Saturday, August 14, 2004
Dormition Fast The Holy Prophet Micah
2nd Vespers of Dormition: Ezekiel 43:26-44:4 Epistle: 1 Corinthians 1:3-9
Gospel: St. Matthew 19:3-12STRONG> Ezekiel 43:26-44:4 LXX, especially vs. 2: "This gate shall remain shut; it
shall not be opened, and no one shall enter by it; for the Lord, the God of Israel, has entered by
it; therefore it shall remain shut." This reading for the Vespers of the Dormition is a small part
of an extended vision received by the Prophet Ezekiel during his exile in Babylon (Ezek. 40-46).
The full vision is an elaborate description of a new, cleansed and holy temple. Like portions of
the Revelation given to St. John the Theologian, Ezekiel's vision allows us to glimpse into the
age to come, as its reference to "the eighth day" indicates (Ezek. 43:27), a point the Holy Fathers
teach us to notice. Listen to the second century Epistle of Barnabas: "It is not the sabbaths now
celebrated that please Me, but the sabbath which I make and on which, after bringing all things to
their rest, I will begin an eighth day, that is a new world."
That Ezekiel is speaking of the age to come is further revealed when God declares: "the priests
shall offer upon the altar your burnt offerings; and I will accept you says the Lord God" (vs. 27).
Take special notice here: Ezekiel received God's declaration during a time when the People of
God were suffering repeated defeats as a result of their flagrant sins, despite many prophetic
utterances warning that the Lord would accept neither the people nor their burnt offerings
because of disdain and abuse of justice and righteousness (e.g. Jer. 7:22-24). God speaks plainly
of the new creation He will make in which His People will be acceptable to Him. Looking
further, we observe that God allowed Ezekiel to foresee the glory of the Lord dwelling once more
in the temple as the Divine glory had formerly descended upon the earlier sanctuaries of Israel
(Ex. 40:34; 2 Chron. 5:14). Of what other temple then could the Prophet be speaking when he
says, "I looked, and behold, the glory of the Lord filled the temple of the Lord" (Ezek. 44:4)?
Ah, let us understand! The Lord showed the Prophet Ezekiel the glorious indwelling of the Lord
in the womb of the Virgin. His Incarnation is the new creation, as the words of the Annunciation
Troparion show: "Today is the beginning of our salvation, and the manifestation of the mystery
from the ages, for the Son of God becometh the Son of the Virgin."
Note also in Ezekiel's vision that there is "the eastern gate" of the glorious temple, the gate that is
shut, that "shall not be opened, and no one shall enter by it; for the Lord, the God of Israel, has
entered by it" (Ezek. 44:2). Behold, Beloved of the Lord, God disclosed to the Prophet the
virginal womb of the Theotokos, the hallowed receptacle hailed in the Dogmatikon: "Rejoice! O
uncrossed gate...who hast given birth in the flesh to thy Creator and God...."
We who are united to Christ are blessed above all men to perceive that which was only partially
disclosed to Ezekiel: that "only the Prince may sit in [the gate] to eat bread before the Lord; He
shall enter by the way of the vestibule of the gate, and shall go out by the same way" (vs. 3). The
Prince is none other than our Lord Jesus Himself, "the Prince of life, Whom God raised from the
dead" (Acts 3:15). He alone entered and dwelt in the Virgin's womb; so that she who bore Him
was "A Virgin giving birth, and after remaining virgin."
God, in the Mystery of our Redemption, granted the all-pure Theotokos to hold within her the
glory of the Lord. So also, as a monk of the Church points out, by the very indwelling of God,
"Mary gained a special victory over death....she was glorified in her body....For in Mary, human
nature reached its goal." As the Prince of Life came to us "from the east of easts," to the
sanctuary through the uncrossed gate, so now the goal of our nature is revealed in her Dormition.
As thy birth-giving was a seedless conception; so thy falling-asleep was death without
corruption: by thine intercessions, O Theotokos, deliver our souls from death.