Today we have the concelebration of two wonderful feasts: the celebration of the cross with the Annunciation (so we are half way through Great Lent and nine months away from the Nativity!).
These are two feasts that fit so well together: a life offered in love for Christ carries a burden that leads to Resurrection and eternal joy.
Each of us is walking this very journey. It began when we were catachumens. The priest asked us a simple question; “Have you united yourself to Christ?” It is an important question, so he asked it again; “Have you united yourself to Christ?” And just to make sure, he asked one more time; “Have you united yourself to Christ?” And our reply echoed that of the Virgin Mary two thousand years ago when she said; “Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word.”
And, to paraphrase the scriptures, so it was that the Holy Spirit was confirmed on us, the power of the Most High overshadowed us: and the holy thing which grew in our hearts was the Son of God.
This is the Good News. The beginning of our salvation. It is death to sin and despondency and the promise of a life that would grow eternally from joy to joy. Our blindness was healed, our leprosy cured, and all those terrible things that divide us from one another and keep us from enjoying the everflowing power and love of God were removed.
It was a powerful time – the acceptance of Christ brings unlimited potential. Opening the door and letting Him in brings so much promise. We can almost feel the thankful humility of the Virgin Mary as Christ grew within her womb. It was a beautiful time, pregnant with power and purpose. The Christian continually recommits himself to this promise and his every thought is transformed into a hymn of praise.
As with the Virgin Mary, Our souls truly magnifies the Lord!
Yes, our acceptance of Christ was an amazing time. But it was not long before we realized that the way of salvation and perfect peace brings pain and heartache as well. We are under the same prophecy as that given by St. Simeon to the Virgin Mother of God; “Yea, a sword shall pierce through thy own soul, also.” No servant is greater than his master. As Christ said;
These things I command you, that ye love one another. If the world hates you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you (St. John 15: 17-19).
The Virgin Mary suffered because of her choice – but one anyone but the Devil say that she was wrong in making it? He Son of God suffered because of His choice – would anyone but the Devil have Him do anything different?
The world will mock you for your devotion to God and for living the fullness of faith that is the Orthodox Way. How can a fallen and wicked world not mock the ones who have rejected its way? Do you see what they have done to chastity? The world cannot respect purity or the existence of chastity or any other virtue. It certainly does not value the hard work and sacrifice of love, the kind of love that makes marriages true and lasting; rather, it values a mockery of love: the transient satiety of lust’s fulfillment.
Ours is not the first society that has mocked goodness and reveled in debauchery. Sociologists like Rodney Stark explain that the early Church grew because it created a positive counterculture to the fallen Roman hegemony. One example that is especially pertinent to us today as we celebrate the Annunciation is the value of women in both societies [the value of unborn life is another, but in the interest of timeI will save that for another day].
Whereas Roman society valued women only to the extent they were giving men pleasure or babies (preferable male babies); Christianity taught that women were the equal to men in the true-seeing eyes of God, that marriage was a sacramental bond; that wives were to be honored by their husbands rather than tossed away at the first sign of trouble temptation. It taught that the purity of maidens and widows was not just to be respected and honored, but protected. Women were finally allowed to reach their potential as full partners in Christ and the fellowship of Christians. They saw the difference and preferred holiness and Truth. And so the Church grew and saints were made.
We need to do the same. Our society would turn all of our daughters into prostitutes, our wives into temporary partners, and all of our widows into cougars and sexual predators. It does not respect them. It does not honor them. It does not value chastity or commitment. Women in this world are not allowed to live the kind of dignified and fulfilling lives that is their due as children of the Most High God. It is truly wicked the way this world treats women.
I am not just saying this because I am husband to a wife, father to two girls, and shepherd of a flock full of girls and women I adore. I am saying it because today’s feast of the Annunciation provides such a stark contrast to the world. We have the Theotokos as our ideal. What does the world have? Instead of the ever-Virgin, ever-chaste, and most-blessed Virgin, it offers the worst kind of promiscuous succubae as role-models and icons.
Like the Christians of the early Church, we must reject the fallen ways of the world. When we do, the Church will grow and saints will be made.
Doing the right thing isn’t always easy, especially when the people around us rejoice in what is wrong.
But the Way to perfection is not found in easy choices, it is found in the Cross. They crucified our savior for His Love of us and for His commitment to the Truth.
They will crucify us for our love and for our commitment to the Truth.
We are not greater than our master; a sword will pierce our heart as well.
But in Christ, we will have peace in persecution; and in Him, we will have resurrection through the Cross.
Now may the peace and joy that comes to all who unite themselves to Him and to His Truth strengthen you throughout every trial; and may His joy be in your heart as you embrace the martyrdom that comes to all who believe.
