By Metropolitan Gabriel of Nea Ionia and Philadelphia
“for He looked on the humiliation of His female servant” (Luke 1:48)
The Feast of the Dormition and the Assumption of the Virgin Mary has arrived.
But is it worth to wonder…? What was the element that lifted our Lady over all creation?… “THE HUMILIATION.”
A word that seems so alien and strange to the modern secularized man. To the man of excessive selfishness and intellectual disability, who knows how to be fed only on publicity, self-esteem and vain virtual self-promotion.
Perfection, however, my brothers, needs neither promotion nor publicity. There is no need for demonstration and secular ephemeral glory.
Our God is humble because He is perfect and His humiliation is the source of true beauty and all perfection.
The same thing happened with our Lady…
It was Her humiliation that made Her the Mother of God and the Mother of us all. Our Lady was talking to us in Her silence. She deliberately remained silent out of humiliation. She let Her Son speak and this is the strongest sermon of the Theotokos.
Our Lady is still alive today! She is here among us, and She does not stop to plead Her Son to save our souls and the bodies of those who pray to Her.
Our Lady offered humankind the highest gift. The Son of God.
When Saint Paisios the Athonite wanted to go to pray to the Virgin, he cut a few wildflowers that grew outside of his cell and placed them to Her Icon. “-How can go empty-handed to plead Her…” he said.
And we… what kind of gift should we offer Her this year at Her feast? Is there a better gift than our humiliation…?
Have many and blessed years!
May the Virgin Mary bless and help the whole world!
