His Eminence Archbishop Elpidophoros

Homily at the Great Vespers of the Feast of the Annunciation

March 24, 2023

Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church

Stamford, Connecticut

 

Brothers and Sisters in the Lord,

What a blessing to be here at Annunciation this evening, to chant the praises of the Theotokos and this Initiation of our salvation in Christ. As we sang in the Great Vespers:

Ὦ Μυστήριον! ὁ τρόπος τῆς κενώσεως ἄγνωστος,

ὁ τρόπος τῆς συλλήψεως ἄφραστος!

O the Mystery! The manner of His self-emptying is unknowable,

The manner of His conception is ineffable! *

This Mystery is the one that was hidden from all eternity and shielded even from the Angels – as the Apolytikion of the Fourth Tone says: Τὸ ἀπ' αἰῶνος ἀπόκρυφον, καὶ Ἀγγέλοις ἄγνωστον μυστήριον. It is the mystery of God’s saving plan for all of creation – and it was revealed on this day – the Day of the Annunciation – to a young Jewish maiden, our Panagia.

God chose the Virgin Mary to be His bridge to the Created world from the Uncreated. She was the ladder that the Patriarch Jacob saw in his dream. And although the Angels were descending and ascending upon this ladder, they did not understand its full meaning.

For the Angels could not comprehend the way God willed to partake of His own creation – through emptying Himself, and taking on the form of a servant, as the Apostle Paul reminds us in the exhilarating hymn from his Epistle to the Philippians:

Christ Jesus, Who, existing in the form of God,

did not regard being equal to God as something to be

grasped; rather, He emptied Himself – ἑαυτὸν ἐκένωσε,

taking the form of a servant – μορφὴν δούλου λαβών,

born in the likeness of humankind.†

It was the Virgin and her free choice that served His divine purpose. She gave her consent and she gave her human nature – all the way down to her DNA. I often think that the Lord must have looked very much like His Holy Mother.

My beloved Christians, the manner of His self-emptying is unknowable, beyond even the Angels’ abilities to understand. How can the Creator become a creature? How can God become a human being? How can the One Who sustains all, become so dependent on a young Jewish woman, and her elderly guardian? All of these are good questions, and the details of their answers abide in the mind of God alone.

But the result of His kenosis is exceedingly knowable – for He comes as a little Child, then a young boy, and finally as a grown man to teach, to preach, and to ultimately give Himself for the life of the world.

The same is true for the ineffability of the manner of His conception. The Archangel Gabriel announced the holy conception with words, but the manner of the conceiving cannot be described. The Holy Spirit overshadowed the Virgin, but she agreed to come into Its shadow.

Can you imagine what you would do if an Archangel appeared before you in a conscious state, and told you of a remarkable miracle about to take place in your life? I dare say that most of us would be as dumbstruck as Zacharias, the father of john the Baptist, when the Gabriel appeared to him in the Temple. The works of God cannot be circumscribed by language, by thought, by any mental process. If we are to understand them, we must commence with our own response. The Theotokos did. She said:

Ἰδοὺ ἡ δούλη Κυρίου· γένοιτό μοι κατὰ τὸ ῥῆμά σου.

“Behold! the handmaid of the Lord! May the word that you have spoken happen to me.” ‡

The Virgin spoke, and the conception was accomplished. With her assent. With her willingness. With her approval. Let us never forget our Panagia’s synergy with the Divine Plan – the Œconomia – of God. She is the living model for each and every one of us. God comes to us ineffably and even unknowingly at every step of our lives. He presents us with opportunity – time after time – to allow Him to enter into our lives and transform them. He wills to be born again and again with our hearts, just as He was conceived within her and born from her virgin womb.

Therefore, on this Eve of the Great Feast of the Annunciation, in the Temple consecrated to the same, let us embrace her manner of living, her way of being, her τρόπος.

Purity,

Humility,

Piety,

Honesty.

We may not yet understand or comprehend all the blessings that will come from such a way of life, but as surely as the Virgin transformed the world by here agreement with the Angel, we shall be transformed by our agreement with the Word of God. We shall be changed, and changed for the better. Thus, we shall be prepared to meet the Lord at the end of this Holy Lent when He comes again in His Glorious Resurrection. And we shall be prepared to meet Him at the end of our lives, When He comes to meet us and gather us into His Kingdom – where He reigns with the Father and the Holy Spirit, in glory and majesty, unto the ages of ages. Amen.

 

* Theotokion of the Stichera Idiomela, by Andrew the Jerusalemite.

† Philippians 2:5-11.

‡ Luke 1:38