The Entry into the Temple of the Most Holy Virgin Mary
Hebrews 9:1-7;
Luke І0:38-42; 11:27,28
The childless Joachim and Anna promised God in their prayers that if a child were born to them, they would devote it to the service of God. God listened to the pleas of that pious couple and already at the end of their years gave them a child - a daughter, whom they named Mary.
And so, according to the ancient retelling, when Mary was just three years old, although Joachim and Anna loved their daughter, they brought her to the Jerusalem temple to be educated in order to fulfill their vow to God. The same story tells us that the entry procession of the Virgin Mary was met by the high priest Zachary and led Mary not only to the shrine, but to the most holy part of the temple - the Holy of Holies, to testify to her great future for the salvation of the human race.
In those olden times, girls, as well as widows who dedicated themselves to serving God, lived and were raised near the Jerusalem temple. Thus, the Gospel mentions one such widow already at the time of bringing the Baby Jesus to the temple: Anna the prophetess,
"a widow of about eighty-four years, who did not depart from the temple, but served God with fastings and prayers night and day. " (Luke 2:37).
Thus, from childhood to her youth, for 12 years, the Most Pure Virgin Mary was brought up at the temple, being brought up in the glorification of God, in the knowledge of the Holy Scriptures, the will of God and needlework, under the supervision of the elders.
According to an ancient retelling, angels appeared to the Blessed Virgin Mary more than once and she talked with them. She loved the holiness of the house of God and sought to live in integrity, preserving her virginity. But there was no monasticism in Old Testament Israel, and therefore Mary, having reached maturity, had to leave the temple.
However, in Israel, according to a long-standing custom, a woman could not live independently. Her father, or brother, or her husband, when she married, had to take care of her. Due to the fact that Mary had neither a father nor a brother, she was betrothed to an older man, a distant relative on the father's side, Joseph, who was obliged to take care of her.
And so it came to pass, and in the family of Joseph the betrothed, Jesus was born from the Blessed Virgin, who, as testified in the Gospel, was conceived "by the Holy Spirit". (Matthew 1:20) Thus, even from the mother's womb, He was the Son of God and the Son of Man. But that is a broad and larger topic for further discussion...
The Church of Christ celebrates the entry of the Blessed Virgin Mary into the temple of the Lord on a particular day, and on that occasion, we remind ourselves of all the good deeds that we receive through consecration and union with God through His temples.
We live in a beautiful world created by God, but at the same time we are aware that everywhere we can be tempted, everywhere we can fall into sin, depart from God, from His commandments and instructions. In the temple of the Lord, we seek spiritual purification, union with God and prayer, and especially in the most holy Sacraments.
The gospel of Christ is preached most often in our Christian temple, all our Divine services take place in it, and almost all the Sacraments are performed therein, through which we unite with Our Lord and with each other in Christ's brotherhood. Thus, in the temples of God we receive the greatest sanctification, we deify ourselves.
Therefore, we too, marking the entry into the temple of the Blessed Virgin--where she was brought up in piety to be a worthy mother of our Saviour--we also remind ourselves to enter the temple of God as often as possible, and certainly on the Lord's days. From a very young age we teach our children to pray and be taught in our churches, so that they, and we ourselves, would grow in virtues, in the fulfillment of the commandments and instructions of God.
And all of us must also gain the understanding that when we are baptized in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, when we receive consecration in anointing, when we unite with God in the Sacraments established by the Lord, then we are the very temples of the Holy Spirit , temples of the "Living God", as evidenced by Ap. Paul:
"Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him. For the temple of God is holy, which temple you are."
(1 Corinthians 3; 16-17)
Therefore, let us be mindful of our union with God through His temples and, at the same time, make sure that the temples of our souls are clean and holy.
Amen.
Very Rev. Fr. Taras Slavchenko
Taras Slavchenko was born on March 8, 1918 in Nikopol, Dnipropetrovsk region in Ukraine. After graduating from school and the Pedagogical College, he entered the language and literature faculty of the Scientific Pedagogical Institute. Having successfully completed it in 1938, he served as a teacher in a secondary school.
