the french translation of the book of His Holiness Pope Shenouda III about repentance and purity.
http://www.filesend.net/download.php?f=fa6ac6648238610122f4a63ec7360950
Monday, 16 April 2007
The Transfiguration
Pope Shenouda III
series of pamphlets
1
The Transfiguration
and some meditations
upon the feast of the Transfiguration
Cairo, June 1998
Name of the book: The Transfiguration
Author: His Holiness Pope Shenouda III
Editor: Orthodox Coptic Clerical College, Cairo
Fourth Edition: June 1998
Press: Amba Rueiss, (Offset)
Deposition number at "The Library": 96/8787
I.S.B.N. 977 - 5345 - 32 - 4
All rights reserved to the author
His Holiness Pope Shenouda III
Pope and Patriarch of the See of Alexandria and of all the Predication of the Evangelist St. Mark
In the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit,
the One God, Amen
You will read in this pamphlet about:
The Transfiguration of our Lord Jesus-Christ and its theological signification.
The transfiguration of Moses and Eliah and its pointing to the transfiguration of the human nature.
The transfiguration of our nature in the Resurrection, and its transfiguration here on earth.
The relation between the Transfiguration and the gifts.
The relation between the Transfiguration and the promises of God.
PREFACE
What is the story of these pamphlets?
Many people are inclined to read concise writings, more than what they read in big books.
Therefore we have seen to publish for you these pamphlets, in a single bunch of the small size.
They will be published in the weaks when the Kiraza magazine will not appear, and in the weaks when no big books will be published.
The price is insignificant and less than the price of a daily newspaper.
We present to you, dear reader, this first pamphlet, about the Transfiguration, on the occasion of the feast of the Transfiguration.
Pope Shenouda III
August 1996
We congratulate all of you for the feast of the Transfiguration, which is one of the Lord's feasts, and the Church celebrates it on the 13th of the month of Misra, which is the 19th of the month of August. The story of the Transfiguration is mentioned in the holy Gospel (Mark and Luke).
THE STORY OF THE TRANSFIGURATION
According to the gospel of the apostle saint Mark, the story of the Transfiguration was mentioned like this:
[Now after six days Jesus took Peter, James, and John, and led them up on a high mountain apart by themselves, and He was transfigured before them. His clothes became shining, exceedingly white, like snow, such as no launderer on earth can whiten them. And Elijah appeared to them with Moses, and they were talking with Jesus. Then Peter answered and said to Jesus: "Rabbi, it is good for us to be here; and let us make three tabernacles: one for You, one for Moses, and one for Elijah", because he did not know what to say, for they were greatly afraid. And a cloud came and overshadowed them; and a voice came out of the cloud, saying: "This is My beloved Son, hear Him!" Suddenly, when they had looked around, they saw no one anymore, but only Jesus with themselves.] (Mark 9: 2-8).
And in the narration of the apostle saint Luke, he added saying: "And behold, two men talked with Him, who were Moses and Elijah, who appeared in glory and spoke of His decease which He was about to accomplish at Jerusalem. But Peter and those with him were heavy with sleep, and when they were fully awake, they saw His glory and the two men who stood with Him" (Luke 9: 30-32).
THE GLORY AND DIVINITY OF CHRIST
The expression "glory" is mentioned more than once in the gospel of Luke.
As regards His divinity, it is evident in that in a moment, He was transfigured to this illuminating brightful aspect, whose brightness was magnificent...... and about which it was said: "His clothes became shining, exceedingly white, like snow, such as no launderer on earth can whiten them" (Mark 6:2).
His divinity is also evident in the manner of His capacity to bring Elijah and Moses to be present with Him.....
In how He brought them with Him.....! in how they spoke with Him......! and suddenly disappeared......!
In His sudden appearance, and His sudden disappearance! How did they come with Him in a moment?! And how did they disappear in a moment?! Where did they come from?! And where did they go to?!
Yes, how was Christ the Lord able to bring Elijah, body and soul, from that place which we do not know, since he was elevated alive to heaven in a chariot of fire, out of the earth. (2 Kings 2:11). And we do not know to what place in heaven!
His calling Elijah to stand with Him on the mount of the Transfiguration, then his dismissal in a single moment, undoubtedly that refers to the power of His divinity........
Then, how could He bring the soul of Moses, who was dead and buried, and "no one knows his grave to this day" (Deut. 34:6). It is known that the prophets and the righteous of the Old Testament were, before the Redemption, lying on hope, in their place of waiting "into the lower parts of the earth" (Eph. 4:9).
There is no doubt also that the calling of Elijah happened according to the power of His divinity.
The Lord willed to show to his disciples that He had put on this human body, simply out of His humility, and His self-abnegation.
But at that time, they did not understand His divine nature.
This glorious transfiguration was supposed to establish an equilibrium in the moral condition of the apostles when they will see the Lord at the time of His crucifixion, in an aspect which the prophet Isaiah described saying: "He has no form or comeliness; and when we see Him, there is no beauty that we should desire Him" (Is. 53:2).
All this is added to the testimony of the Father for Him, with a voice which they heard out of the cloud which overshadowed them, saying: "This is My beloved Son. Hear Him!" (Mark 9:7), (Luke 9:35).
This testimony of the Father was heard during the baptism of repentance when the Lord humbled Himself "(Matt. 3:17), (Luke 2:23). And this testimony was also heard during the glory of the Transfiguration......
He is the beloved Son, whether in His humility or in His glory......
GRADATION IN THE TRANSFIGURATION
The Lord Christ tooks steps in the revelation of His nature's transfiguration, even toward His saint apostles.
This Transfiguration on the mount of Tabor, was the simplest image of His Transfiguration, in spite of its magnificence and its glory, in its light and in the testimony of the Father from the cloud.
Another kind of the Lord's transfiguration was in His resurrection and His ascension.
That glorious Resurrection in which He rised with a glorious body, and was able to come out of the tomb while it was closed, and was able to enter to the apostles while the doors were closed (John 20:19), in a calm way that would not terrify them.
His ascension to heaven with a body that is over the level of the earth gravitation, is like His transfiguration". He was taken up, and a cloud received Him out of their sight ... while they looked steadfastly toward heaven" (Acts 1: 9-10). Our instructor the apostle saint Mark says about that: "So then, after the Lord had spoken to them, He was received up into heaven, and sat down at the right hand of God" (Mark 16:19).
This transfiguration in the resurrection and the ascension, happened in a manner which amazed them and made them feel His divinity, but it did not terrify them.....
But we see a frightful aspect in which the Lord appeared in the vision which the apostle saint John saw. It was said that: "His eyes (were) like a flame of fire ...... and His voice as the sound of many waters ....... out of His mouth went a sharp two-edged sword, and His countenance was like the sun shining in its strength" (Apoc. 1: 14-16); to such a degree, that saint John, who is one of the three who saw the transfiguration on mount Tabor, could not bear this transfiguration with which the Lord appeared in the vision. Therefore he said: "I fell at His feet as dead" (Apoc. 1:17), the thing that made the Lord say to him: "Do not be afraid" ..... that is the disciple who "was leaning on Jesus' bosom" (John 13: 23-25).
The last transfiguration will be in His second coming
when "the Lord comes with ten thousands of His saints" (Jude 14), "when He comes in His own glory, and in His Father's and of the holy angels" (Luke 9:26), He "will come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and then He will reward each according to his works" (Matt. 16:27), "When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory. All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them one form another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats" (Matt. 25: 31-32).
Verily the two expressions "His glory" and "His Father's glory" are overbearing to our understanding and our imagination!!
Do they mean the glory of His divinity?! Undoubtedly not. Because these peoples would not have been able to stand before Him ..... and also because He said: "When the Son of Man comes in His glory" (Matt. 25:31). And also "For the Son of Man will come in the glory of His Father with His angels" (Matt. 16:27). And also He said: "For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words, of him the Son of Man will be ashamed when He comes in his own glory, and His Father's" (Luke 9:26).
Therefore in the words of these expressions of glory, He speaks about the Son of Man, that is about His glory in His incarnation, meaning the tramsfiguration into glory of the nature of "the incarnated Word" .......
......when He comes upon the clouds of heaven, in His second coming, to judge the living and the dead. As if He were saying to His disciples:
"Let not My humility in My incarnation, make you doubt of My divinity.
In spite of having "made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man....." (Philippians 2: 7-8), nevertheless sometimes it was possible for Him to be "transfigured before them" (Mark 9:2), manifesting His divinity......
This is as regards the Lord Christ, what then is it as regards us?
His Transfiguration was the firstfruits of the transfiguration of our human nature.
We say, in the Gregorian mass, about that: "You have blessed my nature in You" ...... Yes He has blessed it with the glory which He has given to it.
WITH MOSES AND ELIJAH
Christ our Lord was not alone on the mount of the Transfiguration, but there were with Him, Moses and Elijah who appeared in glory (Luke 9:31).
It is evident here that the Lord does not refuse His glory to His sons.
It was said in the epistle to the Romans: "For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son ....... these He also glorified" (Romans 8: 29-30).
The Lord said about His disciples to the Father: "And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one" (John 17:22).
We note that each one of the three who were in glory on the mount of Transfiguration, had fasted forty days.
Probably this indicates that transfiguration is related to keeping away from material things.
It is known that the Lord Christ fasted forty days and forty nights (Matt. 4:2).
And Moses fasted fory days, when he was with God on the mountain to receive the Law from Him. "And Moses was on the mountain forty days and forty nights" (Ex. 24:18).
And Elijah, when the angel of the Lord appeared to him and said: [Arise and eat, because the journey is too great for you". So he arose, and ate and drank; and he went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights as far as Horeb, the mountain of God" (1 Kings 19: 7-8).
Moses and Elijah in their transfiguration, symbolised the whole human nature.
Likewise we note that in the parable of the ten foolish and wise virgins (Matt. 25:1), that the five wise virgins symbolised all the wise human beings in their virtuous way of life; and similarly the five foolish virgins symbolised all the human beings who do not, in their ignorance, prepare themselves for their eternal life and for meeting God.
In the same way the Lord gave us His Transfiguration with Moses and Elijah, as a symbol of the transfiguration which the Lord will grant to all human beings in eternity.
The variety which is represented by the two prophets Moses and Elijah:
1. Elijah represents the virgins (of either sex), and Moses represents the married. Rather Moses married more than once. He married Zipporah the daughter of the priest of Midian (Ex. 2: 19-22). He also married an Ethiopian woman (Num. 12:1), who was a symbol of the acceptance of the Gentiles.
All this is a symbol, because the transfiguration will equally be the destiny of the virgins and the married.
In the same manner, we find around the cross of the Lord: the Holy Virgin Mary, and the virgin apostle John. Likewise we find Mary Magdalene, and Mary the wife of Cleopas and mother of Joses, Judah, and Simeon.
2. Moses represented those who were dead. And Elijah represented the living who have not yet died. That would symbolise, in the second coming of Christ, the dead who will rise, and the living who will be lifted up to the clouds, as saint Paul said in (1Thess.4:15-17):
"For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord."
All will be with the Lord ...... those who were buried in the earth and remained under the earth until the day of the resurrection (John 5:29), and those who will be raised up to heaven as Elijah was raised up.
3. Elijah represents those who have lived a life of ascetism in the mountains, as he was himself on the mountain of Carmel; and Moses represents those who have lived in the world with their families in a social life.
4. One of them represents the life of monks, and the other represents the ministry and the guidance of crouds.
One of them is in the style of Mariam, and the other is in the style of Martha, with the difference in measuring ...... all of these two kinds will be transfigurated with the Lord
5. Some have said that Moses represents the Law, and Elijah represents the prophets; because Moses presented the Law, or the Judicial procedure, to the people, while Elijah was one of the prophets.
6. Moses represents meekness; and Elijah represents the fiery jealousy. The one represents forgiveness, and the other represents punishment .......
It was said about the prophet Moses that he: "was very humble, more than all men who were on the face of the earth" (Num. 12:3). It was Moses who interceded for the people when the Lord wanted to destroy them, saying: "Lord, why does Your wrath burn hot against Your people whom You have brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? Why should the Egyptians speak, and say: " He brought them out to harm them, to kill them in the mountains, and to consume them from the face of the earth? Turn from Your fierce wrath, and relent from this harm to Your people" (Ex. 32: 11-12). He said also likewise: "Yet now, if You will forgive their sin, but if not, I pray, blot me out of Your book which You have written" (Ex. 32:32).
But Elijah was the fiery man who said to each of the two captains of fifty: "If I am a man of God, let fire come down from heaven and consume you and your fifty men" (2 Kings 1: 10,12). Likewise it was he who ordered the slaughter of the prophets of Baal and the prophets of Asherah (1 Kings 18:40). It is he who said in his flaming anger: "there shall not be dew nor rain these years, except at my word" (1 Kings 17:1). Yes, he is Elijah who reprimanded king Achab and said to him: "I have not troubled Israel, but you and your father's house have, in that you have forsaken the commandments of the Lord and have followed the Baals" (1Kings 18;18).
From this, we understand that both those who are meek, and those who are strong and firm, God will grant all of them the transfiguration in eternity, according to their kind......
As if Christ our Lord says: "I shall assemble all of them to me in the transfiguration":
Him who was married, and him who was a virgin; him who lived the life of meditation, and him who lived the life of service; him who was meek and calm, and him who was firm and strong; him who lived on the mountain, and him who lived in the city. The important thing is that they live a life of righteousness ..... All the kinds of righteous people are fit for the kingdom and will be transfigured in it, in spite of the difference in kind. Some were meek and interceded for the culprits for the sake of God; and some others were firm and strong and purified the earth from idolatry, and chastised the sinners in order to bring them to repentance, for the sake of God.
Although Moses represented one kind of righteous, and Elijah represented another kind, both of them participated in some qualities:
Each of them was a prophet to God. Each of them offered sacrifices to God. Each of them was holy and loved God and His kingdom, and was a man of God.
Each of them was a man of miracles: The prophet Moses divided the waters of the Red Sea (Exode 14); and brought down the manna and the quails from heaven for the people (Exode 16); and stroke the rock, and water sprang from it (Exode 17).
The prophet Elijah resurrected the son of the widow of Zarephath which belongs to Sidon, from death. He blessed the flour and the oil in the house of this widow, and they were sufficient during all the period of the famine. (1 Kings 17). He is the one who brought down rain by his prayer (1 Kings 18). He is the one who brought down fire from heaven, and it consumed the two captains and their fifties. (2 Kings 1).
Each one of both of them was courageous in his censure of a delinquent king. The prophet Moses rebuked Pharaoh, king of Egypt. Elijah rebuked Achab, king of Israel. (1 Kings 18: 18-19). He censured him likewise for the killing of Naboth the Jezreelite, and he warned him saying: "In the place where dogs licked the blood of Naboth, dogs shall lick your blood, even yours"; and he said to him: "you have sold yourself to do evil in the sight of the Lord" (1 Kings 21: 19,20).
Each one of both of them was a cause of salvation for the people in his days. The prophet Moses delivered the people from the bondage to Pharaoh. The prophet Elijah delivered them from the famine, and participated in their salvation from idolatry.
Each one of both of them had spiritual experiences in the life of the mountains: The prophet Moses remained with God forty days on the mount Horeb. The prophet Elijah had his spiritual experience on the mount Carmel.
God also glorified both of them. The Lord said about the prophet Moses while He was reprimanding Aaron and Mariam because they has spoke against him: "If there is a prophet among you, I, the Lord, make Myself known to him in a vision; I speak to him in a dream. Not so with My servant Moses; he is faithful in all My house. I speak with him face to face, even plainly, and not in dark sayings; and he sees the form of the Lord" (Num. 12: 6-8). He glorified him likewise in many wonders and miracles. He rather said to him: "See, I have made you as God to Pharaoh, and Aaron your brother shall be your prophet" (Ex. 7:1).
The Lord also dignified Elijah with the miracles, and likewise by lifting him alive to heaven in a chariot of fire: "suddenly a chariot of fire appeared with horses of fire, and separated the two of them, and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven" (2 Kings 2:11).
Each one of both of them was exposed to fear. Moses was frightened at the beginning of his life when he had killed the Egyptian man, and then he ran away from the face of Pharaoh (Ex. 2: 14-15). Elijah ran away from the face of the queen Jezabel; and he said to the Lord, in an attempt to justify his flight: "the children of Israel ...... killed Your prophets with the sword. I alone am left, and they seek to take ny life" (1 Kings 19:14).
I would like to say on this occasion, that the prophet Elijah is not John the Baptist, as those who believe in reincarnation say.
Because Elijah did not die, and his soul did not go out of his body in order to return to incarnation in the person of John the Baptist. Likewise when they asked John the Baptist saying: ["Are you Elijah?" He said: "I am not"] (John 1:21). John the Baptist was a well known personality in that time. If he had appeared with the Lord on the mount of the Transfiguration, the apostles would have recognised him, and Peter would not have said: "Lord, it is good for us to be here, if You wish, let us make here three tabernacles: one for You, one for Moses, and one for Elijah" (Matt. 17:4).
THE TRANSFIGURATION
OF OUR HUMAN NATURE
The Lord who has taken the weakness of our human nature, blessed this nature, and will grant to it transfiguration and glory in the resurrection. In this matter, the apostle said about our Lord Jesus- Christ:
"who will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body" (Philippians 3:21).
What is it then that will happen to that human body in the resurrection? The apostle says:
"So also is the resurrection of the dead. The body is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption. It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power .......... It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body" (1 Cor. 15: 42-44).
"And as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly Man" (1 Cor. 15:49).
"for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality". Death will then be transformed into victory, and we shall say: "O Death, where is your sting? O Hades, where is your victory?!" (1 Cor. 15: 52-55).
"Then human beings will be "like angels of God in heaven" (Matt. 22:30), as the Lord has said.
Our glorified body in the resurrection, will be a body that does not hunger nor thirst, nor get tired nor become ill, nor will die nor will be corrupted; but rather will be elevated upward in the transfiguration of the human nature.
How will be the new nature of our bodies that will become spiritual heavenly bodies?!
Will they move as the angels who pass on from heaven to earth in the twinkle of an eye? Will they possess the spiritual perception instead of the ordinary vision?
How will they eat from the hidden manna as the Lord promised (Apoc. 2:17)? And how will they "eat from the tree of life, which is in the midst of the Paradise of God"? (Apoc. 2:7).
And what are the "white garments" in which they will be clothed in eternity? (Apoc. 3:5).
And how will they sit with the Son on His throne, as He also sat down with His Father on His throne? (Apoc. 3:21).
Hence the transfiguration of our bodies in the resurrection is marvelous! And our spiritual heavenly nature will be marvelous, far away from the nature of flesh and blood.
And when our human nature will be transfigured in eternity, it will not be transfigurated only in the body ......
but also in the soul........
There will be no weakness in the soul, as before, when the soul weakened and submitted to the body. And as we say now in the prayer of the third hour: "Deliver us from the impurity of the body and the soul". And as we say in the prayer of the divine mass: "Purify our souls, our bodies, and our spirits". Because the soul becomes impure when it submits to the body and when it participates with it in its faults and its desires. But in the resurrection, the soul becomes transfigured. How is that?
There will be laid upon her the crown of righteousness.
That about which the apostle saint Paul said: "Finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give to me on that Day, and not to me only but also to all who have loved His appearing" (2 Tim. 4:8).
The meaning of the crown of righteousness is, that the human being will afterwards commit no more sin .
Neither the soul will commit sin, nor the body will commit sin......
The human nature will become infallible, because it will have been crowned with righteousness......
It will have become like the angels of God in heaven, not sinning. And the word of the apostle saint John about whomever is borne of God that "he cannot sin", will apply to them.
In the transfiguration of the soul, not only it will not sin, for that is a negative side! But what will it be from the positive side?
What will be its knowledge for example? Here is the apostle saying: "Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known" (1 Cor. 13:12). What then will be the knowledge of the soul after having got rid of the fog from the surrounding matter? Will the word of the Lord in His conversation with the Father be applied to them: "And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God....." (John 17:3)?
How will the soul grow in knowledge, and in the love of God, and in joining Him, and in the relation with the angels and the saints' souls? How will it be transfigurated in its light? What glory will it obtain?
Undoubtedly, it will return to the image and the resemblance of God as it was created in the beginning (Gen. 1: 26-27), but far away from union with material things.
That is the transfiguration of the human nature, when it will be lifted up over the level of material things, and also over the level of the participation with flesh and blood, "flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God" (1 Cor. 15:50).
Thus is the human nature in transfiguration: when it enters into the perpetual spiritual life, and in the spiritual pleasure which is the property of the sons of God.
God will give man a kind of transfiguration in his nature, whether as regards the body or as regards the soul. We should like here to give some examples in order to explain the transfiguration in a simple manner.
SOME EXAMPLES OF TRANSFIGURATION
An evident example: the three young men in the fiery burning furnace.
When they cast Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego bound in the midst of the fiery burning furnace, this latter was exceedingly heated, to the point that the flame killed the men who took up these three young men" (Dan. 3: 22-23).
In spite of that, they saw the three young men who were not hurt and walking in the fire. "and they saw these men on whose bodies the fire had no power; the hair of their head was not singed nor were their garments affected, and the smell of fire was not on them" (Dan. 3: 25-27).
How then did that happen? Verily the fourth was with them, He that was said of Him: "and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God" (Dan. 3:26). He had kept them from the fire, and it had no power over them. But how is that?
He gave to their bodies a kind of transfiguration, so that fire would have no power over them.
That is quite evident, because if their bodies were at that time in the same ordinary material nature which is consumed by fire, it would have been possible for the fire to consume them. But they were given that transfiguration in which they became unconsumable.
But the transfiguration of the bodies of the three young men was for a time.
That is for a definite period, which is the period when they were inside the fiery furnace. But when they came out of it, their bodies returned to their natural position.
That is of course something else than the transfiguration of our bodies in eternity, where they will perpetually be spiritual incorruptible bodies. That is not intended to mean that we shall take other bodies, but they will be the same bodies, but with another nature. They will take from God, a power, and some characteristics which will be superior to material things.
We present another example, which is coal that has been heaten with fire:
A piece of black coloured coal, that would make dirty any hand which touches it, because of the fine dust which it leaves upon his fingers. When it is burned with fire, we see that it is sparkling, and it becomes illuminating, and its colour becomes red, like the colour of fire, and that it has lost its blackness, and whoever touches it will burn his fingers because of its heat.
That is a kind of transfiguration for the piece of coal. It did not lose its carbonic nature, but with this transfiguration, it took some other characteristics, among which are sparkling, heat, and the disappearance of the black colour.....
A similar example to a certain point, is iron when it is heated by fire.......
It is the same iron in its nature, but it gains some other characteristics because of its union with fire, as regards heat, the change of colour, the possibility to be beaten and turned into different forms. It obtains some transfiguration which removes it far away from its black image.
Another example is oil in a lamp:
It is the same oil. Its nature has not changed. But with a stick of matches, it is transformed into fire and light, and becomes a source of illumination. Is not that a kind of transfiguration?! It has not the same form as before, but rather it is transfigured into a light that illuminates......
OTHER KINDS OF TRANSFIGURATION
We have mentioned before, that the human nature obtains a kind of transfiguration in the general resurrection, when it will be clothed with spiritual heavenly incorruptible bodies, and human beings will become like the angels of God in heaven. But there are some kinds of transfiguration which happen here in life upon the earth, among which there is:
The transfiguration of thinking.
Sometimes thinking is lucid and bright, bringing out extremely ravishing thoughts. That happens to a poet whose imagination and thinking becomes radiant in writing a poem of verse; or to a writer who composes a story or a novel while he is at the top of his creative capacity, in a state of transfiguration, in the depth of intelligence, and the depth of imagination......
These are kinds of transfiguration in the fields of many arts and gifts.
It happens to an artist, or a designer, or a sculptor, or a musician, or a poet, or a novelist. Any one of these gifted people presents a marvelous masterpiece whose author is then described that he was in a state of transfiguration in his feelings and senses and thinking, during the production.
All these cases may be for a moment, during the production and the fabrication, and may be representing a case of perpetual transfiguration of gifts, and may appear even in infancy.
Yes, undoubtedly, gifts are transfigurations which God grants to man.
Because gifts are extraordinary capabilities that God gives. They are of many kinds which the apostle saint Paul mentioned in the twelfth chapter of his first epistle to the Corinthians saying:
"But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all: for to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit, to another the word of knowledge through the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the same Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another discerning of spirits, to another different kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually as He wills" (1 Cor. 12: 7-11).
A human being may be transfigured as regards certain definite spiritual qualities.
In human touches which he possesses, and which have a singular characteristic as regards their realisation; in mercy for instance or tenderness or commiseration, or the forgiveness of offenders. As we read about that in some stories about the saint Amba Abram, the bishop of Fayoum, or the saint Amba Sarabamoun, the bishop of Menoufiah, or the saint Amba Roueiss.
This transfiguration may appear in the thoughts or the responses of some saints, as it was mentioned in the words of the saint Amba Antonios, or the sayings of many fathers, which were registered in "the Paradise of the Monks" ...... Words at which, man stands amazed, and meditates upon their depth, and says: "Undoubtedly, this was a case of transfiguration in which the fathers pronounced what they said, so that the generations have preserved their words......!
The case of transfiguration could be one of the great works of grace in man.
As the apostle saint Paul said: ", "But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not in vain ......... yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me" (1 Cor. 15:10).
Extraordinary capabilities and gifts are transfigured in man as a result of the work of grace.
His image is granted a form that amazes those who see him as a result of transfiguration.
It was said about saint Stephanos in the story of his martyrdom, that during his trial before the congregation of the Jews:
"And all who sat in the council, looking steadfastly at him, saw his face as the face of an angel" (Acts 6:15).
Sometimes it happens during certain dreams that we see a person whom we know, in a wonderful image or in a lightful form, although we did not see him like that in his earthly life. But he appears to you during the dream in a state of transfiguration.
THE TRANSFIGURATION IS THE PLEDGE OF THE KINGDOM
All the cases of transfiguration on the earth, whether for a moment or in a perpetual way, are nothing but the pledge of the eternal transfiguration in the kingdom..... They are a kind of tasting the kingdom, and the gifts of the richness of the glory of God.....
In the story of the Transfiguration, we note the amazement of Peter with what he had seen on earth.
Then he said his well-known expression: "Lord, it is good for us to be here, if You wish, let us make here three tabernacles: one for You, one for Moses, and one for Elijah" (Matt. 17:4). But Christ our Lord did not agree with him about that......
It is not good that we be here on earth, and that we make for ourselves tabernacles to live in that material world ........ What you see, O Peter, is simply a taste of the pleasures in eternity..... in heaven, in the spiritual heavenly body. Enjoy then the scene of transfiguration which you see. But let your thoughts be in what will be, which is far more magnificent.
Therefore it was said about the words which Peter said: "because he did not know what to say" (Mark 9:6)......!
THE FEAST OF THE TRANSFIGURATION
We are happy to celebrate the feast of the transfiguration, and we consider it one of the Lord's feasts in the Church. We are glad with it not only simply for the Transfiguration of Christ on mount Tabor, but we are the more glad for the transfiguration which will be in eternity, and the gifts which we will obtain in it, like the angels of God in heaven.
It is not profitable to consider the feast of the Transfiguration as regards the events which happened in it, but rather as regards its symbols and meanings.
With this we come to the depth of the feast, and the depth of its meanings......
With this, we will have spiritual meditations in transfiguration:
As regards the Transfiguration of the Lord, and His divinity in the Transfiguration.
As regards the transfiguration of Moses and Elijah as a pledge of the transfiguration of humanity.
As regards the transfiguration of the human nature after the resurrection.
The transfiguration which we obtain on earth, and the relation between that and the gifts of the Spirit.
The Christ our Lord was transfigured on the mount of Tabor before three of his disciples, and with Him there were two of His prophets who "spoke of His deceasee which He was about to accomplish at Jerusalem" (Luke 9:31).
As for the permanent transfiguration, it will be in the heavenly Jerusalem, where God will be in the midst of His people, in Jerusalem, "coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband" (Apoc. 21: 1-4) where God will make everything new.
Yes. "Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus!" (Apocalypse 22:20).
series of pamphlets
1
The Transfiguration
and some meditations
upon the feast of the Transfiguration
Cairo, June 1998
Name of the book: The Transfiguration
Author: His Holiness Pope Shenouda III
Editor: Orthodox Coptic Clerical College, Cairo
Fourth Edition: June 1998
Press: Amba Rueiss, (Offset)
Deposition number at "The Library": 96/8787
I.S.B.N. 977 - 5345 - 32 - 4
All rights reserved to the author
His Holiness Pope Shenouda III
Pope and Patriarch of the See of Alexandria and of all the Predication of the Evangelist St. Mark
In the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit,
the One God, Amen
You will read in this pamphlet about:
The Transfiguration of our Lord Jesus-Christ and its theological signification.
The transfiguration of Moses and Eliah and its pointing to the transfiguration of the human nature.
The transfiguration of our nature in the Resurrection, and its transfiguration here on earth.
The relation between the Transfiguration and the gifts.
The relation between the Transfiguration and the promises of God.
PREFACE
What is the story of these pamphlets?
Many people are inclined to read concise writings, more than what they read in big books.
Therefore we have seen to publish for you these pamphlets, in a single bunch of the small size.
They will be published in the weaks when the Kiraza magazine will not appear, and in the weaks when no big books will be published.
The price is insignificant and less than the price of a daily newspaper.
We present to you, dear reader, this first pamphlet, about the Transfiguration, on the occasion of the feast of the Transfiguration.
Pope Shenouda III
August 1996
We congratulate all of you for the feast of the Transfiguration, which is one of the Lord's feasts, and the Church celebrates it on the 13th of the month of Misra, which is the 19th of the month of August. The story of the Transfiguration is mentioned in the holy Gospel (Mark and Luke).
THE STORY OF THE TRANSFIGURATION
According to the gospel of the apostle saint Mark, the story of the Transfiguration was mentioned like this:
[Now after six days Jesus took Peter, James, and John, and led them up on a high mountain apart by themselves, and He was transfigured before them. His clothes became shining, exceedingly white, like snow, such as no launderer on earth can whiten them. And Elijah appeared to them with Moses, and they were talking with Jesus. Then Peter answered and said to Jesus: "Rabbi, it is good for us to be here; and let us make three tabernacles: one for You, one for Moses, and one for Elijah", because he did not know what to say, for they were greatly afraid. And a cloud came and overshadowed them; and a voice came out of the cloud, saying: "This is My beloved Son, hear Him!" Suddenly, when they had looked around, they saw no one anymore, but only Jesus with themselves.] (Mark 9: 2-8).
And in the narration of the apostle saint Luke, he added saying: "And behold, two men talked with Him, who were Moses and Elijah, who appeared in glory and spoke of His decease which He was about to accomplish at Jerusalem. But Peter and those with him were heavy with sleep, and when they were fully awake, they saw His glory and the two men who stood with Him" (Luke 9: 30-32).
THE GLORY AND DIVINITY OF CHRIST
The expression "glory" is mentioned more than once in the gospel of Luke.
As regards His divinity, it is evident in that in a moment, He was transfigured to this illuminating brightful aspect, whose brightness was magnificent...... and about which it was said: "His clothes became shining, exceedingly white, like snow, such as no launderer on earth can whiten them" (Mark 6:2).
His divinity is also evident in the manner of His capacity to bring Elijah and Moses to be present with Him.....
In how He brought them with Him.....! in how they spoke with Him......! and suddenly disappeared......!
In His sudden appearance, and His sudden disappearance! How did they come with Him in a moment?! And how did they disappear in a moment?! Where did they come from?! And where did they go to?!
Yes, how was Christ the Lord able to bring Elijah, body and soul, from that place which we do not know, since he was elevated alive to heaven in a chariot of fire, out of the earth. (2 Kings 2:11). And we do not know to what place in heaven!
His calling Elijah to stand with Him on the mount of the Transfiguration, then his dismissal in a single moment, undoubtedly that refers to the power of His divinity........
Then, how could He bring the soul of Moses, who was dead and buried, and "no one knows his grave to this day" (Deut. 34:6). It is known that the prophets and the righteous of the Old Testament were, before the Redemption, lying on hope, in their place of waiting "into the lower parts of the earth" (Eph. 4:9).
There is no doubt also that the calling of Elijah happened according to the power of His divinity.
The Lord willed to show to his disciples that He had put on this human body, simply out of His humility, and His self-abnegation.
But at that time, they did not understand His divine nature.
This glorious transfiguration was supposed to establish an equilibrium in the moral condition of the apostles when they will see the Lord at the time of His crucifixion, in an aspect which the prophet Isaiah described saying: "He has no form or comeliness; and when we see Him, there is no beauty that we should desire Him" (Is. 53:2).
All this is added to the testimony of the Father for Him, with a voice which they heard out of the cloud which overshadowed them, saying: "This is My beloved Son. Hear Him!" (Mark 9:7), (Luke 9:35).
This testimony of the Father was heard during the baptism of repentance when the Lord humbled Himself "(Matt. 3:17), (Luke 2:23). And this testimony was also heard during the glory of the Transfiguration......
He is the beloved Son, whether in His humility or in His glory......
GRADATION IN THE TRANSFIGURATION
The Lord Christ tooks steps in the revelation of His nature's transfiguration, even toward His saint apostles.
This Transfiguration on the mount of Tabor, was the simplest image of His Transfiguration, in spite of its magnificence and its glory, in its light and in the testimony of the Father from the cloud.
Another kind of the Lord's transfiguration was in His resurrection and His ascension.
That glorious Resurrection in which He rised with a glorious body, and was able to come out of the tomb while it was closed, and was able to enter to the apostles while the doors were closed (John 20:19), in a calm way that would not terrify them.
His ascension to heaven with a body that is over the level of the earth gravitation, is like His transfiguration". He was taken up, and a cloud received Him out of their sight ... while they looked steadfastly toward heaven" (Acts 1: 9-10). Our instructor the apostle saint Mark says about that: "So then, after the Lord had spoken to them, He was received up into heaven, and sat down at the right hand of God" (Mark 16:19).
This transfiguration in the resurrection and the ascension, happened in a manner which amazed them and made them feel His divinity, but it did not terrify them.....
But we see a frightful aspect in which the Lord appeared in the vision which the apostle saint John saw. It was said that: "His eyes (were) like a flame of fire ...... and His voice as the sound of many waters ....... out of His mouth went a sharp two-edged sword, and His countenance was like the sun shining in its strength" (Apoc. 1: 14-16); to such a degree, that saint John, who is one of the three who saw the transfiguration on mount Tabor, could not bear this transfiguration with which the Lord appeared in the vision. Therefore he said: "I fell at His feet as dead" (Apoc. 1:17), the thing that made the Lord say to him: "Do not be afraid" ..... that is the disciple who "was leaning on Jesus' bosom" (John 13: 23-25).
The last transfiguration will be in His second coming
when "the Lord comes with ten thousands of His saints" (Jude 14), "when He comes in His own glory, and in His Father's and of the holy angels" (Luke 9:26), He "will come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and then He will reward each according to his works" (Matt. 16:27), "When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory. All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them one form another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats" (Matt. 25: 31-32).
Verily the two expressions "His glory" and "His Father's glory" are overbearing to our understanding and our imagination!!
Do they mean the glory of His divinity?! Undoubtedly not. Because these peoples would not have been able to stand before Him ..... and also because He said: "When the Son of Man comes in His glory" (Matt. 25:31). And also "For the Son of Man will come in the glory of His Father with His angels" (Matt. 16:27). And also He said: "For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words, of him the Son of Man will be ashamed when He comes in his own glory, and His Father's" (Luke 9:26).
Therefore in the words of these expressions of glory, He speaks about the Son of Man, that is about His glory in His incarnation, meaning the tramsfiguration into glory of the nature of "the incarnated Word" .......
......when He comes upon the clouds of heaven, in His second coming, to judge the living and the dead. As if He were saying to His disciples:
"Let not My humility in My incarnation, make you doubt of My divinity.
In spite of having "made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man....." (Philippians 2: 7-8), nevertheless sometimes it was possible for Him to be "transfigured before them" (Mark 9:2), manifesting His divinity......
This is as regards the Lord Christ, what then is it as regards us?
His Transfiguration was the firstfruits of the transfiguration of our human nature.
We say, in the Gregorian mass, about that: "You have blessed my nature in You" ...... Yes He has blessed it with the glory which He has given to it.
WITH MOSES AND ELIJAH
Christ our Lord was not alone on the mount of the Transfiguration, but there were with Him, Moses and Elijah who appeared in glory (Luke 9:31).
It is evident here that the Lord does not refuse His glory to His sons.
It was said in the epistle to the Romans: "For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son ....... these He also glorified" (Romans 8: 29-30).
The Lord said about His disciples to the Father: "And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one" (John 17:22).
We note that each one of the three who were in glory on the mount of Transfiguration, had fasted forty days.
Probably this indicates that transfiguration is related to keeping away from material things.
It is known that the Lord Christ fasted forty days and forty nights (Matt. 4:2).
And Moses fasted fory days, when he was with God on the mountain to receive the Law from Him. "And Moses was on the mountain forty days and forty nights" (Ex. 24:18).
And Elijah, when the angel of the Lord appeared to him and said: [Arise and eat, because the journey is too great for you". So he arose, and ate and drank; and he went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights as far as Horeb, the mountain of God" (1 Kings 19: 7-8).
Moses and Elijah in their transfiguration, symbolised the whole human nature.
Likewise we note that in the parable of the ten foolish and wise virgins (Matt. 25:1), that the five wise virgins symbolised all the wise human beings in their virtuous way of life; and similarly the five foolish virgins symbolised all the human beings who do not, in their ignorance, prepare themselves for their eternal life and for meeting God.
In the same way the Lord gave us His Transfiguration with Moses and Elijah, as a symbol of the transfiguration which the Lord will grant to all human beings in eternity.
The variety which is represented by the two prophets Moses and Elijah:
1. Elijah represents the virgins (of either sex), and Moses represents the married. Rather Moses married more than once. He married Zipporah the daughter of the priest of Midian (Ex. 2: 19-22). He also married an Ethiopian woman (Num. 12:1), who was a symbol of the acceptance of the Gentiles.
All this is a symbol, because the transfiguration will equally be the destiny of the virgins and the married.
In the same manner, we find around the cross of the Lord: the Holy Virgin Mary, and the virgin apostle John. Likewise we find Mary Magdalene, and Mary the wife of Cleopas and mother of Joses, Judah, and Simeon.
2. Moses represented those who were dead. And Elijah represented the living who have not yet died. That would symbolise, in the second coming of Christ, the dead who will rise, and the living who will be lifted up to the clouds, as saint Paul said in (1Thess.4:15-17):
"For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord."
All will be with the Lord ...... those who were buried in the earth and remained under the earth until the day of the resurrection (John 5:29), and those who will be raised up to heaven as Elijah was raised up.
3. Elijah represents those who have lived a life of ascetism in the mountains, as he was himself on the mountain of Carmel; and Moses represents those who have lived in the world with their families in a social life.
4. One of them represents the life of monks, and the other represents the ministry and the guidance of crouds.
One of them is in the style of Mariam, and the other is in the style of Martha, with the difference in measuring ...... all of these two kinds will be transfigurated with the Lord
5. Some have said that Moses represents the Law, and Elijah represents the prophets; because Moses presented the Law, or the Judicial procedure, to the people, while Elijah was one of the prophets.
6. Moses represents meekness; and Elijah represents the fiery jealousy. The one represents forgiveness, and the other represents punishment .......
It was said about the prophet Moses that he: "was very humble, more than all men who were on the face of the earth" (Num. 12:3). It was Moses who interceded for the people when the Lord wanted to destroy them, saying: "Lord, why does Your wrath burn hot against Your people whom You have brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? Why should the Egyptians speak, and say: " He brought them out to harm them, to kill them in the mountains, and to consume them from the face of the earth? Turn from Your fierce wrath, and relent from this harm to Your people" (Ex. 32: 11-12). He said also likewise: "Yet now, if You will forgive their sin, but if not, I pray, blot me out of Your book which You have written" (Ex. 32:32).
But Elijah was the fiery man who said to each of the two captains of fifty: "If I am a man of God, let fire come down from heaven and consume you and your fifty men" (2 Kings 1: 10,12). Likewise it was he who ordered the slaughter of the prophets of Baal and the prophets of Asherah (1 Kings 18:40). It is he who said in his flaming anger: "there shall not be dew nor rain these years, except at my word" (1 Kings 17:1). Yes, he is Elijah who reprimanded king Achab and said to him: "I have not troubled Israel, but you and your father's house have, in that you have forsaken the commandments of the Lord and have followed the Baals" (1Kings 18;18).
From this, we understand that both those who are meek, and those who are strong and firm, God will grant all of them the transfiguration in eternity, according to their kind......
As if Christ our Lord says: "I shall assemble all of them to me in the transfiguration":
Him who was married, and him who was a virgin; him who lived the life of meditation, and him who lived the life of service; him who was meek and calm, and him who was firm and strong; him who lived on the mountain, and him who lived in the city. The important thing is that they live a life of righteousness ..... All the kinds of righteous people are fit for the kingdom and will be transfigured in it, in spite of the difference in kind. Some were meek and interceded for the culprits for the sake of God; and some others were firm and strong and purified the earth from idolatry, and chastised the sinners in order to bring them to repentance, for the sake of God.
Although Moses represented one kind of righteous, and Elijah represented another kind, both of them participated in some qualities:
Each of them was a prophet to God. Each of them offered sacrifices to God. Each of them was holy and loved God and His kingdom, and was a man of God.
Each of them was a man of miracles: The prophet Moses divided the waters of the Red Sea (Exode 14); and brought down the manna and the quails from heaven for the people (Exode 16); and stroke the rock, and water sprang from it (Exode 17).
The prophet Elijah resurrected the son of the widow of Zarephath which belongs to Sidon, from death. He blessed the flour and the oil in the house of this widow, and they were sufficient during all the period of the famine. (1 Kings 17). He is the one who brought down rain by his prayer (1 Kings 18). He is the one who brought down fire from heaven, and it consumed the two captains and their fifties. (2 Kings 1).
Each one of both of them was courageous in his censure of a delinquent king. The prophet Moses rebuked Pharaoh, king of Egypt. Elijah rebuked Achab, king of Israel. (1 Kings 18: 18-19). He censured him likewise for the killing of Naboth the Jezreelite, and he warned him saying: "In the place where dogs licked the blood of Naboth, dogs shall lick your blood, even yours"; and he said to him: "you have sold yourself to do evil in the sight of the Lord" (1 Kings 21: 19,20).
Each one of both of them was a cause of salvation for the people in his days. The prophet Moses delivered the people from the bondage to Pharaoh. The prophet Elijah delivered them from the famine, and participated in their salvation from idolatry.
Each one of both of them had spiritual experiences in the life of the mountains: The prophet Moses remained with God forty days on the mount Horeb. The prophet Elijah had his spiritual experience on the mount Carmel.
God also glorified both of them. The Lord said about the prophet Moses while He was reprimanding Aaron and Mariam because they has spoke against him: "If there is a prophet among you, I, the Lord, make Myself known to him in a vision; I speak to him in a dream. Not so with My servant Moses; he is faithful in all My house. I speak with him face to face, even plainly, and not in dark sayings; and he sees the form of the Lord" (Num. 12: 6-8). He glorified him likewise in many wonders and miracles. He rather said to him: "See, I have made you as God to Pharaoh, and Aaron your brother shall be your prophet" (Ex. 7:1).
The Lord also dignified Elijah with the miracles, and likewise by lifting him alive to heaven in a chariot of fire: "suddenly a chariot of fire appeared with horses of fire, and separated the two of them, and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven" (2 Kings 2:11).
Each one of both of them was exposed to fear. Moses was frightened at the beginning of his life when he had killed the Egyptian man, and then he ran away from the face of Pharaoh (Ex. 2: 14-15). Elijah ran away from the face of the queen Jezabel; and he said to the Lord, in an attempt to justify his flight: "the children of Israel ...... killed Your prophets with the sword. I alone am left, and they seek to take ny life" (1 Kings 19:14).
I would like to say on this occasion, that the prophet Elijah is not John the Baptist, as those who believe in reincarnation say.
Because Elijah did not die, and his soul did not go out of his body in order to return to incarnation in the person of John the Baptist. Likewise when they asked John the Baptist saying: ["Are you Elijah?" He said: "I am not"] (John 1:21). John the Baptist was a well known personality in that time. If he had appeared with the Lord on the mount of the Transfiguration, the apostles would have recognised him, and Peter would not have said: "Lord, it is good for us to be here, if You wish, let us make here three tabernacles: one for You, one for Moses, and one for Elijah" (Matt. 17:4).
THE TRANSFIGURATION
OF OUR HUMAN NATURE
The Lord who has taken the weakness of our human nature, blessed this nature, and will grant to it transfiguration and glory in the resurrection. In this matter, the apostle said about our Lord Jesus- Christ:
"who will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body" (Philippians 3:21).
What is it then that will happen to that human body in the resurrection? The apostle says:
"So also is the resurrection of the dead. The body is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption. It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power .......... It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body" (1 Cor. 15: 42-44).
"And as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly Man" (1 Cor. 15:49).
"for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality". Death will then be transformed into victory, and we shall say: "O Death, where is your sting? O Hades, where is your victory?!" (1 Cor. 15: 52-55).
"Then human beings will be "like angels of God in heaven" (Matt. 22:30), as the Lord has said.
Our glorified body in the resurrection, will be a body that does not hunger nor thirst, nor get tired nor become ill, nor will die nor will be corrupted; but rather will be elevated upward in the transfiguration of the human nature.
How will be the new nature of our bodies that will become spiritual heavenly bodies?!
Will they move as the angels who pass on from heaven to earth in the twinkle of an eye? Will they possess the spiritual perception instead of the ordinary vision?
How will they eat from the hidden manna as the Lord promised (Apoc. 2:17)? And how will they "eat from the tree of life, which is in the midst of the Paradise of God"? (Apoc. 2:7).
And what are the "white garments" in which they will be clothed in eternity? (Apoc. 3:5).
And how will they sit with the Son on His throne, as He also sat down with His Father on His throne? (Apoc. 3:21).
Hence the transfiguration of our bodies in the resurrection is marvelous! And our spiritual heavenly nature will be marvelous, far away from the nature of flesh and blood.
And when our human nature will be transfigured in eternity, it will not be transfigurated only in the body ......
but also in the soul........
There will be no weakness in the soul, as before, when the soul weakened and submitted to the body. And as we say now in the prayer of the third hour: "Deliver us from the impurity of the body and the soul". And as we say in the prayer of the divine mass: "Purify our souls, our bodies, and our spirits". Because the soul becomes impure when it submits to the body and when it participates with it in its faults and its desires. But in the resurrection, the soul becomes transfigured. How is that?
There will be laid upon her the crown of righteousness.
That about which the apostle saint Paul said: "Finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give to me on that Day, and not to me only but also to all who have loved His appearing" (2 Tim. 4:8).
The meaning of the crown of righteousness is, that the human being will afterwards commit no more sin .
Neither the soul will commit sin, nor the body will commit sin......
The human nature will become infallible, because it will have been crowned with righteousness......
It will have become like the angels of God in heaven, not sinning. And the word of the apostle saint John about whomever is borne of God that "he cannot sin", will apply to them.
In the transfiguration of the soul, not only it will not sin, for that is a negative side! But what will it be from the positive side?
What will be its knowledge for example? Here is the apostle saying: "Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known" (1 Cor. 13:12). What then will be the knowledge of the soul after having got rid of the fog from the surrounding matter? Will the word of the Lord in His conversation with the Father be applied to them: "And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God....." (John 17:3)?
How will the soul grow in knowledge, and in the love of God, and in joining Him, and in the relation with the angels and the saints' souls? How will it be transfigurated in its light? What glory will it obtain?
Undoubtedly, it will return to the image and the resemblance of God as it was created in the beginning (Gen. 1: 26-27), but far away from union with material things.
That is the transfiguration of the human nature, when it will be lifted up over the level of material things, and also over the level of the participation with flesh and blood, "flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God" (1 Cor. 15:50).
Thus is the human nature in transfiguration: when it enters into the perpetual spiritual life, and in the spiritual pleasure which is the property of the sons of God.
God will give man a kind of transfiguration in his nature, whether as regards the body or as regards the soul. We should like here to give some examples in order to explain the transfiguration in a simple manner.
SOME EXAMPLES OF TRANSFIGURATION
An evident example: the three young men in the fiery burning furnace.
When they cast Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego bound in the midst of the fiery burning furnace, this latter was exceedingly heated, to the point that the flame killed the men who took up these three young men" (Dan. 3: 22-23).
In spite of that, they saw the three young men who were not hurt and walking in the fire. "and they saw these men on whose bodies the fire had no power; the hair of their head was not singed nor were their garments affected, and the smell of fire was not on them" (Dan. 3: 25-27).
How then did that happen? Verily the fourth was with them, He that was said of Him: "and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God" (Dan. 3:26). He had kept them from the fire, and it had no power over them. But how is that?
He gave to their bodies a kind of transfiguration, so that fire would have no power over them.
That is quite evident, because if their bodies were at that time in the same ordinary material nature which is consumed by fire, it would have been possible for the fire to consume them. But they were given that transfiguration in which they became unconsumable.
But the transfiguration of the bodies of the three young men was for a time.
That is for a definite period, which is the period when they were inside the fiery furnace. But when they came out of it, their bodies returned to their natural position.
That is of course something else than the transfiguration of our bodies in eternity, where they will perpetually be spiritual incorruptible bodies. That is not intended to mean that we shall take other bodies, but they will be the same bodies, but with another nature. They will take from God, a power, and some characteristics which will be superior to material things.
We present another example, which is coal that has been heaten with fire:
A piece of black coloured coal, that would make dirty any hand which touches it, because of the fine dust which it leaves upon his fingers. When it is burned with fire, we see that it is sparkling, and it becomes illuminating, and its colour becomes red, like the colour of fire, and that it has lost its blackness, and whoever touches it will burn his fingers because of its heat.
That is a kind of transfiguration for the piece of coal. It did not lose its carbonic nature, but with this transfiguration, it took some other characteristics, among which are sparkling, heat, and the disappearance of the black colour.....
A similar example to a certain point, is iron when it is heated by fire.......
It is the same iron in its nature, but it gains some other characteristics because of its union with fire, as regards heat, the change of colour, the possibility to be beaten and turned into different forms. It obtains some transfiguration which removes it far away from its black image.
Another example is oil in a lamp:
It is the same oil. Its nature has not changed. But with a stick of matches, it is transformed into fire and light, and becomes a source of illumination. Is not that a kind of transfiguration?! It has not the same form as before, but rather it is transfigured into a light that illuminates......
OTHER KINDS OF TRANSFIGURATION
We have mentioned before, that the human nature obtains a kind of transfiguration in the general resurrection, when it will be clothed with spiritual heavenly incorruptible bodies, and human beings will become like the angels of God in heaven. But there are some kinds of transfiguration which happen here in life upon the earth, among which there is:
The transfiguration of thinking.
Sometimes thinking is lucid and bright, bringing out extremely ravishing thoughts. That happens to a poet whose imagination and thinking becomes radiant in writing a poem of verse; or to a writer who composes a story or a novel while he is at the top of his creative capacity, in a state of transfiguration, in the depth of intelligence, and the depth of imagination......
These are kinds of transfiguration in the fields of many arts and gifts.
It happens to an artist, or a designer, or a sculptor, or a musician, or a poet, or a novelist. Any one of these gifted people presents a marvelous masterpiece whose author is then described that he was in a state of transfiguration in his feelings and senses and thinking, during the production.
All these cases may be for a moment, during the production and the fabrication, and may be representing a case of perpetual transfiguration of gifts, and may appear even in infancy.
Yes, undoubtedly, gifts are transfigurations which God grants to man.
Because gifts are extraordinary capabilities that God gives. They are of many kinds which the apostle saint Paul mentioned in the twelfth chapter of his first epistle to the Corinthians saying:
"But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all: for to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit, to another the word of knowledge through the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the same Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another discerning of spirits, to another different kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually as He wills" (1 Cor. 12: 7-11).
A human being may be transfigured as regards certain definite spiritual qualities.
In human touches which he possesses, and which have a singular characteristic as regards their realisation; in mercy for instance or tenderness or commiseration, or the forgiveness of offenders. As we read about that in some stories about the saint Amba Abram, the bishop of Fayoum, or the saint Amba Sarabamoun, the bishop of Menoufiah, or the saint Amba Roueiss.
This transfiguration may appear in the thoughts or the responses of some saints, as it was mentioned in the words of the saint Amba Antonios, or the sayings of many fathers, which were registered in "the Paradise of the Monks" ...... Words at which, man stands amazed, and meditates upon their depth, and says: "Undoubtedly, this was a case of transfiguration in which the fathers pronounced what they said, so that the generations have preserved their words......!
The case of transfiguration could be one of the great works of grace in man.
As the apostle saint Paul said: ", "But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not in vain ......... yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me" (1 Cor. 15:10).
Extraordinary capabilities and gifts are transfigured in man as a result of the work of grace.
His image is granted a form that amazes those who see him as a result of transfiguration.
It was said about saint Stephanos in the story of his martyrdom, that during his trial before the congregation of the Jews:
"And all who sat in the council, looking steadfastly at him, saw his face as the face of an angel" (Acts 6:15).
Sometimes it happens during certain dreams that we see a person whom we know, in a wonderful image or in a lightful form, although we did not see him like that in his earthly life. But he appears to you during the dream in a state of transfiguration.
THE TRANSFIGURATION IS THE PLEDGE OF THE KINGDOM
All the cases of transfiguration on the earth, whether for a moment or in a perpetual way, are nothing but the pledge of the eternal transfiguration in the kingdom..... They are a kind of tasting the kingdom, and the gifts of the richness of the glory of God.....
In the story of the Transfiguration, we note the amazement of Peter with what he had seen on earth.
Then he said his well-known expression: "Lord, it is good for us to be here, if You wish, let us make here three tabernacles: one for You, one for Moses, and one for Elijah" (Matt. 17:4). But Christ our Lord did not agree with him about that......
It is not good that we be here on earth, and that we make for ourselves tabernacles to live in that material world ........ What you see, O Peter, is simply a taste of the pleasures in eternity..... in heaven, in the spiritual heavenly body. Enjoy then the scene of transfiguration which you see. But let your thoughts be in what will be, which is far more magnificent.
Therefore it was said about the words which Peter said: "because he did not know what to say" (Mark 9:6)......!
THE FEAST OF THE TRANSFIGURATION
We are happy to celebrate the feast of the transfiguration, and we consider it one of the Lord's feasts in the Church. We are glad with it not only simply for the Transfiguration of Christ on mount Tabor, but we are the more glad for the transfiguration which will be in eternity, and the gifts which we will obtain in it, like the angels of God in heaven.
It is not profitable to consider the feast of the Transfiguration as regards the events which happened in it, but rather as regards its symbols and meanings.
With this we come to the depth of the feast, and the depth of its meanings......
With this, we will have spiritual meditations in transfiguration:
As regards the Transfiguration of the Lord, and His divinity in the Transfiguration.
As regards the transfiguration of Moses and Elijah as a pledge of the transfiguration of humanity.
As regards the transfiguration of the human nature after the resurrection.
The transfiguration which we obtain on earth, and the relation between that and the gifts of the Spirit.
The Christ our Lord was transfigured on the mount of Tabor before three of his disciples, and with Him there were two of His prophets who "spoke of His deceasee which He was about to accomplish at Jerusalem" (Luke 9:31).
As for the permanent transfiguration, it will be in the heavenly Jerusalem, where God will be in the midst of His people, in Jerusalem, "coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband" (Apoc. 21: 1-4) where God will make everything new.
Yes. "Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus!" (Apocalypse 22:20).
questions about the Nativity
Pope Shenouda III series
of booklets
9
Questions about
The Nativity
Third print, Cairo 1999
Name of the book: Questions about The Nativity
Author: His Holiness Pope Shenouda III
Editor: Orthodox Coptic Clerical College, Cairo
Edition: Third, 1999
Press: Amba Rueiss, (Offset), The Cathedral, Abbassia
Deposition number at "The Library": 15081/1997
All rights reserved to the author
His Holiness Pope Shenouda III
Pope and Patriarch of the See of Alexandria and of all the Predication of the Evangelist St. Mark
(COVER PAGE)
In the Name of
the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit,
the One God,
Amen.
In this booklet we present to you some answers which are related to certain questions about the Nativity, of which there are:
The sequence of the genealogy, and the mention of some sinful women in it; and the difference between the two gospels of Matthew and Luke as regards the names, and as regards the ascending order and the descending order in that sequence.
The number of genealogies, is it 41 or 42?
Elizabeth your relative.
The son of David the son of Abraham.
The difference in the celebration of the day of the Nativity.
The wise men (the Magi) and the nature of the star of the wise men.
The difference between the (Magi) wise men and the shepherds.
Pope Shenouda III
PREFACE
Some people ask many questions about the subject of The Nativity of Christ, and they need answers. I undertook to answer from the sayings of the Saint Fathers, which I had translated, or which I had taken from some manuscripts.
I relied in that, on many books, the most important of which are:
1. Saint John Chrysostom's interpretation of Matthews' gospel (manuscript, and translation).
2. The Homelies of saint Severus of Antioch, which were published in "Patrologia Orientalis: Homilae Cathedrales"
3. The sermons of saint John Chrysostom.
There are other questions about the virginal nativity and the virginity of the Holy Virgin, to which I answered in our book "The Comparative Theology", to which it can be referred.
But now, I congratulate you for the Nativity of the Lord Christ.
Many happy returns.
1
The sinful women in the genealogy sequence
QUESTION
Why did the evangelist neglect the names of some saint women like Sara, Rebecca, and others, in the sequence of genealogies, while he mentioned adulterous women like Tamar, Rahab, the wife of Uriah the Hittite, and Ruth who is a woman of a foreign race?
ANSWER
He wanted to annihilate the haughtiness of the Jews who boast about their grandfathers. He showed to them how their grandfathers had sinned. Judah committed adultery with Tamar, his son's widow, and engendered Perez and Zerah from her. David fell into adultery with the wife of Uriah the Hittite. Boaz, the great grandfather of David, was engendered by Salmon from the adulteress Rahab.
Even if their grandfathers were virtuous men, the virtue of their granfathers would not have been profitable to them; because the deeds of a person, not the deeds of his sons, are those which determine his destiny at the last day.
Saint John Chrysostom said about that: "
"The Lord Christ did not come to run away form our disgraceful actions, but to obliterate them. He is not ashamed of any of our defects. And just as those grandfathers had taken adulterous women, in the same way our Lord and God has bethrothed for Himself our nature that had committed adultery.
The Church is like Tamar:
She was at once delivered from her wicked actions, and then she followed Him.
The condition of Ruth resembles our conditions:
Her tribe was a foreigner to Israel; and it went down to exceeding poverty. Nevertheless, when Boaz saw her, he did not despise her poverty, neither did he reject the vileness of her race. In the same way, the Lord Christ dit not reject His Church that was an alien, and poor as regards good deeds. And just as Ruth, if she had not left her people and her house, she would not have tasted that glory, in the same way, the Church about which the prophet said: "Forget your own people also, and your father's house; so the King will greatly desire your beauty" (Psalm 45: 10-11)......
Our Lord mortified them with these matters, and made them realize how not to be haughty.
When the evangelist registered the genealogy of Christ, he mentioned those sinful women; because it is impossible for any of us to be virtuous by the virtue of his grandfathers, or to be wicked by the vice of his grandfathers. I rather say that the person whose grandfathers were not virtuous and became virtuous himself, then the honor of that person's virtue would have been great.
Let no one boast about his grandfathers, and be puffed because of them, when he thinks about the grandfathers of our Lord; and let him look at his own deeds, and even let him not boast about his virtues; because it is through such boasting that the Pharissee became less the the Publican. (Luke 18).
Do not then falsify your pains by vain talk. Do not loose all your effort after having covered a long distance; because your Lord knows the virtues which you have attained, better than you, because if you give a glass of cold water, God will not neglect that, and will not forget it. (Matt. 10:43).
2
Ascent & descent
in
the genealogical sequence
QUESTION
There are three differences in the sequence of genealogy, between what the evangelist Matthew registered, and what the evangelist Luke registered. They are:
1. There is a difference between the names in the two gospels.
2. Saint Matthew begins the biography of the Lord Christ with the genealogical sequence. As for saint Luke, he does not speak of it before telling the story of the baptism.
3. Saint Matthew mentions the genealogy descending from the first fathers to the sons, while saint Luke mentions the genealogy ascending from the Lord Christ to Adam to God.
Is there an interpretation for all these differences?
ANSWER
I. The difference in names.
As a matter of fact, saint Matthew mentions the natural genealogy of the Lord Christ, while saint Luke mentions the legal or official genealogy. To explain this, we say:
The law of Moses specifies that if a man dies without posterity, the brother of the dead man must take the widow of his brother, and marry her, and engender a posterity for his brother from her. (Deut. 25: 5-6), or that the son whom he engenders becomes from the legal point of view, an official son to his brother, although he is considered a natural son to that brother who has engendered him.
Hence such a son would have two fathers: a natural father who has engendered him, and a legal father who is his uncle who died without posterity.
If this dead man without posterity has no brother, the nearest relative to him will take his wife and engender a posterity to him;
because the son who is born is counted a son to this dead man, according to the law. If the nearest relative does not want to take the wife of the dead man according to what he has been charged of, the next relative must necessarily accept this marriage, because the law is eager to raise a posterity to that dead man who has not engendered a son.
That kind of marriage is called "redemption". A clear example of this is mentioned in the story of Ruth with Boaz.
In his interpretation of this, saint Severus of Antioch said:
In this manner, Joseph the betrothed to the Holy Virgin is related, as a matter of fact, to two fathers :
Because since Heli took a wife and died without posterity, Jacob, who was the nearest relative to him, married his wife in order to engender a posterity to him from her according to the commandment of the law. When he engendered Joseph, that Joseph became a legal son to the dead Heli, and at the same time a natural son to Jacob. Therefore saint Matthew, from his part, said that Joseph is the son of Jacob, and saint Luke, from the other part, said that he is the son of Heli. One mentioned the natural genealogy, and the other mentioned the legal genealogy.
From his part, saint Matthew mentioned the natural fathers of Joseph, while saint Luke, from the other part, mentioned the legal fathers.
Saint Luke went on with the genealogical legal sequence until Nathan son of David. Saint Matthew went on until Solomon son of David. The two met in David...... Then the course was sometimes similar, and some other times, it was variously divided, then it was united again, and then separated.
Hence the genealogy of Christ is confirmed, from the natural and from the legal point of view,.........that He is the son of David, the son of Abraham, the son of Adam.
2. The difference in ascending and in descending,
and the relation between this and the baptism.
Saint Matthew began his gospel by saying: "The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the son of Abraham......" Then he explained the genealogy saying: "Abraham begot Isaac, Isaac begot Jacob". And after having mentioned those who were engendered through faulty relations, he came at last to the census of the generations. Then he said directly: "Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows......"
Thus after having explained the corruption and the death through which all these generations had passed, he arrived at the pure birth of the Lord Christ from the Holy Spirit and from the Virgin saint Mary.
As for saint Luke, he narrated the Annunciation, the birth of the Baptist, the Nativity of Christ, and gradually reached the baptism of Christ at the age of thirty; and then he mentioned the legal genealogy.
Saint Severus of Antioch explains this matter saying:
"Luke explained the legal genealogy, that reminds us of Him who died without posterity, then his name was raised after his death, by a son who is attributed to him, in a way that has some similarity to the adoption and to the resurrection.
He mentioned this genealogy after having narrated the story of the Nativity; because baptism gives the true heavenly adoption, in manifesting us as sons of God. Therefore he mentioned the legal genealogy which gives the adoption; in order to show that this representation has been truly confirmed, and that the sickly condition of the people has been returned to health by means of grace.
It is for this reason that he ascended with the genealogy from down upwards, till it arrived to God, in order to show that grace which comes from baptism raises us up and elevates us to the divine relationship, making us sons to God.
Exactly just as the union of marriage which happened after the disobedience of the commandment by Adam and Eve, and the engendering of sons, which resulted from that, made us descend downwards. And to complete this image he descended with the natural genealogy downwards ..........
Saint Augustine says:
Matthew goes down with the genealogy, pointing to our Lord Jesus Christ who descended to bear our sins. Because in the posterity of Abraham "all the families of the earth shall be blessed" (Gen. 12:3). Thus he did not begin with Adam.
3
The number of generations
QUESTION
Saint Matthew says: "So all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations, from David until the captivity in Babylon are fourteen generations, and from the captivity in Babylon until the Christ are fourteen generations" (Matt. 1:17). But when we count them, we find them to be 41 only. What then is the secret?
ANSWER
The reason is that Jeconiah was counted twice, because he is like the angle stone, an intermediate between two generations, and so he was counted with each of the two.
From David who had sinned, they went down to the captivity to the age of Jeconiah,
And from Jecohiah, they went up to the generation of Christ who has emancipated them.
Jeconiah was in that matter, a symbol of Christ, who was described as "the stone which was rejected by the builders, which has become the chief cornerstone".
4
The son of David, the son of Abraham
QUESTION
Why did the apostle Matthew say in the genealogy sequence: "Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham" (Matt. 1:1); and mentioned David firstly, although Abraham precedes David as regards time?
ANSWER
Saint John Chrysostom said about that:
"He mentioned David firstly, because he was prominent in the mouths of all the people at that time, in view of his dignity, and his majesty, and also because he was more recent in time.
Thus they said: "Has not the Scripture said that the Christ comes from the seed of David and from the town of Bethlehem, where David was?" (John 7:42).
Nobody called Him the son of Abraham, but they called Him the son of David...... because of his kingdom, and because they honoured the kings who reigned after him.
And God said to Solomon: "Nevertheless I will not do it in your days, for the sake of your father David; I will tear it out of the hand of your son" (1 Kings 11:12)."
We note also what the angel said in his annunciation to the Holy Virgin of the birth of Christ:
"He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David. And He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end" (Luke 1: 32:33).
5
Elizabeth your relative
QUESTION
The angel of the Annunciation said to the Holy Virgin : "Now indeed, Elizabeth your relative has also conceived in her old age" (Luke 1:36). How can this be, since the Holy Virgin St. Mary is from the tribe of Judah from the posterity of David, while Elizabeth is from the daughters of Aaron from the tribe of Levi; and the mixing among tribes was forbidden, in order to safeguard the inheritance, lest it would be transferred form one tribe to another?!
ANSWER
It is true that it was said in the book of Numbers:
"So the inheritance of the children of Israel shall not change hands from tribe to tribe, for every one of the children of Israel shall keep the inheritance of the tribe of his fathers. And every daughter who possesses an inheritance in any tribe of the children of Israel shall be the wife of one of the family of her father's tribe, so that the children of Israel each may possess the inheritance of his fathers. Thus no inheritance shall change hands from one tribe to another, but every tribe of the children of Israel shall keep its own inheritance" (Num. 36: 7-9).
Nevertheless there are some who interpret the word "your relative" in a general meaning, or that she is like one from the daughters of Israel, according to the word of the apostle saint Paul:
"For I could wish that I myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my countrymen according to the flesh, who are Israelites, to whom pertain the adoption, the glory, the covenants....." (Rom. 9: 3-4).
But saint Severus, Patriarch of Antioch, presents another interpretation. He says:
[As a matter of fact, the book of the Exode was written before the commandment that forbids taking a wife from another tribe. Aaron, the first chief priest according to the law, took a wife from the daughters of Judah, "Aaron took to himself Elisheba, daughter of Amminadab, sister of Nahshon, as wife" (Ex. 6:23), and Amminadab is from the posterity of the tribe of Judah.....
Consider the very wise management of the Holy Spirit, who ordained that the wife of Zacharias, the mother of the Baptist and the relative of St. Mary the mother of God, was called Elizabeth. We recollect the past until Elizabeth whom Aaron married, and the union of the two tribes which happened through her medium. The Holy Spirit obviously declares to us that it is through the medium of Elizabeth, that the relationship with the Holy Virgin was established.]
6
Why the registration by genealogy from Joseph?
QUESTION
This question was asked by saint John Chrysostom, and he answered it:
"How is it declared that Christ is from the posterity of David? since he was not born of a man but from a woman only; and the posterity of the Virgin was not counted?...... and what is the objective in that the evangelist mentioned Joseph who was not a cause for the Nativity of Christ?
ANSWER
It was mentioned in the gospel that "the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin's name was Mary" (Luke 1: 26-27). According to the law, it was not permitted that one could marry from a tribe which is not his own tribe (Num. 36: 7-9).
Since Joseph is from the house of David and from his relatives, it was not possible for him to take Mary as a wife from another tribe than his tribe, and from another ethnic group than his.
If you say: "What is it if he had disobeyed the law in that matter? I reply to you that the gospel testified to him that he was "a just man" (Matt. 1:19).
If you say: Why is it according to the genealogy from Joseph and not from the Virgin?
We say: "It was not a custom among the Jews, to count the genealogy from women. Therefore he was silent about the mention of her grandfathers, and he counted the genealogy of Joseph. If he had counted the genealogy from a virgin, he would have invented an innovation. And if he had been silent about the genealogy of Joseph, we would not have known the grandfathers of the Holy Virgin........
Also it was because he did not want to manifest before the time, to the Jews, that Christ was born of a Virgin.........since in that, there is a deliverance of the Virgin from a malignant accusation...... lest the Jews would have lapidated the Virgin with stones.
Since after numerous miracles, they called Him the son of Joseph (Matt. 13:55), how would they have believed before His miracles, that He is the son of a virgin?!
7
THE "WISE MEN" (THE MAGI)
QUESTION
Who are the wise men? Why did the star appear to them? How did they overcome the Jews? Was the star a natural star? Or was it a heavenly power in the form of a star? What are the symbols which the story of the wise men bear, and what are their relationships with the Gentiles and the Jews?
ANSWER
The wise men came from the East, probably from the countries of Persia. They were from the rank of princes, or scientists, or priests. They worshipped the ancient eastern gods, probably the fire; and they may have been among the followers of Zaradesht. They were experts in astronomy and in the stars. Perhaps they had heard from the Jews in the dispersion about a Saviour who will come to deliver them and to become the king of the Jews.
Saint John Chrysostom says:
"[My brothers, we urgently need long watching and many prayers in order to be able to answer these questions, and to know who are those wise men? and where did they come from?
Because Satan suggested to the enemies of the truth to say: "When Christ was born, His star appeared: Is this not a sign which proves that astrology is a true industry? If He was born in this manner, why did He eradicate astrology, fortune-telling, and magic, and did he render the devils to silence?!
Let us then examine what was that star: was it one of the numerous stars? Or was it an alien to them, from another nature than their nature? Or was it that only the person who looked at it, that thought it was a star? If we know the answer to these questions, we shall know the other matters with greater facility.
That star was not one of the numerous stars; and it is more convenient to say, according to what I think, that it was not a star. But it was one of the invisible powers, and was transformed to that aspect.
The evidence is clear:
Firstly: from the way of its movement: Because there is no star which can possibly move in that manner. If you consider the other stars, you will find that their movement is from West to East. But this star went in its course from the North to the South, because that is the direction from the countries of Persia to Palestine.
Secondly: as regards the time of its appearance: because it did not
appear by night, but rather in the daytime when the sun has risen. And this appearance is neither due to the strength of a star, nor to the strength of the moon, nor was it due to all these astral bodies which hide and set down when the sun rays appear. But this star had overcome the sun rays by the abundance of its brilliancy, and was more visible and more glittering than all of them.
Thirdly: this truth becomes obvious from that the star appeared for some time and then disappeared for some other time.
Because it appeared in order to show them the way to Palestine. When they came to Jerusalem, it hided itself. And when they left Herod after he had questioned them, and intended to walk to Bethlehem, the star reappeared to them again. This appearance and disappearance does not happen in the movement of an ordinary star, but it is due to a power which is, above measure, different from others. Because it did not march in a special way. But when it was necessary that they would march, it marched. And when they needed to stop, it stopped, thus controlling all the conditions of their march according to what was convenient for them. It was like the column of clouds in its conduct of the Jewish people.
When they entered Jerusalem, the star was hidden from them, so that having lost their guide, they were compelled to ask the Jews, in order that the matter would become notorious and well-known to everybody....... Thus the appearance and the disappearance brought a determined providence that had a special wisdom.
Fourthly: by its descending downwards:
The meditator must in an obvious manner, necessarily find out another characteristic from the guidance of the wise men by the star. Because it was not possible to show them the way while it was high over them, but it achieved that action by coming downwards. Because while it was high over them, it could not determine precisely a narrow place like a hut where a small baby is lying down. We can know this from the example of the moon, which appears greater than many stars, and how it appears to all the inhabitants of the world in all its vastness, and everyone thinks that the moon is near to him.
Tell me how would the star have shown them a small place like a hut and a manger, if it had not left this high place, and gone downwards till it stopped over the head of the child.
That is what the evangelist indicated saying: "and behold, the star which they had seen in the East went before them, till it came and stood over where the young Child was." (Matt. 2:9).
When the star recognized the Child, it stopped, and its stopping there, while it was descending downwards, is a great testimony.
It had a great influence upon the wise men and guided them to the worship of the Child. They did not worship Him as an ordinary human being. That is obvious from the gifts which they presented to Him, and which are not convenient for a small child in its swaddling clothes.....
Did you see with what arguments, it has been shown that this star was not one of the ordinary stars?......]
Why did the star appear?
If you ask why did the star appear?
I shall answer you saying that its appearance symbolizes the end of the choice of the Jews; destroying all their arguments of self-sufficiency, and calling all the world to His worship.
Thus He opened the door to the Gentiles from the principle of the coming of the Lord, willing to educate His people through the foreigners. Because if He had sent to them many prophets who explained to them His coming, and nevertheless they did not listen to them, therefore He let the foreigners (the Persians) come from a distant land asking for the vision of the way. Let the Jews learn from the words of the inhabitants of Persia, what they refused to learn from their prophets. If they persist and discuss after that also, they will loose every excuse and every argument.
What have they to say, they who have refused to accept the Christ in spite of His having sent to them the prophets, while the wise men accepted the Lord and worshipped Him, merely because they had seen a single star?
Just as He convicted them with His acceptance by the wise men, He also convicted them with the faith of the pagan inhabitants of Nineveh. Therefore He said to them that "The men of Nineveh will rise up in the judgement with this generation and condemn it, because they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and indeed a greater than Jonah is here" (Matt. 12:41). Likewise He convicted them with the Samaritan woman, and the woman of Canaan, and the queen of the South; because all these have at least believed; but the others, not even at most, did not believe.
Why did He attract the wise men in this manner?
Perhaps someone would ask: "Why did He attract the wise men by means of a star? We answer that it was not possible for such people to listen to a prophet if He had sent to them one of the prophets. And it was not convenient for them that He would have talked to them from above or by sending an angel. Therefore He called them by the means to which they were used, condescending to their great weekness; and He showed them a great and strange star, in order to amaze them by its beautiful aspect, and to lead them by its way of marching.
The apostle saint Paul followed this method, when he mentioned a testimony from the poets (Acts 17:28). He argued with everyone with the style to which he was used (1 Cor. 9: 19-22). With the Jews, God firstly utilized the statutes of sacrifices and purification and the rest of the ordinances and prescriptions by which He began, in view of the dullness of their minds. Then He replaced them, attracting them little by little, until reaching the high philosophy.
He did this with the wise men. He permitted to call them with a star which they saw, in order to render them more discerning and more perceptive than they were. When He led them to the manger, and when they saw the new-born, and became in their spiritualities, better than they were, then He did not let them go back to their countries by means of a star, but He "divinely warned" them "in a dream" (Matt. 2:12).
Why did He manifest Himself to those wise men, and not to others?
Perhaps someone would ask: "How did they reach such a great zeal? Who had incited them to such a long journey from their country?" According to my opinion, what they did was not merely to be guided by a star, but it was God who had awakened their souls; just as He had done with the king Cyrus, when He incited him to build the house of God. (Ezra 1:2).
Perhaps it would be said: "Why did He not unveil this manifestation to all the wise men?"
We answer: Because He was not expecting that all of them would believe Him. But He unveiled the matter to those who were more ready to accept Him. Many nations had perished, but the prophet Jonah was not sent but to the people of Nineveh alone. There were two thiefs hanging on crosses, but only one of them was saved.
It is astonishing that these wise men come from distant countries to see the Christ! What good things did they expect?.....Did they come to a king?
Nevertheless they did not see a king, but a child in swaddling clothes. Did they treat Him as a king, considering what would be happening? No, because afterwards He did not surround Himself with any kingly appearance, He did not possess neither horses nor slaves, and He was accompanied only by twelve unknown poor men.
They did not expect him to be a king over them, but a king over an opposing country, which was very distant from their country. Undoubtedly they realized the dangers which surrounded them in meeting Him.
They had seen how king Herod trembled, and how the whole congregation was troubled, when they heard the words of the wise men. So they were heading for a king over a country over which there reigned another king ...... What kinds of deaths were then awaiting for them?! And what did they expect from that king to whom they were directed?
What good thing did they hope to take, when they saw before them a hut, and a manger, and a child in his swaddling clothes, and a poor mother. What then was their aim in worshipping Him and in giving Him presents?
Did they expect good things from Him, when he would become a king in the future? And how could they know that this child would, when he would be grown up, remember what they did, so long as he was in His swaddling clothes?!
How marvelous is the virtue of those who had thrown themselves into many dangers, leaving their country and their people, without any apparent aim but that they obeyed what the Lord had placed in their hearts; then they believed, came, worshipped, and gave presents.
We see the virtue of these wise men, not only in their mere coming, but also in their publicly saying: "we have seen His star in the East, and have come to worship Him" (Matt. 2:2). They did not fear neither the anger nor the exasperation of the king.
Hence, I believe that these wise men became the teachers of their coutrymen in their lands.......especially that they had known from the Jews, that this one whose star they had seen, is the one whom the prophets had announced long ages ago.
The shepherds and the wise men are symbols of the Jews and the Gentiles:
Saint Augustin explains this point saying:
The wise men from the Gentiles, were the first to believe in the Lord Christ. It is evident that the first fruit of the belief in Christ, was the belief of the shepherds. The shepherds came to Him from a near place, and they saw Him on the same day, because the news had come to them by means of angels. But the wise men came to Him from a distant place, and by means of a star. Nevertheless both of them met at the corner stone, "who has made both one" ........... those "who were afar off and ...those who were near" (Eph. 2: 14-17). It was said to the shepherds: "Glory to God in the highest" (Luke 2:14), and the expression: "The heavens declare the glory of God" (Ps. 19:1), was realized with the wise men.
The shepherds came from a near place to see, and the wise men came from a distant place to worship.
Grace reached the shepherds before the wise men, but these last were more humble. This is the humility that rendered the wild olive tree deserving to be grafted into a cultivated olive tree (Rom. 11:17). The Holy Bible glorifies this humility more in the Gentiles, than in the Jews. Examples of this are what has been said about the centurion (Matt. 8: 5-10), and about the woman of Canaan (Matt. 15:28).
The Jews manifested to the Gentiles the Christ whom they did not themselves want to worship.
We note as regards the wise men, that in not returning through the same way, they symbolize the change in life; since those who arrive at Christ, do not return again to their first way.
Saint John Chrysostom says again:
"Let the Jews be ashamed, because they had seen wise men and ignorant people preceding them, while they did not come to Him, not even after these. That which had happened at that time was a token of what happened later: that the Gentiles preceded the Jews ....... Thus those who were from the land of Persia preceded those who were from Jerusalem. The apostle saint Paul mentioned this meaning when he said to them: "It was necessary that the word of God should be spoken to you first; but since you reject it, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, behold, we turn to the Gentiles" (Acts 13:46).
The Jews should have worshipped with the wise men, and should have glorified their God, but they trembled and were troubled.
"Then Herod, when he had secretly called the wise men, determined from them what time the star appeared", desiring to kill the new-born.
Between Herod and the wise men:
Herod did not care for all that had happened. He was not persuaded, neither by the prophecies of the prophets which he had heard, nor by the story of the extraordinary star, nor by the coming of the wise men from distant countries to worship the new-born.
It is clear that he was in a strange position. Whether he had believed the prophecy which had been said, it is evident that he acted contrarily. And whether he had denied it and had not expected that what was said in it would be realized, why then was he afraid and terrified?
Among the matters which demonstrate his lack of understanding, is his delusion that the wise men would prefer him to the new-born whose star they had seen, and for whom they suffered the pains of that long journey!
The astonishing thing is that "he had secretly called the wise men", and said to them: "Go and search carefully for the young Child, and when you have found Him, bring back word to me, that I may come and worship Him also" (Matt. 2:8).
And we ask him: "If you truthfully say that, why then do you ask the people secretly? And if you want to kill Him, do you think that the wise men had no doubts about you, because or your trouble and your calling them secretly? ....... But when the malignity of a person traps him, he becomes less intelligent than everybody......
Beware of becoming like Herod who said: "that I may come and worship Him also", while his heart was not sincere to Him, but he wanted to kill Him. Because those who worthlessly take part in the sacrament of the Holy Eucharist , resemble Herod.
The wise men, before their sight of the Child, were hammered by tribulations and fears from every part. But after their worship, He filled them with peace, and they became His priests through their worship, because they presented gifts and offerings to Him.....
But perhaps you would ask: "Why did the wise men run away from Herod's face? And why did the Child Jesus run away too?
We answer that it was not convenient to show His miracles in that early age, lest people would not have felt that He was a human being......
There is another meaning, which is that we must expect difficulties and pains since the beginning of the way.
Here is Jesus who, while He was still in His swaddling clothes, was chased by Herod, and ran away. And His mother who had not committed any evil, who had not gone away from her house for a long distance at any time, she was alienated and suffered the pains of a long journey.....and Joseph likewise, and also those Persians who secretly departed running away.
That happened so that, when you hear these events, and you become prepared to serve a spiritual service, and then you meet calamities and hardships, you do not tremble a little and do not say: "I should have been crowned because I have accomplished the service of my Lord."
When the wise men had been divinely warned not to return to Herod, they "departed for their own country another way" They did not doubt, but they promptly obeyed, and they did not think in themselves: "If this Child is greatly powerful, and possesses such wonders, what need have we to run away and to depart secretly!"
LIkewise the just Joseph did not argue with the angel, while doubting......
And he did not say to him: "You said before, that He will save His people, and behold, He did not save Himself, but we are in need of journeying and running away. What happened to us is the contrary of what He had promised us......."
He did not pronounce any of these expressions, because he was believing. And he did not ask about the time of his return from there, although the angel did not specify it, not even by saying "until I bring you word".......
THE DIFFERENCE IN THE
FEAST OF THE NATIVITY
QUESTION
Why do we celebrate the feast of the Nativity on the 7th of January, while some other churches celebrate it on the 25th of December. What is the reason for this difference?
ANSWER
It is not a doctrinal or a theological difference, but it is a scientific difference.
It is known that the year is 365 days and a quarter of a day. Therefore a day is added once every four years; and the year is called a leap year.
But in the gregorian western calendar, it has been said that the year is 365 days and a quarter of a day and approximately 11 minutes. This calendar was established about fifteen centuries AD.
If this difference of eleven minutes every year, is multiplied during those centuries since the birth of Christ until now, it will result into a difference of approximately thirteen days which is the difference between the 25th of December and the 7th of January.
We have confidence in our Coptic calendar, because of the great excellence of the Pharaohs in the science of astronomy, and we celebrate the Nativity on the 29th of Kiahk which corresponds to the 7th of January. There are some other churches who share with us this date.
But the question in not a question of faith and doctrine, nevertheless it can be exploited to impress the simple, when the date is changed.
of booklets
9
Questions about
The Nativity
Third print, Cairo 1999
Name of the book: Questions about The Nativity
Author: His Holiness Pope Shenouda III
Editor: Orthodox Coptic Clerical College, Cairo
Edition: Third, 1999
Press: Amba Rueiss, (Offset), The Cathedral, Abbassia
Deposition number at "The Library": 15081/1997
All rights reserved to the author
His Holiness Pope Shenouda III
Pope and Patriarch of the See of Alexandria and of all the Predication of the Evangelist St. Mark
(COVER PAGE)
In the Name of
the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit,
the One God,
Amen.
In this booklet we present to you some answers which are related to certain questions about the Nativity, of which there are:
The sequence of the genealogy, and the mention of some sinful women in it; and the difference between the two gospels of Matthew and Luke as regards the names, and as regards the ascending order and the descending order in that sequence.
The number of genealogies, is it 41 or 42?
Elizabeth your relative.
The son of David the son of Abraham.
The difference in the celebration of the day of the Nativity.
The wise men (the Magi) and the nature of the star of the wise men.
The difference between the (Magi) wise men and the shepherds.
Pope Shenouda III
PREFACE
Some people ask many questions about the subject of The Nativity of Christ, and they need answers. I undertook to answer from the sayings of the Saint Fathers, which I had translated, or which I had taken from some manuscripts.
I relied in that, on many books, the most important of which are:
1. Saint John Chrysostom's interpretation of Matthews' gospel (manuscript, and translation).
2. The Homelies of saint Severus of Antioch, which were published in "Patrologia Orientalis: Homilae Cathedrales"
3. The sermons of saint John Chrysostom.
There are other questions about the virginal nativity and the virginity of the Holy Virgin, to which I answered in our book "The Comparative Theology", to which it can be referred.
But now, I congratulate you for the Nativity of the Lord Christ.
Many happy returns.
1
The sinful women in the genealogy sequence
QUESTION
Why did the evangelist neglect the names of some saint women like Sara, Rebecca, and others, in the sequence of genealogies, while he mentioned adulterous women like Tamar, Rahab, the wife of Uriah the Hittite, and Ruth who is a woman of a foreign race?
ANSWER
He wanted to annihilate the haughtiness of the Jews who boast about their grandfathers. He showed to them how their grandfathers had sinned. Judah committed adultery with Tamar, his son's widow, and engendered Perez and Zerah from her. David fell into adultery with the wife of Uriah the Hittite. Boaz, the great grandfather of David, was engendered by Salmon from the adulteress Rahab.
Even if their grandfathers were virtuous men, the virtue of their granfathers would not have been profitable to them; because the deeds of a person, not the deeds of his sons, are those which determine his destiny at the last day.
Saint John Chrysostom said about that: "
"The Lord Christ did not come to run away form our disgraceful actions, but to obliterate them. He is not ashamed of any of our defects. And just as those grandfathers had taken adulterous women, in the same way our Lord and God has bethrothed for Himself our nature that had committed adultery.
The Church is like Tamar:
She was at once delivered from her wicked actions, and then she followed Him.
The condition of Ruth resembles our conditions:
Her tribe was a foreigner to Israel; and it went down to exceeding poverty. Nevertheless, when Boaz saw her, he did not despise her poverty, neither did he reject the vileness of her race. In the same way, the Lord Christ dit not reject His Church that was an alien, and poor as regards good deeds. And just as Ruth, if she had not left her people and her house, she would not have tasted that glory, in the same way, the Church about which the prophet said: "Forget your own people also, and your father's house; so the King will greatly desire your beauty" (Psalm 45: 10-11)......
Our Lord mortified them with these matters, and made them realize how not to be haughty.
When the evangelist registered the genealogy of Christ, he mentioned those sinful women; because it is impossible for any of us to be virtuous by the virtue of his grandfathers, or to be wicked by the vice of his grandfathers. I rather say that the person whose grandfathers were not virtuous and became virtuous himself, then the honor of that person's virtue would have been great.
Let no one boast about his grandfathers, and be puffed because of them, when he thinks about the grandfathers of our Lord; and let him look at his own deeds, and even let him not boast about his virtues; because it is through such boasting that the Pharissee became less the the Publican. (Luke 18).
Do not then falsify your pains by vain talk. Do not loose all your effort after having covered a long distance; because your Lord knows the virtues which you have attained, better than you, because if you give a glass of cold water, God will not neglect that, and will not forget it. (Matt. 10:43).
2
Ascent & descent
in
the genealogical sequence
QUESTION
There are three differences in the sequence of genealogy, between what the evangelist Matthew registered, and what the evangelist Luke registered. They are:
1. There is a difference between the names in the two gospels.
2. Saint Matthew begins the biography of the Lord Christ with the genealogical sequence. As for saint Luke, he does not speak of it before telling the story of the baptism.
3. Saint Matthew mentions the genealogy descending from the first fathers to the sons, while saint Luke mentions the genealogy ascending from the Lord Christ to Adam to God.
Is there an interpretation for all these differences?
ANSWER
I. The difference in names.
As a matter of fact, saint Matthew mentions the natural genealogy of the Lord Christ, while saint Luke mentions the legal or official genealogy. To explain this, we say:
The law of Moses specifies that if a man dies without posterity, the brother of the dead man must take the widow of his brother, and marry her, and engender a posterity for his brother from her. (Deut. 25: 5-6), or that the son whom he engenders becomes from the legal point of view, an official son to his brother, although he is considered a natural son to that brother who has engendered him.
Hence such a son would have two fathers: a natural father who has engendered him, and a legal father who is his uncle who died without posterity.
If this dead man without posterity has no brother, the nearest relative to him will take his wife and engender a posterity to him;
because the son who is born is counted a son to this dead man, according to the law. If the nearest relative does not want to take the wife of the dead man according to what he has been charged of, the next relative must necessarily accept this marriage, because the law is eager to raise a posterity to that dead man who has not engendered a son.
That kind of marriage is called "redemption". A clear example of this is mentioned in the story of Ruth with Boaz.
In his interpretation of this, saint Severus of Antioch said:
In this manner, Joseph the betrothed to the Holy Virgin is related, as a matter of fact, to two fathers :
Because since Heli took a wife and died without posterity, Jacob, who was the nearest relative to him, married his wife in order to engender a posterity to him from her according to the commandment of the law. When he engendered Joseph, that Joseph became a legal son to the dead Heli, and at the same time a natural son to Jacob. Therefore saint Matthew, from his part, said that Joseph is the son of Jacob, and saint Luke, from the other part, said that he is the son of Heli. One mentioned the natural genealogy, and the other mentioned the legal genealogy.
From his part, saint Matthew mentioned the natural fathers of Joseph, while saint Luke, from the other part, mentioned the legal fathers.
Saint Luke went on with the genealogical legal sequence until Nathan son of David. Saint Matthew went on until Solomon son of David. The two met in David...... Then the course was sometimes similar, and some other times, it was variously divided, then it was united again, and then separated.
Hence the genealogy of Christ is confirmed, from the natural and from the legal point of view,.........that He is the son of David, the son of Abraham, the son of Adam.
2. The difference in ascending and in descending,
and the relation between this and the baptism.
Saint Matthew began his gospel by saying: "The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the son of Abraham......" Then he explained the genealogy saying: "Abraham begot Isaac, Isaac begot Jacob". And after having mentioned those who were engendered through faulty relations, he came at last to the census of the generations. Then he said directly: "Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows......"
Thus after having explained the corruption and the death through which all these generations had passed, he arrived at the pure birth of the Lord Christ from the Holy Spirit and from the Virgin saint Mary.
As for saint Luke, he narrated the Annunciation, the birth of the Baptist, the Nativity of Christ, and gradually reached the baptism of Christ at the age of thirty; and then he mentioned the legal genealogy.
Saint Severus of Antioch explains this matter saying:
"Luke explained the legal genealogy, that reminds us of Him who died without posterity, then his name was raised after his death, by a son who is attributed to him, in a way that has some similarity to the adoption and to the resurrection.
He mentioned this genealogy after having narrated the story of the Nativity; because baptism gives the true heavenly adoption, in manifesting us as sons of God. Therefore he mentioned the legal genealogy which gives the adoption; in order to show that this representation has been truly confirmed, and that the sickly condition of the people has been returned to health by means of grace.
It is for this reason that he ascended with the genealogy from down upwards, till it arrived to God, in order to show that grace which comes from baptism raises us up and elevates us to the divine relationship, making us sons to God.
Exactly just as the union of marriage which happened after the disobedience of the commandment by Adam and Eve, and the engendering of sons, which resulted from that, made us descend downwards. And to complete this image he descended with the natural genealogy downwards ..........
Saint Augustine says:
Matthew goes down with the genealogy, pointing to our Lord Jesus Christ who descended to bear our sins. Because in the posterity of Abraham "all the families of the earth shall be blessed" (Gen. 12:3). Thus he did not begin with Adam.
3
The number of generations
QUESTION
Saint Matthew says: "So all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations, from David until the captivity in Babylon are fourteen generations, and from the captivity in Babylon until the Christ are fourteen generations" (Matt. 1:17). But when we count them, we find them to be 41 only. What then is the secret?
ANSWER
The reason is that Jeconiah was counted twice, because he is like the angle stone, an intermediate between two generations, and so he was counted with each of the two.
From David who had sinned, they went down to the captivity to the age of Jeconiah,
And from Jecohiah, they went up to the generation of Christ who has emancipated them.
Jeconiah was in that matter, a symbol of Christ, who was described as "the stone which was rejected by the builders, which has become the chief cornerstone".
4
The son of David, the son of Abraham
QUESTION
Why did the apostle Matthew say in the genealogy sequence: "Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham" (Matt. 1:1); and mentioned David firstly, although Abraham precedes David as regards time?
ANSWER
Saint John Chrysostom said about that:
"He mentioned David firstly, because he was prominent in the mouths of all the people at that time, in view of his dignity, and his majesty, and also because he was more recent in time.
Thus they said: "Has not the Scripture said that the Christ comes from the seed of David and from the town of Bethlehem, where David was?" (John 7:42).
Nobody called Him the son of Abraham, but they called Him the son of David...... because of his kingdom, and because they honoured the kings who reigned after him.
And God said to Solomon: "Nevertheless I will not do it in your days, for the sake of your father David; I will tear it out of the hand of your son" (1 Kings 11:12)."
We note also what the angel said in his annunciation to the Holy Virgin of the birth of Christ:
"He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David. And He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end" (Luke 1: 32:33).
5
Elizabeth your relative
QUESTION
The angel of the Annunciation said to the Holy Virgin : "Now indeed, Elizabeth your relative has also conceived in her old age" (Luke 1:36). How can this be, since the Holy Virgin St. Mary is from the tribe of Judah from the posterity of David, while Elizabeth is from the daughters of Aaron from the tribe of Levi; and the mixing among tribes was forbidden, in order to safeguard the inheritance, lest it would be transferred form one tribe to another?!
ANSWER
It is true that it was said in the book of Numbers:
"So the inheritance of the children of Israel shall not change hands from tribe to tribe, for every one of the children of Israel shall keep the inheritance of the tribe of his fathers. And every daughter who possesses an inheritance in any tribe of the children of Israel shall be the wife of one of the family of her father's tribe, so that the children of Israel each may possess the inheritance of his fathers. Thus no inheritance shall change hands from one tribe to another, but every tribe of the children of Israel shall keep its own inheritance" (Num. 36: 7-9).
Nevertheless there are some who interpret the word "your relative" in a general meaning, or that she is like one from the daughters of Israel, according to the word of the apostle saint Paul:
"For I could wish that I myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my countrymen according to the flesh, who are Israelites, to whom pertain the adoption, the glory, the covenants....." (Rom. 9: 3-4).
But saint Severus, Patriarch of Antioch, presents another interpretation. He says:
[As a matter of fact, the book of the Exode was written before the commandment that forbids taking a wife from another tribe. Aaron, the first chief priest according to the law, took a wife from the daughters of Judah, "Aaron took to himself Elisheba, daughter of Amminadab, sister of Nahshon, as wife" (Ex. 6:23), and Amminadab is from the posterity of the tribe of Judah.....
Consider the very wise management of the Holy Spirit, who ordained that the wife of Zacharias, the mother of the Baptist and the relative of St. Mary the mother of God, was called Elizabeth. We recollect the past until Elizabeth whom Aaron married, and the union of the two tribes which happened through her medium. The Holy Spirit obviously declares to us that it is through the medium of Elizabeth, that the relationship with the Holy Virgin was established.]
6
Why the registration by genealogy from Joseph?
QUESTION
This question was asked by saint John Chrysostom, and he answered it:
"How is it declared that Christ is from the posterity of David? since he was not born of a man but from a woman only; and the posterity of the Virgin was not counted?...... and what is the objective in that the evangelist mentioned Joseph who was not a cause for the Nativity of Christ?
ANSWER
It was mentioned in the gospel that "the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin's name was Mary" (Luke 1: 26-27). According to the law, it was not permitted that one could marry from a tribe which is not his own tribe (Num. 36: 7-9).
Since Joseph is from the house of David and from his relatives, it was not possible for him to take Mary as a wife from another tribe than his tribe, and from another ethnic group than his.
If you say: "What is it if he had disobeyed the law in that matter? I reply to you that the gospel testified to him that he was "a just man" (Matt. 1:19).
If you say: Why is it according to the genealogy from Joseph and not from the Virgin?
We say: "It was not a custom among the Jews, to count the genealogy from women. Therefore he was silent about the mention of her grandfathers, and he counted the genealogy of Joseph. If he had counted the genealogy from a virgin, he would have invented an innovation. And if he had been silent about the genealogy of Joseph, we would not have known the grandfathers of the Holy Virgin........
Also it was because he did not want to manifest before the time, to the Jews, that Christ was born of a Virgin.........since in that, there is a deliverance of the Virgin from a malignant accusation...... lest the Jews would have lapidated the Virgin with stones.
Since after numerous miracles, they called Him the son of Joseph (Matt. 13:55), how would they have believed before His miracles, that He is the son of a virgin?!
7
THE "WISE MEN" (THE MAGI)
QUESTION
Who are the wise men? Why did the star appear to them? How did they overcome the Jews? Was the star a natural star? Or was it a heavenly power in the form of a star? What are the symbols which the story of the wise men bear, and what are their relationships with the Gentiles and the Jews?
ANSWER
The wise men came from the East, probably from the countries of Persia. They were from the rank of princes, or scientists, or priests. They worshipped the ancient eastern gods, probably the fire; and they may have been among the followers of Zaradesht. They were experts in astronomy and in the stars. Perhaps they had heard from the Jews in the dispersion about a Saviour who will come to deliver them and to become the king of the Jews.
Saint John Chrysostom says:
"[My brothers, we urgently need long watching and many prayers in order to be able to answer these questions, and to know who are those wise men? and where did they come from?
Because Satan suggested to the enemies of the truth to say: "When Christ was born, His star appeared: Is this not a sign which proves that astrology is a true industry? If He was born in this manner, why did He eradicate astrology, fortune-telling, and magic, and did he render the devils to silence?!
Let us then examine what was that star: was it one of the numerous stars? Or was it an alien to them, from another nature than their nature? Or was it that only the person who looked at it, that thought it was a star? If we know the answer to these questions, we shall know the other matters with greater facility.
That star was not one of the numerous stars; and it is more convenient to say, according to what I think, that it was not a star. But it was one of the invisible powers, and was transformed to that aspect.
The evidence is clear:
Firstly: from the way of its movement: Because there is no star which can possibly move in that manner. If you consider the other stars, you will find that their movement is from West to East. But this star went in its course from the North to the South, because that is the direction from the countries of Persia to Palestine.
Secondly: as regards the time of its appearance: because it did not
appear by night, but rather in the daytime when the sun has risen. And this appearance is neither due to the strength of a star, nor to the strength of the moon, nor was it due to all these astral bodies which hide and set down when the sun rays appear. But this star had overcome the sun rays by the abundance of its brilliancy, and was more visible and more glittering than all of them.
Thirdly: this truth becomes obvious from that the star appeared for some time and then disappeared for some other time.
Because it appeared in order to show them the way to Palestine. When they came to Jerusalem, it hided itself. And when they left Herod after he had questioned them, and intended to walk to Bethlehem, the star reappeared to them again. This appearance and disappearance does not happen in the movement of an ordinary star, but it is due to a power which is, above measure, different from others. Because it did not march in a special way. But when it was necessary that they would march, it marched. And when they needed to stop, it stopped, thus controlling all the conditions of their march according to what was convenient for them. It was like the column of clouds in its conduct of the Jewish people.
When they entered Jerusalem, the star was hidden from them, so that having lost their guide, they were compelled to ask the Jews, in order that the matter would become notorious and well-known to everybody....... Thus the appearance and the disappearance brought a determined providence that had a special wisdom.
Fourthly: by its descending downwards:
The meditator must in an obvious manner, necessarily find out another characteristic from the guidance of the wise men by the star. Because it was not possible to show them the way while it was high over them, but it achieved that action by coming downwards. Because while it was high over them, it could not determine precisely a narrow place like a hut where a small baby is lying down. We can know this from the example of the moon, which appears greater than many stars, and how it appears to all the inhabitants of the world in all its vastness, and everyone thinks that the moon is near to him.
Tell me how would the star have shown them a small place like a hut and a manger, if it had not left this high place, and gone downwards till it stopped over the head of the child.
That is what the evangelist indicated saying: "and behold, the star which they had seen in the East went before them, till it came and stood over where the young Child was." (Matt. 2:9).
When the star recognized the Child, it stopped, and its stopping there, while it was descending downwards, is a great testimony.
It had a great influence upon the wise men and guided them to the worship of the Child. They did not worship Him as an ordinary human being. That is obvious from the gifts which they presented to Him, and which are not convenient for a small child in its swaddling clothes.....
Did you see with what arguments, it has been shown that this star was not one of the ordinary stars?......]
Why did the star appear?
If you ask why did the star appear?
I shall answer you saying that its appearance symbolizes the end of the choice of the Jews; destroying all their arguments of self-sufficiency, and calling all the world to His worship.
Thus He opened the door to the Gentiles from the principle of the coming of the Lord, willing to educate His people through the foreigners. Because if He had sent to them many prophets who explained to them His coming, and nevertheless they did not listen to them, therefore He let the foreigners (the Persians) come from a distant land asking for the vision of the way. Let the Jews learn from the words of the inhabitants of Persia, what they refused to learn from their prophets. If they persist and discuss after that also, they will loose every excuse and every argument.
What have they to say, they who have refused to accept the Christ in spite of His having sent to them the prophets, while the wise men accepted the Lord and worshipped Him, merely because they had seen a single star?
Just as He convicted them with His acceptance by the wise men, He also convicted them with the faith of the pagan inhabitants of Nineveh. Therefore He said to them that "The men of Nineveh will rise up in the judgement with this generation and condemn it, because they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and indeed a greater than Jonah is here" (Matt. 12:41). Likewise He convicted them with the Samaritan woman, and the woman of Canaan, and the queen of the South; because all these have at least believed; but the others, not even at most, did not believe.
Why did He attract the wise men in this manner?
Perhaps someone would ask: "Why did He attract the wise men by means of a star? We answer that it was not possible for such people to listen to a prophet if He had sent to them one of the prophets. And it was not convenient for them that He would have talked to them from above or by sending an angel. Therefore He called them by the means to which they were used, condescending to their great weekness; and He showed them a great and strange star, in order to amaze them by its beautiful aspect, and to lead them by its way of marching.
The apostle saint Paul followed this method, when he mentioned a testimony from the poets (Acts 17:28). He argued with everyone with the style to which he was used (1 Cor. 9: 19-22). With the Jews, God firstly utilized the statutes of sacrifices and purification and the rest of the ordinances and prescriptions by which He began, in view of the dullness of their minds. Then He replaced them, attracting them little by little, until reaching the high philosophy.
He did this with the wise men. He permitted to call them with a star which they saw, in order to render them more discerning and more perceptive than they were. When He led them to the manger, and when they saw the new-born, and became in their spiritualities, better than they were, then He did not let them go back to their countries by means of a star, but He "divinely warned" them "in a dream" (Matt. 2:12).
Why did He manifest Himself to those wise men, and not to others?
Perhaps someone would ask: "How did they reach such a great zeal? Who had incited them to such a long journey from their country?" According to my opinion, what they did was not merely to be guided by a star, but it was God who had awakened their souls; just as He had done with the king Cyrus, when He incited him to build the house of God. (Ezra 1:2).
Perhaps it would be said: "Why did He not unveil this manifestation to all the wise men?"
We answer: Because He was not expecting that all of them would believe Him. But He unveiled the matter to those who were more ready to accept Him. Many nations had perished, but the prophet Jonah was not sent but to the people of Nineveh alone. There were two thiefs hanging on crosses, but only one of them was saved.
It is astonishing that these wise men come from distant countries to see the Christ! What good things did they expect?.....Did they come to a king?
Nevertheless they did not see a king, but a child in swaddling clothes. Did they treat Him as a king, considering what would be happening? No, because afterwards He did not surround Himself with any kingly appearance, He did not possess neither horses nor slaves, and He was accompanied only by twelve unknown poor men.
They did not expect him to be a king over them, but a king over an opposing country, which was very distant from their country. Undoubtedly they realized the dangers which surrounded them in meeting Him.
They had seen how king Herod trembled, and how the whole congregation was troubled, when they heard the words of the wise men. So they were heading for a king over a country over which there reigned another king ...... What kinds of deaths were then awaiting for them?! And what did they expect from that king to whom they were directed?
What good thing did they hope to take, when they saw before them a hut, and a manger, and a child in his swaddling clothes, and a poor mother. What then was their aim in worshipping Him and in giving Him presents?
Did they expect good things from Him, when he would become a king in the future? And how could they know that this child would, when he would be grown up, remember what they did, so long as he was in His swaddling clothes?!
How marvelous is the virtue of those who had thrown themselves into many dangers, leaving their country and their people, without any apparent aim but that they obeyed what the Lord had placed in their hearts; then they believed, came, worshipped, and gave presents.
We see the virtue of these wise men, not only in their mere coming, but also in their publicly saying: "we have seen His star in the East, and have come to worship Him" (Matt. 2:2). They did not fear neither the anger nor the exasperation of the king.
Hence, I believe that these wise men became the teachers of their coutrymen in their lands.......especially that they had known from the Jews, that this one whose star they had seen, is the one whom the prophets had announced long ages ago.
The shepherds and the wise men are symbols of the Jews and the Gentiles:
Saint Augustin explains this point saying:
The wise men from the Gentiles, were the first to believe in the Lord Christ. It is evident that the first fruit of the belief in Christ, was the belief of the shepherds. The shepherds came to Him from a near place, and they saw Him on the same day, because the news had come to them by means of angels. But the wise men came to Him from a distant place, and by means of a star. Nevertheless both of them met at the corner stone, "who has made both one" ........... those "who were afar off and ...those who were near" (Eph. 2: 14-17). It was said to the shepherds: "Glory to God in the highest" (Luke 2:14), and the expression: "The heavens declare the glory of God" (Ps. 19:1), was realized with the wise men.
The shepherds came from a near place to see, and the wise men came from a distant place to worship.
Grace reached the shepherds before the wise men, but these last were more humble. This is the humility that rendered the wild olive tree deserving to be grafted into a cultivated olive tree (Rom. 11:17). The Holy Bible glorifies this humility more in the Gentiles, than in the Jews. Examples of this are what has been said about the centurion (Matt. 8: 5-10), and about the woman of Canaan (Matt. 15:28).
The Jews manifested to the Gentiles the Christ whom they did not themselves want to worship.
We note as regards the wise men, that in not returning through the same way, they symbolize the change in life; since those who arrive at Christ, do not return again to their first way.
Saint John Chrysostom says again:
"Let the Jews be ashamed, because they had seen wise men and ignorant people preceding them, while they did not come to Him, not even after these. That which had happened at that time was a token of what happened later: that the Gentiles preceded the Jews ....... Thus those who were from the land of Persia preceded those who were from Jerusalem. The apostle saint Paul mentioned this meaning when he said to them: "It was necessary that the word of God should be spoken to you first; but since you reject it, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, behold, we turn to the Gentiles" (Acts 13:46).
The Jews should have worshipped with the wise men, and should have glorified their God, but they trembled and were troubled.
"Then Herod, when he had secretly called the wise men, determined from them what time the star appeared", desiring to kill the new-born.
Between Herod and the wise men:
Herod did not care for all that had happened. He was not persuaded, neither by the prophecies of the prophets which he had heard, nor by the story of the extraordinary star, nor by the coming of the wise men from distant countries to worship the new-born.
It is clear that he was in a strange position. Whether he had believed the prophecy which had been said, it is evident that he acted contrarily. And whether he had denied it and had not expected that what was said in it would be realized, why then was he afraid and terrified?
Among the matters which demonstrate his lack of understanding, is his delusion that the wise men would prefer him to the new-born whose star they had seen, and for whom they suffered the pains of that long journey!
The astonishing thing is that "he had secretly called the wise men", and said to them: "Go and search carefully for the young Child, and when you have found Him, bring back word to me, that I may come and worship Him also" (Matt. 2:8).
And we ask him: "If you truthfully say that, why then do you ask the people secretly? And if you want to kill Him, do you think that the wise men had no doubts about you, because or your trouble and your calling them secretly? ....... But when the malignity of a person traps him, he becomes less intelligent than everybody......
Beware of becoming like Herod who said: "that I may come and worship Him also", while his heart was not sincere to Him, but he wanted to kill Him. Because those who worthlessly take part in the sacrament of the Holy Eucharist , resemble Herod.
The wise men, before their sight of the Child, were hammered by tribulations and fears from every part. But after their worship, He filled them with peace, and they became His priests through their worship, because they presented gifts and offerings to Him.....
But perhaps you would ask: "Why did the wise men run away from Herod's face? And why did the Child Jesus run away too?
We answer that it was not convenient to show His miracles in that early age, lest people would not have felt that He was a human being......
There is another meaning, which is that we must expect difficulties and pains since the beginning of the way.
Here is Jesus who, while He was still in His swaddling clothes, was chased by Herod, and ran away. And His mother who had not committed any evil, who had not gone away from her house for a long distance at any time, she was alienated and suffered the pains of a long journey.....and Joseph likewise, and also those Persians who secretly departed running away.
That happened so that, when you hear these events, and you become prepared to serve a spiritual service, and then you meet calamities and hardships, you do not tremble a little and do not say: "I should have been crowned because I have accomplished the service of my Lord."
When the wise men had been divinely warned not to return to Herod, they "departed for their own country another way" They did not doubt, but they promptly obeyed, and they did not think in themselves: "If this Child is greatly powerful, and possesses such wonders, what need have we to run away and to depart secretly!"
LIkewise the just Joseph did not argue with the angel, while doubting......
And he did not say to him: "You said before, that He will save His people, and behold, He did not save Himself, but we are in need of journeying and running away. What happened to us is the contrary of what He had promised us......."
He did not pronounce any of these expressions, because he was believing. And he did not ask about the time of his return from there, although the angel did not specify it, not even by saying "until I bring you word".......
THE DIFFERENCE IN THE
FEAST OF THE NATIVITY
QUESTION
Why do we celebrate the feast of the Nativity on the 7th of January, while some other churches celebrate it on the 25th of December. What is the reason for this difference?
ANSWER
It is not a doctrinal or a theological difference, but it is a scientific difference.
It is known that the year is 365 days and a quarter of a day. Therefore a day is added once every four years; and the year is called a leap year.
But in the gregorian western calendar, it has been said that the year is 365 days and a quarter of a day and approximately 11 minutes. This calendar was established about fifteen centuries AD.
If this difference of eleven minutes every year, is multiplied during those centuries since the birth of Christ until now, it will result into a difference of approximately thirteen days which is the difference between the 25th of December and the 7th of January.
We have confidence in our Coptic calendar, because of the great excellence of the Pharaohs in the science of astronomy, and we celebrate the Nativity on the 29th of Kiahk which corresponds to the 7th of January. There are some other churches who share with us this date.
But the question in not a question of faith and doctrine, nevertheless it can be exploited to impress the simple, when the date is changed.
The holy virgin saint Mary
Pope Shenouda III series
2
The Holy Virgin
St. Mary
BY HIS HOLINESS AMBA SHENOUDA III,
POPE AND PATRIARCH OF ALEXANDRIA
AND OF THE APOSTOLIC SEE OF
ALL THE PREDICATION OF SAINT MARK
Translated from the Arabic edition of 1999
Name of the book: The Holy Virgin St. Mary
Author: His Holiness Pope Shenouda III
Editor: Orthodox Coptic Clerical College, Cairo
Edition: 1999
Press: Amba Rueiss, (Offset)
Deposition number at "The Library": 9173/96
All rights reserved to the author
His Holiness Pope Shenouda III
Pope and Patriarch of the See of Alexandria and of all the Predication of the Evangelist St. Mark
In the Name of
the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit,
the One God,
Amen
In this pamphlet, you read about:
Our mother the Saint Holy Virgin
The greatness of the Virgin
The oldest churches in her name
A life which was surrounded by miracles
The Virgin's fast
Her feasts
The Vigin in the Faith
Her surnames and symbols
The Virgin's virtues
Blessing her. Her icons.
Pope Shenouda III
OUR MOTHER THE SAINT VIRGIN
There is no woman about whom the prophets prophesied, and about whom the Holy Bible cared, like the Virgin Mary.......There are numerous symbols about her in the Old Testament. In the New Testament also, there are her biography, her praise, and the miracles.
How many are the glorifying expressions and the contemplations, which were cited about the Virgin in the books of the fathers.........How full of praise are the surnames by which the Church calls her, and which are inspired from the Spirit of the Holy Bible.......!
She is the mother of all of us, the lady of all of us, the pride of our kind, the queen at the right side of the King, the Virgin with perpetual virginity, the pure, the filled with grace, the saint Mary, the powerful and helpful compassionate mother, the mother of the Light, the mother of mercy and salvation, the true vine.
This is the one whom the Church elevates over the rank of archangels, so that we say about her in her hymns and songs:
O Mary, you have been raised above the cherubims, and have become higher than the seraphims, O Mary.
Mary who was bred up in the temple, and lived the life of prayer and contemplation since her childhood, and who was the sacred vessel whom the Lord has chosen to come inside her.
Long generations waited for the birth of this Virgin, so that the fullness of the time would become complete by her (Gal.4:4)...........
She has removed the shame of Eva, and saved the reputation of women after sin.
She is the mother of God, in perpetual virginity.
She is the Virgin who came to our country during the childhood of Christ, and inhabited our land for years, during which she sanctified it, and blessed it.........
She is the Virgin who appeared in Zeitoun 32 years ago, and attracted to her the feelings of the crouds, with her light, her appearance, and her visit to us.........
She is the Virgin who makes miracles in numerous places, where we celebrate feasts for he. The stories of her miracles are innumerable.....
The Virgin is not a stranger to us; because she is profoundly assimilated with the feelings of Copts that come out from faith to special experience and emotion. How great an honor is it for our country and our Church, to be visited in past times by our Lady the Virgin! How great an honor is it that our Lady appeared on her domes many years ago!
There is not a human being whom christians have loved so much as our Lady the Virgin Mary.
The majority of churches in Egypt celebrate her feast.
In the rites, how many are the compliments, the songs, the veneration, the psalms, the doxologies, (glorifying blessings), which are dedicated to her, especially in the month of Kiahk! The catholics have a month for her, which is called the Mary month.........
Among the monasteries of monks in Egypt, there are the monastery of El Baramous, the monastery of El Sourian, the monastery of El Moharrak, which are all dedicated to her name; they represent the quarter of the number of present monasteries.
There is a monastery for nuns which is dedicated to her name, in Haret Zuwalah in Cairo. How many are the monasteries and the schools which are dedicated to her name in the Western Churches.
THE OLDEST CHURCHES
DEDICATED TO HER NAME
The oldest church which was built and dedicated to the name of the Virgin in the apostolic times, is the church of Philippi. The oldest church which was built and dedicated to her name in Egypt, was in the times of the Pope Theonas, the 16 th patriarch (year 274 AD).
Among the most reknown of her churches, there is the church of the monastery El Moharrak, which was inuagurated in the times of the Pope Theophilus, (the 23 rd pope), at the beginning of the fifth century, on the 6th of Hator.
Also the churches which were built in the places that she visited in Egypt.
On this occasion, we have two churches in Europe with the name of "The Virgin of Zeitoun"; one is in France, and the other is in Vienna.
THE GREATNESS OF THE VIRGIN
The greatness of the Virgin has been decreed in the sacred œcumenical council of Ephesus, which was assembled in 431 AD. Two hundred bishops from the world were present. They formulated the prelude to the creed of the Christian Faith, in which it is cited: "We venerate you, O mother of the true Light, and we glorify you, O Saint Virgin Mother of God, because you gave birth for us to the Saviour of the world, who has come and delivered our souls". What are the foundations upon which the œcumenical council formulated this prelude? That is what we shall explain now:
The Virgin is the blessed saint, whose blessing is continuous throughout the generations, as it has been mentioned in her hymn:
"For behold, henceforth all generations will call me blessed" (Luke 1:46).
The Church calls the Virgin by the surname of "the queen". This was mentionned by the psalm, about her:
"At Your right hand stands the queen" (Ps. 45:9).
That is why, many artists, when they draw the pictures of the Virgin, they put a crown on her head, and she appears in the image, on the right side of the Lord Christ.
The reverence of the Virgin appears in the salutation of the archangel Gabriel to her:
"Peace to you, O you full of grace, "the Lord is with you; blessed are you among women" (Luke 1:28). That is, with a special blessing, to which also saint Elisabeth gave testimony. "Then she spoke out with a loud voice and said, "Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb" (Luke 1:42).
Saint Elisabeth found herself small in front of the greatness of the Virgin, and she spoke with the feeling that she was not deserving, although she knew that her son "will be great in the sight of the Lord", and that "He will also go before Him in the spirit and power of Elijah" (Luke 1: 15-17). She said:
"But why is it granted to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?" (Luke 1:43).
Probably the most evident proof of the greatness of the Virgin, and of her position in the sight of the Lord, is that when her mere greeting arrived to Elisabeth, the latter was filled with the Holy Spirit, and her babe felt it and leaped in her womb for joy. The divine Intuition says in that:
"And it happened, when Elisabeth heard the greeting of Mary, that the babe leaped in her womb, and Elisabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit" (Luke 1:41).
It is really an amazing greatness, that her mere greeting makes Elizabeth filled with the Holy Spirit! Who is he among the saints, whose greeting caused another to be filled with the Holy Spirit?! But here is Elizabeth testifying and saying: "For indeed, as soon as the voice of your greeting sounded in my ears, the babe leaped in my womb for joy" (Luke 1:44).
Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit, by the greeting of Mary, and she also obtained the gift of prophecy and revelation:
She then knew that this is the mother of her Lord, and that she believed " those things which were told her from the Lord", and she also knew that the leaping of the babe was "for joy". This joy, of course, was because of the Blessed One who was in the womb of the Virgin, "blessed is the fruit of your womb" (Luke 1: 41-45).
The majesty of the Virgin shines brilliantly in the choice of her by the Lord, from among all the women of the world.......
The only human being for whom the divine providence waited thousands of years, till He found her, and judged that she deserved that immense honor which the angel Gabriel explained saying: "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God" (Luke 1:35).
The Virgin excels all women in her eminence:
For that reason, the divine Intuition said about her: "Many daughters have done well, but you excel them all" (Prov. 31:29). It is probably from this divine text, that the song of the Church was taken: "Many women have obtained honors, but no one of them obtained like you".........
This Saint Virgin, was in the thought and in the providence of God, since the beginning.
He said to our first parents, in the salvation which He promised them, that the Seed of the woman shall bruise the head of the serpent (Genesis 3:15). This woman is the Virgin, and her Seed is Christ, who has crushed the head of the serpent on the Cross.......
A LIFE SURROUNDED BY MIRACLES
In the life of The Virgin, miracles begin before her birth, and continue after her death. From these:
1. She was generated with a miracle, from sterile parents, with an annunciation from the angel.
2. The miracle of her bethrothal, in a divine manner which determined who will take her and care for her.
3. The miracle of her conception of Christ while she is a virgin, and the continuation of her virginity after giving birth.
4. The miracle during her visit to Elizabeth who, when she heard the voice of her greeting, the babe leaped for joy in her womb, and she was filled with the Holy Spirit.
5. Innumerable miracles during her visit to Egypt, one of which is the fall of idols (Is. 19:1).
6. The first miracle which the Lord did in Cana of Galilea, happened through her request.
7. The miracle of the dissolution of iron, and the deliverance of the apostle Matthias, happened through her intervention.
8. The miracle of Christ receiving her soul, at the hour of her death.
9. The miracle of the striking of the jews by the Lord, when they wanted to attack her corpse after her death.
10. The miracle of the ascent of her body to heaven.
11. The miracles which happened everywhere by her hands, about which books were written.
12. Her apparition in numerous places, and especially her wonderful apparation in our churches in Zeitoun, and in Papadopoulo.
Miracles are still happening everywhere, and will happen as a testimony to the honor of this saint.
THE VIRGIN'S FAST
The Church celebrates the fast of our Lady the Virgin beginning with the first of Mesra, (the 7th of August). It is a fast for which people care very much, and they practice it with forceful ascetism. Some add days to it, in regard of the great love of people for The Virgin.
The fast of The Virgin is an occasion for spiritual renaissance in the majority of churches.
They prepare a spiritual program for daily sermons, and daily masses too in some churches, even the churches which are not named by the name of The Virgin.
There is a great feast for our Lady The Virgin, which is celebrated in her ancient church in Mostorod.
Feasts of other saints are also celebrated in these days:
The feast of saint Georges at the monastery in Mit Damsis, is celebrated in the second half of August, and also the feast of saint Abba Macarius the Great, and the feast of saint Georges in his monastery at Ruzeykat.
In the same fast of The Virgin, we celebrate the feasts of reknown she saints: like saint Baïssa (2 Misra, 6 August), saint Julita (6 Misra, 12 August), saint Marina (15 Misra, 21 August).
In the fast of The Virgin, we also celebrate the feast of the glorious Transfiguration (13 Misra, 19 August).
In the same month (7 Misra, 13 August), we celebrate the feast of the announcement, by the angel Gabriel to Joachim, of the birth of The Virgin Mary.
The feast of The Virgin is not the only occasion on which the Church celebrates the feasts of The Virgin, but more is celebrated in the month of Kiahk which is full of hyms, doxologies, and psalms for the saint Virgin Mary.
Copts in Egypt, and specially women, take care for the fast of The Virgin, in a manner that exceeds description.
There are many who fast it (with water and salt), that is without oil........Many add a third week to it, as a kind of vow. There are also those who vow to fast this fast without eating or drinking till the appearance of the stars in heaven........
What then is the secret behind this care?
First: The love of Copts for The Virgin who had visited and blessed their country, and left her traces in numerous places where churches have been built.
Second: The multiple miracles which happened in Egypt through the intercession of our Lady The Virgin, made many people optimistic to build churches dedicated to her name.
The apparition of The Virgin in her church at Zeitoun, and the many miracles that accompanied this apparition, have certainly increased the affection of the Copts for The Virgin, and for the fast which bears her name.
HER FEASTS
Each saint has one feast in the Church, that is the day of his death or his martyrdom; and may be another one that is the finding of his remnants, or a miracle which happened relatively to his name, or the building of a church for him.
But The Holy Virgin has a very great number of feasts. Of them, there are:
1. The feast of the announcement of her nativity:
It is on the 7th of Misra, when the angel of the Lord announced her father Joachim of her birth. He and her mother Anna were then joyful, and they vowed her for the Lord.
2. The feast of her nativity:
The Church celebrates it on the first of Bashans.
3. The feast of her entry to the Temple:
The Church celebrates it on the 3rd of Kiahk. It is the day when she entered the Temple to adore God in the special house for the virgins.
4. The feast of her coming to Egypt:
She was with the Christ our Lord, and Joseph the carpentar. The Church celebrates it on the 24th of Bashans
5. The feast of the death of The Virgin:
It is on the 21st of Tubah. The Church also commemorates in it the miracles which were accomplished in that day, when the fathers apostles were surrounding her, with the exception of saint Thomas who was then preaching in India.
6. The monthly feast of the Virgin:
It is on the 21st of every coptic month, in commemoration of her death on the 21st of Tubah.
7. The feast of the ascent of her body to heaven:
The Church celebrates it on the 16th of Misra , the 22nd of August, which is preceded by the Fast of The Virgin (15 days).
8. The feast of her miracle: (the disssolution of iron):
It is on the 21st of Baouna. In it we commemorate her miracle in delivering the apostle saint Matthias and those who were with him from prison, by dissoluting the iron which bounded them.
In that day also we celebrate the feast of the building of the first church on her name in Philippi.
All these feasts have special hymns and doxologies in the rites of the Church, which contain many prophecies and special symbols from the Old Testament, concerning her.
9. The feast of her apparition in Zeitoun
on the domes of the church of The Virgin. It was on the 2nd of April 1968, the 24th of Baramhat, and it remained during years.
In addition to all that, we celebrate during all the month of Kiahk, (from December until the 7th of January), with hymns which are all about the honor of our Lady The Virgin.
THE HOLY VIRGIN MARY
IN THE CHURCH'S FAITH
The Orthodox Coptic Church honors our Lady The Virgin with due honor without exageration, and without lessening of her position.
1. She is, in the belief of the Church, the mother of God, (Theotokos in Coptic), and not the mother of "Jesus" as the Nestorians had claimed, those whom saint Kirillos the Alexandrian fought, and whom the sacred œcumenical council of Ephesus excommuniated.
2. The Church believes that the Holy Spirit has sanctified the depository of The Virgin during the pregnancy with Christ.
That was according to what the angel said to her "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God" (Luke 1:35).
The sanctifying by the Holy Spirit of her depository, makes the One born of her, be conceived without the impurity of the original sin. As for The Virgin herself, her mother conceived, like all people, and so The Virgin said in her hymn: "my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior" (Luke 1:47).
That is why the Church does not agree that The Virgin was conceived without the impurity of the original sin, as our brothers the Catholics beleive.
3. The Church believes in the intercession of The Virgin.
She places her intercession before the intercession of angels and archangels, because she is the mother of God, and she is the Queen who is at the right hand of the King.
4. The Holy Bible gives to The Virgin the surname "filled with grace".
It is regrettable that the Beyrouth translation of the Bible, in a way that lessens the situations of The Virgin, translates this surname "highly favored one".........All human beings are highly favoured, but The Virgin is filled with grace........ although grace does not mean infallibility.
5. The Church believes in the perpetuality of the virginity of The Virgin.
The only exception to this rule, are our brothers the Protestants, who claim that The Virgin gave birth to sons after Christ.
6. The Church believes in the Ascent of the body of The Virgin to heaven, and celebrates that feast on the 16th of Misra.
HER SURNAMES AND SYMBOLS
A. Surnames as regards her greatness
and her relation with God:
1. We give her the surname of The Queen who is by the right side of The King.
In this, we mention the words of the psalm "At your hand stands the queen in gold from Ophir" (Ps. 45:9). That is why, in her icon, she is portrayed at the right hand of the Christ our Lord. And we say about her in the divine mass "the Lady and the Queen of us all"......
2. Also we say about her: "Our mother the Holy Virgin".
When the Christ our Lord was on the Cross, He said about that to his disciple the beloved saint John: "Behold your mother" (John 19:27).
3. The Virgin is also compared to the ladder of Jacob"
That ladder which "was set up on the earth, and its top reached to heaven" (Gen. 28:12). That is the symbol of The Virgin who, by her giving birth to Christ, made the inhabitants of the earth reach to heaven.
4. She was also called "the bride"
because she is the true bride of the Lord of glory. The word of the Lord in the psalm was realised in her: "Listen, O daughter consider and incline your ear; forget your own people also, and your father's house; so the King will greatly desire your beauty; because He is your Lord, worship Him" (Ps. 45:10-11). That is why she was called the friend of Solomon, who is the virgin of the Song of Songs.
It was said of her in the same psalm: "The royal daughter is all glorious within the palace; her clothing is woven with gold. She shall be brought to the king in robes of many colors" (Ps. 45:13-14).
5. We also give her the surname "the beautiful pigeon"
in remembrance of the beautiful pigeon that carried to our father Noah a branch of olive tree, as a symbol of peace, bringing to him the good news of the deliverance from the waters of the flood......... (Gen. 8:11). With this surname, the priest burns incense in front of her icon when he goes out of the sanctuary and says: "Hail to you, O Virgin Mary, the beautiful pigeon".
The Virgin is compared to the pigeon in her simplicity and her purity and the action of the Holy Spirit in her. She resembles the pigeon which brought the good news of the deliverance after the flood, because she brought the good news of the deliverance by Christ.
6. The Virgin is also compared to the cloud
because of her height on the one hand, and because the prophecy of her coming to Egypt, compared her in this manner. It was mentionned about this in the book of the prophet Isaiah:
"The burden against Egypt. Behold, the Lord rides on a swift cloud, and will come into Egypt; the idols of Egypt will totter at His presence, and the heart of Egypt will melt in its midst" (Is. 19:1). The expression "cloud" is a symbol of the Lord who will come upon the clouds. (Matt. 16:27).
B. Her surnames and symbols
as regards her motherhood to the Christ our Lord:
7. One of the surnames by which The Virgin has been described is "Theotokos"
that is: "the mother of God". This surname has been called upon her by the sacred œcumenical council of Ephesus in 431 AD. Saint Kirillos the Great insisted on that surname in his response to Nestorius......
Saint Elizabeth addressed her with that surname "the mother of my Lord" (Luke 1:43).
8. One of her surnames is also: "the golden censer".
We call her "Te shury" that is the censer in Coptic; and sometimes "the censer of Aaron".......... As for the fire which it contains inside her, coal in it symbolises the human nature of Christ, and fire symbolises His divine nature, as it has been said in the Holy Bible: "our God is a consuming fire" (Heb. 12:29).
The censer symbolises the womb of The Virgin where divinity was united with humanity. The censer being of gold, that points to the greatness and the purity of The Virgin. Regarding the purity and the sanctity of The Virgin, we call The Virgin in her hymns "the golden censer" (Te shury ennub, in Coptic).
9. The Virgin is also surnamed "the second heaven"
because as heaven is the abode of God, so The Virgin Mary was an abode of God during the sacred pregnancy.
10. The Virgin is also surnamed "the city of God":
The prophecy in the psalm is realised in her: "Glorious things are spoken of you, O city of God" (Ps 87:3). Or what was said of her "the city of the great King", or certain prophecies which were said about Jerusalem, are realised in her..........or Zion as it was also said in the psalm: "And of Zion it will be said, "This one and that one were born in her; and the most High Himself shall establish her" (Ps. 87:5).
11. In this quality, she was surnamed "the vine where was found the cluster of life"
that is Christ. The Church asks for her intercession with that surname in the prayer of the third hour, saying to her: "O mother of God, you are the true vine who bears the cluster of life"........
12. By this quality of motherhood, she has other surnames of which we mention:
The mother of the true light, considering that it has been said of the Christ our Lord, that He is "the true Light which gives light to every man coming into the world" (John 1:9).
Likewise she was surnamed "the golden lamp" because she bears the Light. And also: "the mother of the Holy One", considering that the angel, when he announced her with the birth of Christ, said to her: "also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God" (Luke 1:35).
"The mother of the Saviour", because the Christ our Lord is the Saviour of the world: "and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins" (Matt. 1:21).
13. Among her symbols also: "the bush which the prophet Moses saw" (Exodus 3:2).
We say in the song: "The bush which the prophet Moses saw in the desert, is the symbol of the mother of Light, blessed be she. She has carried the fire of divinity in her womb, without being touched by any harm". It was said of the Lord that He is "a consuming fire" (Heb 12:29) to which the fire which is burning inside the bush, is a symbol, and the bush symbolises The Virgin.
14. Also among her symbols: "the ark of the Testimony".
This ark was made of acacia wood that cannot be moth-eaten, and was covered with gold from inside and outside (Ex. 25:10, 22), as a symbol of the purity and the greatness of The Virgin. It also symbolised the things which were inside the ark that were a symbol of the Christ our Lord.
There was kept "the golden pot that had the manna, Aaron's rod that budded, and the tablets of the covenant" (as a symbol of the incarnated Word of God).
15. The Virgin is also compared to the pot of the manna;
because the manna was a symbol of the Christ our Lord, as being the live bread who came down from heaven, everybody who eats from him lives by Him, that is also the bread of life (John 6: 32,48,49). Since the Lord Christ is compared to the manna, so it is possible to compare the Virgin to the pot of the manna, who carried this celestial bread inside her.
16. The Virgin is also compared to the rod of Aaron which germinated:
that is: she miraculously sprouted and carried the buds of life, (Num.17:6-8); although a rod has of course no life in it that can produce blossoms and yield fruit. This symbolises the virginity of The Virgin who could not sprout or produce posterity; but she gave birth through a miracle. This description is mentioned in the hymn of Sunday.
17. The tabernacle of meeting (the dome of Moses).
The tabernacle of meeting was the place upon which The Lord used to come, and The Virgin is she upon whom The Lord came. God manifested his love for his people in the two cases. That is what we say in the book of the hymns (Al Ipsalmodia): "You have been compared, O Virgin Mary, to the tabernacle which Moses made on the mountain of Sinaï, where God was inside".
18. The Virgin is compared to the gate in the East.
That which the prophet Ezechiel saw, and of which the Lord said: "This gate shall be shut, it shall not be opened, and no man shall enter by it, because the Lord God of Israel has entered by it; therefore it shall be shut" (Ez. 44: 1-2). The prophet saw the glory of the Lord at this gate which is in the East, and the house was filled with it (Ez. 43: 2,4,5).
That symbolises the virginity of the Virgin who was from the countries of the East; and how this virginity remained sealed.
Because she was that gate from the East, she was qualified as:
19. The gate of life, the gate of deliverance:
It was said about our Lady the Virgin in the book of Ezechiel: "As for the prince, because he is the prince, he may sit in it to eat bread before the Lord; he shall enter by way of the vestibule of the gateway, and go out the same way" (Ez. 44:3).
Since the Lord is the Life, then she is the gate of the Life. The Lord said: "I am the resurrection and the life" (John 11:25). That is why the Virgin is the gate of the Life, that gate out of which the Lord came out, granting life to all those who believe in Him.......
It is not astonishing that we surname the Virgin "the gate", because the Church also was surnamed "the gate". Our father Jacob said about Bethel: "How awsome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven!" (Gen. 28:17).
20. She was compared to the "Holiest of all"
That in which the chief priest entered once a year, to make atonement for all the people. The Lord of glory came once inside the Virgin Mary for the redemption of all the world.
THE VIRGIN'S VIRTUES
LIFE OF HUMILITY
Humility was a fundamental condition for her of whom the Lord of Glory will be born.
It was indispensable that He would be born from a humble person, who could bear the glory of the divine Incarnation from her.........the glory of the coming of the Holy Spirit in her......and the glory of the nativity of the Lord from her, and the glory of all the generations blessing her, and the humility of Elizabeth in front of her saying to her: "But why is this granted to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?" (Luke 1:43). Likewise to bear the glory of all the apparitions of angels, and the worship of the Mages in front of her Son, and the many miracles which happened by her son in the land of Egypt, and the light of this Son in her bosom.
That is why, "the fullness of the time" (Gal. 4:4) waited for this human being from whom the Son of God was born.
This humility was manifested in her life, as we shall see:
The angel announced to her that she will become the mother of the Lord, but she said: "Behold the maid-servant of the Lord" (Luke 1:38), that is his slave and his maiden.
The magnificent glory which was given to her, absolutely did not decrease by her humility. But rather it was because of this humility that the Lord granted her that glory. "For He has regarded the lowly state of His maidservant" and made great things for her (Luke 1: 48, 49).
The humility of the Virgin was also manifested in her going to Elizabeth in order to serve her, during the period of her pregnancy. As soon as she heard that she was pregnant, in her sixth month, she travelled to her in a tiring journey across the mountains. She remained with her for three months, till her days were complete to give birth (Luke 1: 39-56). She did so while she was pregnant with the Lord of glory.
Her lack of talking about the glories of the divine Incarnation, is a sign of her humility.
LIFE OF ABANDON
She lived saintly and purely in the temple. Then came a time when they said to her to go out of the temple. She did not protest or object, such as many women do, when they are forbidden by the ecclesiastical laws, to enter the church in certain periods; and they protest and discuss much ....!
She wanted to live without marriage, but they ordered her to live under the guardianship of a man, according to the custom in her days.....
She did not protest then, and she accepted to live in the custody of a man, as she had accepted to go out of the temple........
She lived the life of abandon, not protesting, not resisting, not objecting, but quietly abandonning to the will of God, without discussion.
She was determined to live the life of virginity, and did never think at any time of becoming a mother. And when God willed that she becomes a mother by the coming of the Holy Spirit upon her (Luke 1:35), she did not discuss, but replied with her immortal expression: "Behold the maid-servant of the Lord! Let it be to me according to your word" (Luke 1:38)..... For that, God granted her the motherhood, and kept her virginity too, and she became a mother, the thing in which she had absolutely never thought ...... Through abandon, she became the mother of the Lord....... rather the greatest in value of all mothers.
She was ordered to go to Egypt, and she went.
And she was ordered to come back from Egypt, and she came back. She was ordered to move from Bethlehem and to reside in Nazareth, and she moved and resided.
She was a calm human being, living the life of abandon, without discussion. That is why "He who is mighty has done great things" to her........ "For He has regarded the lowly state of His maidservant".
THE LIFE OF ENDURANCE
She became an orphan from her two parents, when she was eight years old, and she endured the life of orphanage. She lived in the temple while she was a child, and she endured the life of solitude there. She came out of the temple in order to live in the custody of a carpentar, and she endured the life of poverty. When she gave birth to her only Son, "there was no room for them in the inn", then she "laid Him in a manger" (Luke 2:7). She supported that also....... She endured the responsability while she was in a tender age. She supported the magnificent glory which surrounded her, without being harrassed by the thoughts of greatness.
It was not possible for her to declare that she has given birth while she was a virgin, so she kept silent and endured that.
She suffered the tiring voyage to Egypt and back. She suffered to be expelled there from town to town, because the idols were falling down in front of the Christ (Is. 19:1). She suffered to be a poor foreigner. She suffered that a sword would pierce through her own soul also (Luke 2:35) because of that which her Son met, the persecutions, the insults, and lastly the suffering and the shame of the cross.......
The Virgin was not satisfied only to endure negatively, but she lived in the jubilation by the Lord
as she said in her hymn: "my spirit has rejoiced in God my Saviour" (Luke 1:47).
FAITH AND NOT GRUMBLING
She did not grumble at all in all that she suffered. When Herod menaced to kill her Son, in the flight to Egypt, and in the persecutions from the Jews, she did not say, where is the announcement that He will sit to reign on the throne of his father David....and there will be no end to his kingdom (Luke 1: 32-33)! But she was rather patient; and as Elizabeth said about her "And blessed is she that believed: for there shall be a performance of those things which were told her from the Lord" (Luke 1:45).
She believed that she will give birth while remaining a virgin, and that was realised for her.
She believed that the "Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God." (Luke 1:35), in spite of his birth in a manger. What she believed in, was realised for her, by way of the visions and the angels whom she saw, and the miracles which were accomplished by Him. She believed in all that, in spite of the persecutions to which He was exposed.......
She believed while He was on the cross, then she saw Him after His resurrection from the dead (Matt. 28).
SILENCE, PRAYER, AND MEDITATION
It was God who arranged that she became an orphan and lived in the temple.
In the temple, she learned the life of solitude and silence, and to become preoccupied with prayer and meditation. Having lost the love and tenderness of her parents, she became preoccupied with the love of God alone.
She lived a life of seclusion with prayers, hymns, reading of the Holy Bible, study and recall from memory of many of its verses, and of the psalms. Certainly her hymn in the house of Elizabeth is a proof of that, because the majority of its verses are taken from the psalms and the verses of the Holy Bible.
Silence became one of the characteristics of her spirituality. Although she was in the events of the Nativity: having seen wonderful things which probably exceed the endurance of her age as a small girl, and miracles that surrounded her, and having heard the words of angels, shepherds, and wise men from the East.......... she did not speak proudly about the events of the Nativity, but "kept all these things and pondered them in her heart" (Luke 2"19).
The silent meditating Virgin is a lesson for us. May we be like her: meditating much, and speaking a little.
Nevertheless I see, that when time came for her to speak, she became a source for the ecclesiastical tradition, in some of the news which the apostles and the evangelists learned from her: the miracles and the events during the flight to Egypt, and the conversation of the Christ among the masters in the temple while He was young (Luke 3: 46-47).
OTHER VIRTUES
The Lord has chosen this poor orphan girl, to become the foremost woman in existence. She possessed in her virtues what is more than riches.
Also among her virtues, there are her personal sanctity, her purity and her virginity, her spiritual knowledge, her service to others, and her spiritual motherhood to the fathers apostles.
Time would lack if we were to speak about all her virtues.
HER BLESSINGS
O how many are the blessings that were given to the Virgin!
They were mentionned in the melodies of the Church, in the hymns, in the "theotokies" (praise of the mother of God), the songs, the doxologies (praise of benediction), in each day of her feasts days, in the book of praises for the month of Kiahk, in the hymns of the Church, and in the book of praises (Psalmodiah).
The Church mentions her before the archangels when citing the names of the assembly of the saints; and so also in all her intercessional prayers. The Church, in her blessing of the Virgin, realises the prophecy which she said in her hymn:
"For behold, henceforth all generations will call me blessed" (Luke 1:48).
The Church offers incense to her, and presents greetings to her. Many are the hymns which begin with the expression "Hail to Mary" (shara na Maria, in Coptic), or the hymns which begin with the expression "Rejoice O Mary", or the hymn where the prophet David moves the ten cords of his guitar, and he mentions a blessing to her in each cord.
We mention her in the book of prayers of the hours, and in the mass, and in all the books of the Church:
In the Synaxaire, in the "Difnar", in the "Katamaras", in the "Psalmodia", and in all the books of hymns and responses.........
We mention her in the book of the prayers of the hours, in the third paragraph of every prayer in the prayers of the day, asking for her intercession. We mention her in the creed, and we say in its prelude:" We exalt you, O mother of the True Light and we glorify you, O saint Virgin, mother of God......."
We mention her in the prayer of the benediction, in its beginning and in its end.
We begin the benediction saying: "through the prayers and supplications and implorations which the mother of God, the saint pure Virgin, raises every time for our sake". And after mentioning the names of the angels, the apostles, the prophets, the martyrs, and all the saints, we terminate the benediction saying: "and the blessing of our Lady the Virgin firstly and lastly".....
THE ICON OF THE VIRGIN
There is a difference between images for meditation, and an icon for the rites.
In the icons, it is indispensable that she appears with the Christ, as being the mother of God.
She must be at his right side, for it has been said in the psalm: "At your right hand stands the queen" (Ps. 45:9).
And because she is a queen, there must be a crown on her head, and so the Christ.
As a saint, there must be a halo of light around her head, for the Lord said: "You are the light of the world" (Matt. 5:14).
Because she is the second heaven, there are stars, angels, and clouds around her.
Intercede for us, O saint Virgin, in order that the Lord would include us in His mercy.
2
The Holy Virgin
St. Mary
BY HIS HOLINESS AMBA SHENOUDA III,
POPE AND PATRIARCH OF ALEXANDRIA
AND OF THE APOSTOLIC SEE OF
ALL THE PREDICATION OF SAINT MARK
Translated from the Arabic edition of 1999
Name of the book: The Holy Virgin St. Mary
Author: His Holiness Pope Shenouda III
Editor: Orthodox Coptic Clerical College, Cairo
Edition: 1999
Press: Amba Rueiss, (Offset)
Deposition number at "The Library": 9173/96
All rights reserved to the author
His Holiness Pope Shenouda III
Pope and Patriarch of the See of Alexandria and of all the Predication of the Evangelist St. Mark
In the Name of
the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit,
the One God,
Amen
In this pamphlet, you read about:
Our mother the Saint Holy Virgin
The greatness of the Virgin
The oldest churches in her name
A life which was surrounded by miracles
The Virgin's fast
Her feasts
The Vigin in the Faith
Her surnames and symbols
The Virgin's virtues
Blessing her. Her icons.
Pope Shenouda III
OUR MOTHER THE SAINT VIRGIN
There is no woman about whom the prophets prophesied, and about whom the Holy Bible cared, like the Virgin Mary.......There are numerous symbols about her in the Old Testament. In the New Testament also, there are her biography, her praise, and the miracles.
How many are the glorifying expressions and the contemplations, which were cited about the Virgin in the books of the fathers.........How full of praise are the surnames by which the Church calls her, and which are inspired from the Spirit of the Holy Bible.......!
She is the mother of all of us, the lady of all of us, the pride of our kind, the queen at the right side of the King, the Virgin with perpetual virginity, the pure, the filled with grace, the saint Mary, the powerful and helpful compassionate mother, the mother of the Light, the mother of mercy and salvation, the true vine.
This is the one whom the Church elevates over the rank of archangels, so that we say about her in her hymns and songs:
O Mary, you have been raised above the cherubims, and have become higher than the seraphims, O Mary.
Mary who was bred up in the temple, and lived the life of prayer and contemplation since her childhood, and who was the sacred vessel whom the Lord has chosen to come inside her.
Long generations waited for the birth of this Virgin, so that the fullness of the time would become complete by her (Gal.4:4)...........
She has removed the shame of Eva, and saved the reputation of women after sin.
She is the mother of God, in perpetual virginity.
She is the Virgin who came to our country during the childhood of Christ, and inhabited our land for years, during which she sanctified it, and blessed it.........
She is the Virgin who appeared in Zeitoun 32 years ago, and attracted to her the feelings of the crouds, with her light, her appearance, and her visit to us.........
She is the Virgin who makes miracles in numerous places, where we celebrate feasts for he. The stories of her miracles are innumerable.....
The Virgin is not a stranger to us; because she is profoundly assimilated with the feelings of Copts that come out from faith to special experience and emotion. How great an honor is it for our country and our Church, to be visited in past times by our Lady the Virgin! How great an honor is it that our Lady appeared on her domes many years ago!
There is not a human being whom christians have loved so much as our Lady the Virgin Mary.
The majority of churches in Egypt celebrate her feast.
In the rites, how many are the compliments, the songs, the veneration, the psalms, the doxologies, (glorifying blessings), which are dedicated to her, especially in the month of Kiahk! The catholics have a month for her, which is called the Mary month.........
Among the monasteries of monks in Egypt, there are the monastery of El Baramous, the monastery of El Sourian, the monastery of El Moharrak, which are all dedicated to her name; they represent the quarter of the number of present monasteries.
There is a monastery for nuns which is dedicated to her name, in Haret Zuwalah in Cairo. How many are the monasteries and the schools which are dedicated to her name in the Western Churches.
THE OLDEST CHURCHES
DEDICATED TO HER NAME
The oldest church which was built and dedicated to the name of the Virgin in the apostolic times, is the church of Philippi. The oldest church which was built and dedicated to her name in Egypt, was in the times of the Pope Theonas, the 16 th patriarch (year 274 AD).
Among the most reknown of her churches, there is the church of the monastery El Moharrak, which was inuagurated in the times of the Pope Theophilus, (the 23 rd pope), at the beginning of the fifth century, on the 6th of Hator.
Also the churches which were built in the places that she visited in Egypt.
On this occasion, we have two churches in Europe with the name of "The Virgin of Zeitoun"; one is in France, and the other is in Vienna.
THE GREATNESS OF THE VIRGIN
The greatness of the Virgin has been decreed in the sacred œcumenical council of Ephesus, which was assembled in 431 AD. Two hundred bishops from the world were present. They formulated the prelude to the creed of the Christian Faith, in which it is cited: "We venerate you, O mother of the true Light, and we glorify you, O Saint Virgin Mother of God, because you gave birth for us to the Saviour of the world, who has come and delivered our souls". What are the foundations upon which the œcumenical council formulated this prelude? That is what we shall explain now:
The Virgin is the blessed saint, whose blessing is continuous throughout the generations, as it has been mentioned in her hymn:
"For behold, henceforth all generations will call me blessed" (Luke 1:46).
The Church calls the Virgin by the surname of "the queen". This was mentionned by the psalm, about her:
"At Your right hand stands the queen" (Ps. 45:9).
That is why, many artists, when they draw the pictures of the Virgin, they put a crown on her head, and she appears in the image, on the right side of the Lord Christ.
The reverence of the Virgin appears in the salutation of the archangel Gabriel to her:
"Peace to you, O you full of grace, "the Lord is with you; blessed are you among women" (Luke 1:28). That is, with a special blessing, to which also saint Elisabeth gave testimony. "Then she spoke out with a loud voice and said, "Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb" (Luke 1:42).
Saint Elisabeth found herself small in front of the greatness of the Virgin, and she spoke with the feeling that she was not deserving, although she knew that her son "will be great in the sight of the Lord", and that "He will also go before Him in the spirit and power of Elijah" (Luke 1: 15-17). She said:
"But why is it granted to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?" (Luke 1:43).
Probably the most evident proof of the greatness of the Virgin, and of her position in the sight of the Lord, is that when her mere greeting arrived to Elisabeth, the latter was filled with the Holy Spirit, and her babe felt it and leaped in her womb for joy. The divine Intuition says in that:
"And it happened, when Elisabeth heard the greeting of Mary, that the babe leaped in her womb, and Elisabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit" (Luke 1:41).
It is really an amazing greatness, that her mere greeting makes Elizabeth filled with the Holy Spirit! Who is he among the saints, whose greeting caused another to be filled with the Holy Spirit?! But here is Elizabeth testifying and saying: "For indeed, as soon as the voice of your greeting sounded in my ears, the babe leaped in my womb for joy" (Luke 1:44).
Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit, by the greeting of Mary, and she also obtained the gift of prophecy and revelation:
She then knew that this is the mother of her Lord, and that she believed " those things which were told her from the Lord", and she also knew that the leaping of the babe was "for joy". This joy, of course, was because of the Blessed One who was in the womb of the Virgin, "blessed is the fruit of your womb" (Luke 1: 41-45).
The majesty of the Virgin shines brilliantly in the choice of her by the Lord, from among all the women of the world.......
The only human being for whom the divine providence waited thousands of years, till He found her, and judged that she deserved that immense honor which the angel Gabriel explained saying: "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God" (Luke 1:35).
The Virgin excels all women in her eminence:
For that reason, the divine Intuition said about her: "Many daughters have done well, but you excel them all" (Prov. 31:29). It is probably from this divine text, that the song of the Church was taken: "Many women have obtained honors, but no one of them obtained like you".........
This Saint Virgin, was in the thought and in the providence of God, since the beginning.
He said to our first parents, in the salvation which He promised them, that the Seed of the woman shall bruise the head of the serpent (Genesis 3:15). This woman is the Virgin, and her Seed is Christ, who has crushed the head of the serpent on the Cross.......
A LIFE SURROUNDED BY MIRACLES
In the life of The Virgin, miracles begin before her birth, and continue after her death. From these:
1. She was generated with a miracle, from sterile parents, with an annunciation from the angel.
2. The miracle of her bethrothal, in a divine manner which determined who will take her and care for her.
3. The miracle of her conception of Christ while she is a virgin, and the continuation of her virginity after giving birth.
4. The miracle during her visit to Elizabeth who, when she heard the voice of her greeting, the babe leaped for joy in her womb, and she was filled with the Holy Spirit.
5. Innumerable miracles during her visit to Egypt, one of which is the fall of idols (Is. 19:1).
6. The first miracle which the Lord did in Cana of Galilea, happened through her request.
7. The miracle of the dissolution of iron, and the deliverance of the apostle Matthias, happened through her intervention.
8. The miracle of Christ receiving her soul, at the hour of her death.
9. The miracle of the striking of the jews by the Lord, when they wanted to attack her corpse after her death.
10. The miracle of the ascent of her body to heaven.
11. The miracles which happened everywhere by her hands, about which books were written.
12. Her apparition in numerous places, and especially her wonderful apparation in our churches in Zeitoun, and in Papadopoulo.
Miracles are still happening everywhere, and will happen as a testimony to the honor of this saint.
THE VIRGIN'S FAST
The Church celebrates the fast of our Lady the Virgin beginning with the first of Mesra, (the 7th of August). It is a fast for which people care very much, and they practice it with forceful ascetism. Some add days to it, in regard of the great love of people for The Virgin.
The fast of The Virgin is an occasion for spiritual renaissance in the majority of churches.
They prepare a spiritual program for daily sermons, and daily masses too in some churches, even the churches which are not named by the name of The Virgin.
There is a great feast for our Lady The Virgin, which is celebrated in her ancient church in Mostorod.
Feasts of other saints are also celebrated in these days:
The feast of saint Georges at the monastery in Mit Damsis, is celebrated in the second half of August, and also the feast of saint Abba Macarius the Great, and the feast of saint Georges in his monastery at Ruzeykat.
In the same fast of The Virgin, we celebrate the feasts of reknown she saints: like saint Baïssa (2 Misra, 6 August), saint Julita (6 Misra, 12 August), saint Marina (15 Misra, 21 August).
In the fast of The Virgin, we also celebrate the feast of the glorious Transfiguration (13 Misra, 19 August).
In the same month (7 Misra, 13 August), we celebrate the feast of the announcement, by the angel Gabriel to Joachim, of the birth of The Virgin Mary.
The feast of The Virgin is not the only occasion on which the Church celebrates the feasts of The Virgin, but more is celebrated in the month of Kiahk which is full of hyms, doxologies, and psalms for the saint Virgin Mary.
Copts in Egypt, and specially women, take care for the fast of The Virgin, in a manner that exceeds description.
There are many who fast it (with water and salt), that is without oil........Many add a third week to it, as a kind of vow. There are also those who vow to fast this fast without eating or drinking till the appearance of the stars in heaven........
What then is the secret behind this care?
First: The love of Copts for The Virgin who had visited and blessed their country, and left her traces in numerous places where churches have been built.
Second: The multiple miracles which happened in Egypt through the intercession of our Lady The Virgin, made many people optimistic to build churches dedicated to her name.
The apparition of The Virgin in her church at Zeitoun, and the many miracles that accompanied this apparition, have certainly increased the affection of the Copts for The Virgin, and for the fast which bears her name.
HER FEASTS
Each saint has one feast in the Church, that is the day of his death or his martyrdom; and may be another one that is the finding of his remnants, or a miracle which happened relatively to his name, or the building of a church for him.
But The Holy Virgin has a very great number of feasts. Of them, there are:
1. The feast of the announcement of her nativity:
It is on the 7th of Misra, when the angel of the Lord announced her father Joachim of her birth. He and her mother Anna were then joyful, and they vowed her for the Lord.
2. The feast of her nativity:
The Church celebrates it on the first of Bashans.
3. The feast of her entry to the Temple:
The Church celebrates it on the 3rd of Kiahk. It is the day when she entered the Temple to adore God in the special house for the virgins.
4. The feast of her coming to Egypt:
She was with the Christ our Lord, and Joseph the carpentar. The Church celebrates it on the 24th of Bashans
5. The feast of the death of The Virgin:
It is on the 21st of Tubah. The Church also commemorates in it the miracles which were accomplished in that day, when the fathers apostles were surrounding her, with the exception of saint Thomas who was then preaching in India.
6. The monthly feast of the Virgin:
It is on the 21st of every coptic month, in commemoration of her death on the 21st of Tubah.
7. The feast of the ascent of her body to heaven:
The Church celebrates it on the 16th of Misra , the 22nd of August, which is preceded by the Fast of The Virgin (15 days).
8. The feast of her miracle: (the disssolution of iron):
It is on the 21st of Baouna. In it we commemorate her miracle in delivering the apostle saint Matthias and those who were with him from prison, by dissoluting the iron which bounded them.
In that day also we celebrate the feast of the building of the first church on her name in Philippi.
All these feasts have special hymns and doxologies in the rites of the Church, which contain many prophecies and special symbols from the Old Testament, concerning her.
9. The feast of her apparition in Zeitoun
on the domes of the church of The Virgin. It was on the 2nd of April 1968, the 24th of Baramhat, and it remained during years.
In addition to all that, we celebrate during all the month of Kiahk, (from December until the 7th of January), with hymns which are all about the honor of our Lady The Virgin.
THE HOLY VIRGIN MARY
IN THE CHURCH'S FAITH
The Orthodox Coptic Church honors our Lady The Virgin with due honor without exageration, and without lessening of her position.
1. She is, in the belief of the Church, the mother of God, (Theotokos in Coptic), and not the mother of "Jesus" as the Nestorians had claimed, those whom saint Kirillos the Alexandrian fought, and whom the sacred œcumenical council of Ephesus excommuniated.
2. The Church believes that the Holy Spirit has sanctified the depository of The Virgin during the pregnancy with Christ.
That was according to what the angel said to her "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God" (Luke 1:35).
The sanctifying by the Holy Spirit of her depository, makes the One born of her, be conceived without the impurity of the original sin. As for The Virgin herself, her mother conceived, like all people, and so The Virgin said in her hymn: "my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior" (Luke 1:47).
That is why the Church does not agree that The Virgin was conceived without the impurity of the original sin, as our brothers the Catholics beleive.
3. The Church believes in the intercession of The Virgin.
She places her intercession before the intercession of angels and archangels, because she is the mother of God, and she is the Queen who is at the right hand of the King.
4. The Holy Bible gives to The Virgin the surname "filled with grace".
It is regrettable that the Beyrouth translation of the Bible, in a way that lessens the situations of The Virgin, translates this surname "highly favored one".........All human beings are highly favoured, but The Virgin is filled with grace........ although grace does not mean infallibility.
5. The Church believes in the perpetuality of the virginity of The Virgin.
The only exception to this rule, are our brothers the Protestants, who claim that The Virgin gave birth to sons after Christ.
6. The Church believes in the Ascent of the body of The Virgin to heaven, and celebrates that feast on the 16th of Misra.
HER SURNAMES AND SYMBOLS
A. Surnames as regards her greatness
and her relation with God:
1. We give her the surname of The Queen who is by the right side of The King.
In this, we mention the words of the psalm "At your hand stands the queen in gold from Ophir" (Ps. 45:9). That is why, in her icon, she is portrayed at the right hand of the Christ our Lord. And we say about her in the divine mass "the Lady and the Queen of us all"......
2. Also we say about her: "Our mother the Holy Virgin".
When the Christ our Lord was on the Cross, He said about that to his disciple the beloved saint John: "Behold your mother" (John 19:27).
3. The Virgin is also compared to the ladder of Jacob"
That ladder which "was set up on the earth, and its top reached to heaven" (Gen. 28:12). That is the symbol of The Virgin who, by her giving birth to Christ, made the inhabitants of the earth reach to heaven.
4. She was also called "the bride"
because she is the true bride of the Lord of glory. The word of the Lord in the psalm was realised in her: "Listen, O daughter consider and incline your ear; forget your own people also, and your father's house; so the King will greatly desire your beauty; because He is your Lord, worship Him" (Ps. 45:10-11). That is why she was called the friend of Solomon, who is the virgin of the Song of Songs.
It was said of her in the same psalm: "The royal daughter is all glorious within the palace; her clothing is woven with gold. She shall be brought to the king in robes of many colors" (Ps. 45:13-14).
5. We also give her the surname "the beautiful pigeon"
in remembrance of the beautiful pigeon that carried to our father Noah a branch of olive tree, as a symbol of peace, bringing to him the good news of the deliverance from the waters of the flood......... (Gen. 8:11). With this surname, the priest burns incense in front of her icon when he goes out of the sanctuary and says: "Hail to you, O Virgin Mary, the beautiful pigeon".
The Virgin is compared to the pigeon in her simplicity and her purity and the action of the Holy Spirit in her. She resembles the pigeon which brought the good news of the deliverance after the flood, because she brought the good news of the deliverance by Christ.
6. The Virgin is also compared to the cloud
because of her height on the one hand, and because the prophecy of her coming to Egypt, compared her in this manner. It was mentionned about this in the book of the prophet Isaiah:
"The burden against Egypt. Behold, the Lord rides on a swift cloud, and will come into Egypt; the idols of Egypt will totter at His presence, and the heart of Egypt will melt in its midst" (Is. 19:1). The expression "cloud" is a symbol of the Lord who will come upon the clouds. (Matt. 16:27).
B. Her surnames and symbols
as regards her motherhood to the Christ our Lord:
7. One of the surnames by which The Virgin has been described is "Theotokos"
that is: "the mother of God". This surname has been called upon her by the sacred œcumenical council of Ephesus in 431 AD. Saint Kirillos the Great insisted on that surname in his response to Nestorius......
Saint Elizabeth addressed her with that surname "the mother of my Lord" (Luke 1:43).
8. One of her surnames is also: "the golden censer".
We call her "Te shury" that is the censer in Coptic; and sometimes "the censer of Aaron".......... As for the fire which it contains inside her, coal in it symbolises the human nature of Christ, and fire symbolises His divine nature, as it has been said in the Holy Bible: "our God is a consuming fire" (Heb. 12:29).
The censer symbolises the womb of The Virgin where divinity was united with humanity. The censer being of gold, that points to the greatness and the purity of The Virgin. Regarding the purity and the sanctity of The Virgin, we call The Virgin in her hymns "the golden censer" (Te shury ennub, in Coptic).
9. The Virgin is also surnamed "the second heaven"
because as heaven is the abode of God, so The Virgin Mary was an abode of God during the sacred pregnancy.
10. The Virgin is also surnamed "the city of God":
The prophecy in the psalm is realised in her: "Glorious things are spoken of you, O city of God" (Ps 87:3). Or what was said of her "the city of the great King", or certain prophecies which were said about Jerusalem, are realised in her..........or Zion as it was also said in the psalm: "And of Zion it will be said, "This one and that one were born in her; and the most High Himself shall establish her" (Ps. 87:5).
11. In this quality, she was surnamed "the vine where was found the cluster of life"
that is Christ. The Church asks for her intercession with that surname in the prayer of the third hour, saying to her: "O mother of God, you are the true vine who bears the cluster of life"........
12. By this quality of motherhood, she has other surnames of which we mention:
The mother of the true light, considering that it has been said of the Christ our Lord, that He is "the true Light which gives light to every man coming into the world" (John 1:9).
Likewise she was surnamed "the golden lamp" because she bears the Light. And also: "the mother of the Holy One", considering that the angel, when he announced her with the birth of Christ, said to her: "also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God" (Luke 1:35).
"The mother of the Saviour", because the Christ our Lord is the Saviour of the world: "and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins" (Matt. 1:21).
13. Among her symbols also: "the bush which the prophet Moses saw" (Exodus 3:2).
We say in the song: "The bush which the prophet Moses saw in the desert, is the symbol of the mother of Light, blessed be she. She has carried the fire of divinity in her womb, without being touched by any harm". It was said of the Lord that He is "a consuming fire" (Heb 12:29) to which the fire which is burning inside the bush, is a symbol, and the bush symbolises The Virgin.
14. Also among her symbols: "the ark of the Testimony".
This ark was made of acacia wood that cannot be moth-eaten, and was covered with gold from inside and outside (Ex. 25:10, 22), as a symbol of the purity and the greatness of The Virgin. It also symbolised the things which were inside the ark that were a symbol of the Christ our Lord.
There was kept "the golden pot that had the manna, Aaron's rod that budded, and the tablets of the covenant" (as a symbol of the incarnated Word of God).
15. The Virgin is also compared to the pot of the manna;
because the manna was a symbol of the Christ our Lord, as being the live bread who came down from heaven, everybody who eats from him lives by Him, that is also the bread of life (John 6: 32,48,49). Since the Lord Christ is compared to the manna, so it is possible to compare the Virgin to the pot of the manna, who carried this celestial bread inside her.
16. The Virgin is also compared to the rod of Aaron which germinated:
that is: she miraculously sprouted and carried the buds of life, (Num.17:6-8); although a rod has of course no life in it that can produce blossoms and yield fruit. This symbolises the virginity of The Virgin who could not sprout or produce posterity; but she gave birth through a miracle. This description is mentioned in the hymn of Sunday.
17. The tabernacle of meeting (the dome of Moses).
The tabernacle of meeting was the place upon which The Lord used to come, and The Virgin is she upon whom The Lord came. God manifested his love for his people in the two cases. That is what we say in the book of the hymns (Al Ipsalmodia): "You have been compared, O Virgin Mary, to the tabernacle which Moses made on the mountain of Sinaï, where God was inside".
18. The Virgin is compared to the gate in the East.
That which the prophet Ezechiel saw, and of which the Lord said: "This gate shall be shut, it shall not be opened, and no man shall enter by it, because the Lord God of Israel has entered by it; therefore it shall be shut" (Ez. 44: 1-2). The prophet saw the glory of the Lord at this gate which is in the East, and the house was filled with it (Ez. 43: 2,4,5).
That symbolises the virginity of the Virgin who was from the countries of the East; and how this virginity remained sealed.
Because she was that gate from the East, she was qualified as:
19. The gate of life, the gate of deliverance:
It was said about our Lady the Virgin in the book of Ezechiel: "As for the prince, because he is the prince, he may sit in it to eat bread before the Lord; he shall enter by way of the vestibule of the gateway, and go out the same way" (Ez. 44:3).
Since the Lord is the Life, then she is the gate of the Life. The Lord said: "I am the resurrection and the life" (John 11:25). That is why the Virgin is the gate of the Life, that gate out of which the Lord came out, granting life to all those who believe in Him.......
It is not astonishing that we surname the Virgin "the gate", because the Church also was surnamed "the gate". Our father Jacob said about Bethel: "How awsome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven!" (Gen. 28:17).
20. She was compared to the "Holiest of all"
That in which the chief priest entered once a year, to make atonement for all the people. The Lord of glory came once inside the Virgin Mary for the redemption of all the world.
THE VIRGIN'S VIRTUES
LIFE OF HUMILITY
Humility was a fundamental condition for her of whom the Lord of Glory will be born.
It was indispensable that He would be born from a humble person, who could bear the glory of the divine Incarnation from her.........the glory of the coming of the Holy Spirit in her......and the glory of the nativity of the Lord from her, and the glory of all the generations blessing her, and the humility of Elizabeth in front of her saying to her: "But why is this granted to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?" (Luke 1:43). Likewise to bear the glory of all the apparitions of angels, and the worship of the Mages in front of her Son, and the many miracles which happened by her son in the land of Egypt, and the light of this Son in her bosom.
That is why, "the fullness of the time" (Gal. 4:4) waited for this human being from whom the Son of God was born.
This humility was manifested in her life, as we shall see:
The angel announced to her that she will become the mother of the Lord, but she said: "Behold the maid-servant of the Lord" (Luke 1:38), that is his slave and his maiden.
The magnificent glory which was given to her, absolutely did not decrease by her humility. But rather it was because of this humility that the Lord granted her that glory. "For He has regarded the lowly state of His maidservant" and made great things for her (Luke 1: 48, 49).
The humility of the Virgin was also manifested in her going to Elizabeth in order to serve her, during the period of her pregnancy. As soon as she heard that she was pregnant, in her sixth month, she travelled to her in a tiring journey across the mountains. She remained with her for three months, till her days were complete to give birth (Luke 1: 39-56). She did so while she was pregnant with the Lord of glory.
Her lack of talking about the glories of the divine Incarnation, is a sign of her humility.
LIFE OF ABANDON
She lived saintly and purely in the temple. Then came a time when they said to her to go out of the temple. She did not protest or object, such as many women do, when they are forbidden by the ecclesiastical laws, to enter the church in certain periods; and they protest and discuss much ....!
She wanted to live without marriage, but they ordered her to live under the guardianship of a man, according to the custom in her days.....
She did not protest then, and she accepted to live in the custody of a man, as she had accepted to go out of the temple........
She lived the life of abandon, not protesting, not resisting, not objecting, but quietly abandonning to the will of God, without discussion.
She was determined to live the life of virginity, and did never think at any time of becoming a mother. And when God willed that she becomes a mother by the coming of the Holy Spirit upon her (Luke 1:35), she did not discuss, but replied with her immortal expression: "Behold the maid-servant of the Lord! Let it be to me according to your word" (Luke 1:38)..... For that, God granted her the motherhood, and kept her virginity too, and she became a mother, the thing in which she had absolutely never thought ...... Through abandon, she became the mother of the Lord....... rather the greatest in value of all mothers.
She was ordered to go to Egypt, and she went.
And she was ordered to come back from Egypt, and she came back. She was ordered to move from Bethlehem and to reside in Nazareth, and she moved and resided.
She was a calm human being, living the life of abandon, without discussion. That is why "He who is mighty has done great things" to her........ "For He has regarded the lowly state of His maidservant".
THE LIFE OF ENDURANCE
She became an orphan from her two parents, when she was eight years old, and she endured the life of orphanage. She lived in the temple while she was a child, and she endured the life of solitude there. She came out of the temple in order to live in the custody of a carpentar, and she endured the life of poverty. When she gave birth to her only Son, "there was no room for them in the inn", then she "laid Him in a manger" (Luke 2:7). She supported that also....... She endured the responsability while she was in a tender age. She supported the magnificent glory which surrounded her, without being harrassed by the thoughts of greatness.
It was not possible for her to declare that she has given birth while she was a virgin, so she kept silent and endured that.
She suffered the tiring voyage to Egypt and back. She suffered to be expelled there from town to town, because the idols were falling down in front of the Christ (Is. 19:1). She suffered to be a poor foreigner. She suffered that a sword would pierce through her own soul also (Luke 2:35) because of that which her Son met, the persecutions, the insults, and lastly the suffering and the shame of the cross.......
The Virgin was not satisfied only to endure negatively, but she lived in the jubilation by the Lord
as she said in her hymn: "my spirit has rejoiced in God my Saviour" (Luke 1:47).
FAITH AND NOT GRUMBLING
She did not grumble at all in all that she suffered. When Herod menaced to kill her Son, in the flight to Egypt, and in the persecutions from the Jews, she did not say, where is the announcement that He will sit to reign on the throne of his father David....and there will be no end to his kingdom (Luke 1: 32-33)! But she was rather patient; and as Elizabeth said about her "And blessed is she that believed: for there shall be a performance of those things which were told her from the Lord" (Luke 1:45).
She believed that she will give birth while remaining a virgin, and that was realised for her.
She believed that the "Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God." (Luke 1:35), in spite of his birth in a manger. What she believed in, was realised for her, by way of the visions and the angels whom she saw, and the miracles which were accomplished by Him. She believed in all that, in spite of the persecutions to which He was exposed.......
She believed while He was on the cross, then she saw Him after His resurrection from the dead (Matt. 28).
SILENCE, PRAYER, AND MEDITATION
It was God who arranged that she became an orphan and lived in the temple.
In the temple, she learned the life of solitude and silence, and to become preoccupied with prayer and meditation. Having lost the love and tenderness of her parents, she became preoccupied with the love of God alone.
She lived a life of seclusion with prayers, hymns, reading of the Holy Bible, study and recall from memory of many of its verses, and of the psalms. Certainly her hymn in the house of Elizabeth is a proof of that, because the majority of its verses are taken from the psalms and the verses of the Holy Bible.
Silence became one of the characteristics of her spirituality. Although she was in the events of the Nativity: having seen wonderful things which probably exceed the endurance of her age as a small girl, and miracles that surrounded her, and having heard the words of angels, shepherds, and wise men from the East.......... she did not speak proudly about the events of the Nativity, but "kept all these things and pondered them in her heart" (Luke 2"19).
The silent meditating Virgin is a lesson for us. May we be like her: meditating much, and speaking a little.
Nevertheless I see, that when time came for her to speak, she became a source for the ecclesiastical tradition, in some of the news which the apostles and the evangelists learned from her: the miracles and the events during the flight to Egypt, and the conversation of the Christ among the masters in the temple while He was young (Luke 3: 46-47).
OTHER VIRTUES
The Lord has chosen this poor orphan girl, to become the foremost woman in existence. She possessed in her virtues what is more than riches.
Also among her virtues, there are her personal sanctity, her purity and her virginity, her spiritual knowledge, her service to others, and her spiritual motherhood to the fathers apostles.
Time would lack if we were to speak about all her virtues.
HER BLESSINGS
O how many are the blessings that were given to the Virgin!
They were mentionned in the melodies of the Church, in the hymns, in the "theotokies" (praise of the mother of God), the songs, the doxologies (praise of benediction), in each day of her feasts days, in the book of praises for the month of Kiahk, in the hymns of the Church, and in the book of praises (Psalmodiah).
The Church mentions her before the archangels when citing the names of the assembly of the saints; and so also in all her intercessional prayers. The Church, in her blessing of the Virgin, realises the prophecy which she said in her hymn:
"For behold, henceforth all generations will call me blessed" (Luke 1:48).
The Church offers incense to her, and presents greetings to her. Many are the hymns which begin with the expression "Hail to Mary" (shara na Maria, in Coptic), or the hymns which begin with the expression "Rejoice O Mary", or the hymn where the prophet David moves the ten cords of his guitar, and he mentions a blessing to her in each cord.
We mention her in the book of prayers of the hours, and in the mass, and in all the books of the Church:
In the Synaxaire, in the "Difnar", in the "Katamaras", in the "Psalmodia", and in all the books of hymns and responses.........
We mention her in the book of the prayers of the hours, in the third paragraph of every prayer in the prayers of the day, asking for her intercession. We mention her in the creed, and we say in its prelude:" We exalt you, O mother of the True Light and we glorify you, O saint Virgin, mother of God......."
We mention her in the prayer of the benediction, in its beginning and in its end.
We begin the benediction saying: "through the prayers and supplications and implorations which the mother of God, the saint pure Virgin, raises every time for our sake". And after mentioning the names of the angels, the apostles, the prophets, the martyrs, and all the saints, we terminate the benediction saying: "and the blessing of our Lady the Virgin firstly and lastly".....
THE ICON OF THE VIRGIN
There is a difference between images for meditation, and an icon for the rites.
In the icons, it is indispensable that she appears with the Christ, as being the mother of God.
She must be at his right side, for it has been said in the psalm: "At your right hand stands the queen" (Ps. 45:9).
And because she is a queen, there must be a crown on her head, and so the Christ.
As a saint, there must be a halo of light around her head, for the Lord said: "You are the light of the world" (Matt. 5:14).
Because she is the second heaven, there are stars, angels, and clouds around her.
Intercede for us, O saint Virgin, in order that the Lord would include us in His mercy.
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