021, for pastoral reasons the Feast of the Nativity of the Theotokos was celebrated earlier at the Holy Church of the Nativity of Theotokos in Beit Jala, near Bethlehem.

On this feast, the Church glorifies God because He granted Mary to the former baren Joachim and Anna, from whom our Lord Jesus Christ was born in the flesh. The Church joyfully chants “Joachim and Anna were freed from the corruption of death O immaculate one by thy Holy Nativity…the barren woman giveth birth to the Theotokos and nourisher of our life” (Kontakion).

For this joyful feast the Divine Liturgy in the beautiful Church of Beit Jala was officiated by His Beatitude Patriarch of Jerusalem Theophilos, with the co-celebration of their Eminences; Archbishop Aristarchos of Constantina and Metropolitan Joachim of Helenoupolis, Elder Kamarasis Archimandrite Nectarios, the Priests of the Community, Paul, Joseph and Elias and Archdeacon Mark. The chanting was delivered by Mr Nidal and his choir, as the service was attended by the whole parish and the Consul General of Greece in Jerusalem Mr Evangelos Vlioras.

Before the Holy Communion His Beatitude Patriarch of Jerusalem Theophilos delivered the following Sermon:

“The ends of earth rejoice today upon thy birth, O blameless Maid, O Mary, God’s hallowed Mother and bride who knewest not wedlock. Hereon is loosed the sorrowful reproach and pain of childlessness by which thy parents once were held; loosed is the curse in childbearing that fell on Eve, our first mother” the hymnographer of the Church proclaims.  (Minaion, Matins, Exapostilarion).

Beloved Brethren in Christ,

Noble Christians,

The Holy Church of Christ rejoices today along with the Holy Prophets, Apostles, Martyrs, Righteous and Saints on the Holy Nativity of the Mother of our Lord Jesus Christ. For this reason, we are gathered in this holy Church to honour in Eucharist the Theotokos, the Mother of our God.

Let nature leap with joy because the sheep of God is being born and from her, the shepherd will be clad in a garment like a sheep and will tear apart the garments of the old deadening. Let virginity dance, because as Isaiah says, “the Virgin is born, she who will conceive and give birth to a Son, whose name will be Emanuel”, meaning, “God is with us”.

And the shepherd who will be clad in the sheep’s form and will tear apart the garment of the old deadening is no one else by God the Word, our Lord Jesus Christ, who “for our sakes he became poor, that we through his poverty might be rich” (2 Cor. 8:9), Saint Paul preaches.

Interpreting these words of Paul, Saint Chrysostom says: “Here, Paul names ‘wealth’ the knowledge of the mystery of reverence, the purification of sins, righteousness, sanctification, the myriads of good things He has bestowed on us and those He will bestow in the future”. And Zigavinos says: “The wealth of the deification by grace”.

The nativity of the pure Theotokos Mary from Joachim and Anna reversed the curse that came from Adam and Eve to the human race when later on she bore Christ in the flesh. That is why Saint John Damascene says, “in thee Ever-Virgin Theotokos are both nature and time renewed”.

This means that both human nature and the time are renewed in Theotokos and Virgin Mary, because from her did the Light of Righteousness dawn in the world, namely, Christ, the salvation of the human race. “Behold now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation” (2 Cor. 6:2) the Lord says. “Of which salvation the prophets have enquired and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you” (1 Peter 1:10), Saint Peter says.

Indeed, the words of the Prophets were fulfilled to the righteous people of God, Joachim and Anna, whose prayer did the Lord hear, and gave them the Virgin Mary as a brilliant and great ransom for Eve, as Saint John Damascene says: “And the Lord heard their prayer, giving them Mary, who has the name of the Lord, such a brilliant and great ransom for Eve. The daughter will become the healing of the mother, the new dough of the divine rebirth, the root of the god-spoken branch, the rejoice of the forefather”.

This holy event of the nativity of the Theotokos is especially honoured by our Holy Church. And this is because the Most Holy Mother of God is the beginning of the people in Christ, the Christians. From her pure flesh, the Word became incarnate, He was made flesh (John 1:14).

In other words, my dear brethren, the incarnation of God the Word in the Holy Spirit from her pure flesh became “the new leaven for the divine rebirth” as Saint Athanasios the Great teaches: “In Christ, the human nature is unspeakably united with the Divine nature of the Saviour and thus rejects all natural malformity that was inherited from Adam and is renewed from above into a new divine and eternal being, by the power of the Divine nature of the Word”.  

Behold, therefore, the contribution of the Most Pure and immaculate Virgin Mary to the great mystery of the salvation of us men. Behold again, why Saint Paul preaches; “For if the firstfruit be holy, the lump is also holy: and if the root be holy, so are the branches” (Romans 11:16) …

This news was originally published on the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem official website. Please click here to read the full text.