Saturday, April 16, 2005 Lenten Fast
Laudations of the Akathist to the Theotokos
Kellia: Malachi 4:1-6 Epistle: Hebrews 9:1-7 Gospel: St. Luke 1:39-49, 56
St. Luke 1:39-49, 56, especially vss. 41, 42: "And it happened, when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary,
that the babe leaped in her womb; and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. Then she spoke out with a loud voice...."
The first-ever laudations or praises to the Theotokos are recorded in today's Gospel, which makes this passage particularly
appropriate as the Gospel today when special praises are directed to be chanted to the Mother of God.
The institution of this liturgical remembrance hearkens back to an occasion during a siege of the city of Constantinople by
an overwhelming, hostile, Persian military force in AD 620. Because the contravening prayers of the Theotokos were
sought by the citizenry, the great holy city of Eastern Christianity was saved, for a sudden "violent tempest broke out in
which the ships of the enemy were wrecked, sinking with all on board" and casting the bodies of these Christ-hating
enemies in front of the Church of the Theotokos at Blachernae.
The portion of St. Luke's Gospel we are considering today reveals that Elizabeth, the mother of John the Forerunner,
offered these praises to Mary under inspiration of the Holy Spirit (vs. 41). Thus, her words deserve to be read very closely,
being divinely given and prophetic in nature. Elizabeth spoke of the Virgin's place "among women" (vs. 42). She
discerned both the nature of the Child developing within the womb of the Theotokos (vss. 42-44), and she noted correctly
the reason for the singular honor which God bestowed upon Mary (vs. 45).
Moved by the greeting of her cousin Mary, Elizabeth declared the Theotokos to be "blessed...among women" (vs. 42). But
in what sense should we understand her designation of the Virgin Mary as blessed - merely because she was gifted with a
child and this latent capacity of her womanhood was now being realized - much as we congratulate a woman who shares
her joy because she is "expecting," or was it because of the particular Child she was carrying?
Elizabeth definitely emphasized the blessing of the special Child that Mary was carrying, for she added the phrase, "and
blessed is the fruit of your womb" (vs. 42). She drove home her point further by expanding the comment with a question,
"But why is this granted to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?" (vs. 43). Thus she announced that the
Child was her Lord, her Kyrios. Among first-century Jews, Kyrios was the word usually spoken in reciting Old Testament
texts with the four letter Name of God, following the use in the synagogues of substituting the Hebrew word "Adonay" for
the four letters. Even in secular usage, kyrios was applied to one's owner, one's superior, one's employer, one's ruler.
These laudations of Elizabeth were further expanded by her report of the quickening of her child within her womb in
response to Mary's greeting (vs. 44). The God-given child of Elizabeth (Lk. 1:13,24) was moved merely at being in the
presence of the Divine Child within the Theotokos. Already there was communication between the Forerunner and his
Messiah. What a blessing! It is the blessing we know in coming to the Holy Chalice. Christ is among us!
Elizabeth adds one final word of praise for the blessedness of her cousin Mary: "Blessed is she who believed, for there will
be a fulfillment of those things which were told her from the Lord" (vs. 45). The utter trust in God, the total submission of
self to the will and purpose of God evinced by Mary, was taken up by Elizabeth as her own in the moment in which she
declared "there will be a fulfillment" of what God had told the blessed Virgin. She spoke prophetically what St. Paul
would say later, "God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself" (2 Cor 5:19).
O thou lamp in the flesh, O Forerunner of Christ, who didst worship Him leaping in the womb, we implore thee, O Prophet
to intercede with Him to save and deliver us.