The Entry of the Theotokos

What would your life be like if you lived, not in the world, but in the church? Not in the building, necessarily! What if you lived in a house, or a room, right next door; and, every day, you attended services, morning and evening; and, at those times when there were no services, you stayed in the church to pray? How might your life be different?

In a way, I think this picture of life helps explain why the presence of a monastery is so appealing to so many people. It’s the thought of who we might become if we didn’t have to deal with jobs, and traffic, and paying bills, and families, and neighbors, and strangers… To be in a place where there is daily worship, and the opportunity to spend time in prayer, and to be with like-minded people, apart from the ways, and the cares, of the secular world; how transforming this could be! I might actually be able to overcome the passions that beset me; and maybe stop being such a sinner. If I started today, my life could be changed; and what might my life have been like if that is how I had lived from my youth?

It is not written in the Bible as such, which makes it difficult for many people to accept it, but it is the pious teaching of our Church that this is how the most blessed Lady Theotokos grew up – living in the Temple in Jerusalem, as part of a company of pious virgins, worshipping God, praying, fasting, studying the Scriptures, and working at handicrafts; and this from the age of three years, until she reached maturity, and became a woman. Although she desired to remain in the temple all her days, without entering into marriage, this was not the Law or the custom; and so, at the age of twelve, she was entrusted to a kinsman, St. Joseph. Their betrothal would allow her to dwell without scandal in his household while preserving her virginity, fulfilling her desire in a way acceptable at that time.

Now, there is no question that such a situation – dedicating a child so young to the Lord, and bringing that child to the Temple to live – is a very unusual one; but it is not without precedent in Israel. As the birth of the Theotokos was a miraculous gift to her aged parents, Joachim and Anna, fulfilling their prayer, so, too was the birth of the child who became the prophet Samuel to his parents, Elkanah and Hannah. In thanksgiving for the miraculous birth of her son, Hannah, fulfilling the promise she had made when she prayed for a child, took her son when he was weaned, at about three years of age, to the house of the Lord at Shiloh (the Temple in Jerusalem not yet having been built). There he entered into the service of God under the care of the High Priest.

Think of it in this way: What is the significance of the Temple? (It applies right here, where we are gathered together in our temple.) It is the place where God lives in the midst of mankind. Of course, God is everywhere; but His people have always understood that the temple is a special place, where God is present for those who seek Him in a special way – the ground where we are standing is holy ground, because the Lord is in this place in a special way, making it holy.

The entry of the Theotokos into the Temple is a remarkable event: she who will give birth to the Lord of the Temple goes into His presence to dwell there in preparation for becoming the holy tabernacle of His dwelling among us. She who will bear the incarnate Son of God is made ready for this by living in a special way in the presence of Him Who will one day live in her.

And what about us? As St. Paul writes to the church in Corinth, “Do you not know that you are the temple of God, and that the Holy Spirit dwells in you?” We are called, in our own way, to follow the Theotokos in her ministry – to bear the Son of God into the world; and we have the opportunity to dwell, as she did, in the presence of God, Who dwells in us by the Holy Spirit. And so we can live as she did in the Temple. We can be part of a holy company dedicated to worshiping and serving God – our brotherhood here in the Church. We can study the Scriptures, and devote ourselves to pious work. We can keep ourselves chaste and pure. We can fast, and pray, and attend the worship services – and so become better equipped to serve as God-bearers, showing forth in the way we live our Lord Jesus Christ, presenting Him to the world even as His mother, our most blessed and glorious Lady Theotokos, who considered herself to be the handmaid of the Lord, presents Him to us.

Brothers and sisters: Let us, in celebration of the feast of the Entry of the Theotokos into the Temple, honor her who shows us the way to serve God in love, dedicate ourselves to enter into His presence and to dwell there; in the monastery, for those whom God calls to such a life; and in the world. It is to this end that we pray: Through the prayers of the Theotokos, O Savior, save us.