The feasts of the Mother of God prepare us for Christmas

If you look at the Nativity icon, the Mother of God steals the show. There, she rests in the cave, where she figures prominently in the center of the icon. This perspective unavoidably gathers your attention on the Mother of God.

This iconography reflects how the Mother of God figures largely into the liturgical year to draw us into the mystery of Christmas. The Philip ’s Fast is replete with feasts and hymnography that explain the mystery for us.

On Nov. 21, we celebrate an event taken from Mary’s childhood recorded into the apocryphal Protoevangelium of James. By tradition, she is presented in the temple 40 days after her birth, where she is led by Zachariah, the father of John the Baptist, into the Holy of Holies. It is here that she awaits her betrothal to St. Joseph.

We hear at Vespers: “Let the gate to the temple where God dwells be opened; for Joachim brings in glory the Temple and Throne of the King of All” (Third Stichera at Vespers). This verse strikes at the heart of the Christian paradox: Mary, the Temple of the incarnate God, is brought into the temple. How a Temple fits inside a temple parallels how Christ the creator will dwell in and among his creation. The Mother of God, who herself is a Temple, is probably the only person who could have the excuse to not have the need to go to church, for she is the instantiation of a holy dwelling place. Yet, for the Mother of God, the church is the most natural place to be, comfortably awaiting Joseph, the Angel, and the unfolding of the Divine Plan.

Just as the Mother of God shows us how natural worship is, by spending her youth in the temple, Christ goes further. He comes to restore right worship in the human race. As St. Paul describes it, the original human fault is exchanging worship of creator with praise of the creation (cf. Rom 1:25). The Incarnation untangles this confusion, with the object of all worship becoming a creature. He allows human beings to witness him in the flesh, so as to learn how to worship him as God. The Troparion of the Feast brings this in full view: “Today is the prelude of God’s good will.

We will hear the good will be announced once again at the Nativity in the song of the angels: “Glory to God in the Highest and on Earth, peace and good will among men” (Cf Lk 2:14). The Mother of God’s entrance into the temple acts as the beginning of this piece of music crowned by the angels and the shepherds, who will unite heaven and earth to proclaim it again. For Christ is the good will of the Father, dwelling among men. We, too, get the chance to join in the angels’ hymn twice at Matins on Christmas morning, for we begin the service with the threefold angelic exaltation, and later in Matins at the Great Doxology.

The Maternity of Anna, known in the West as the Immaculate Conception, is traditionally celebrated Dec. 9. In the United States, Greek Catholics have accommodated Dec. 8, in order to celebrate, in unity with Roman Catholics, the national feast day of the Catholic Church in the United States. The choice of Dec. 9, however, is of theological significance for the Byzantine liturgical year.

There are three conceptions and three births celebrated on the Byzantine calendar. The time between the feast of the conception St. John the Baptist, Sept. 23, and his birth, June 24, is nine months, plus one day. The time between the feast of the conception of Mary, Dec. 9, and her birth, Sept. 8, is nine months, minus one day. The time between the feast of the conception of Christ, known as the Annunciation, March 25, and his birth, Dec. 25, is nine months exactly. That Christ is the perfection of humanity is reflected in the liturgical calendar by his precise nine-month gestation.

More than dates, the hymnography for the Maternity of Anna speaks of the conception of Mary as the beginning of the fulfillment of prophecy concerning the coming of the Son of Man: “The sayings of the prophets are now being fulfilled: the holy mountain is planted in the womb; the divine ladder is set up; the throne of the great king is ready; the God-inspired city is being adorned. The unburnable bush is beginning to bud forth ” (Third Stichera at Vespers). This constellation of images is clustered together to show us how, in the womb of Anna, the incipient mystery of Christmas is upon us. This should comfort us, knowing that Christ’s coming was prepared for and hinted at in these various manifestations of God in the Old Testament. By appearing in Jacob’s dream, before Moses’ face in the burning bush, we can more easily apprehend his coming in the womb of a Virgin.

In “Four Quartets, ” the poet T.S. Eliot reminds us that the Incarnation is a mystery “half-hinted, half-understood. ” The liturgical year gives us hints and whispers throughout its festal cycle to better apprehend the mystery of Christmas. We do well to let ourselves be accompanied by the Mother of God on the path that the Church gives us in these days of the Philip’s Fast. She received the mystery perfectly. When it comes to Christmas, we learn the meaning of its mysteries from the Mother of God.
 
As published in Horizons, Dec. 8, 2019.
Sign up for the digital newsletter.