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Behold Your Mother

A lot of things about the Church, which seem so natural to us, can appear strange to someone who isn't Orthodox.  After all, there are only about 1 million Orthodox in the US.  Not Greek Orthodox (there are only about 500,000 in the GOA), but Orthodox of all traditions and backgrounds.  Combined.  In a country where Christianity usually means either Protestantism or Catholicism, it's no surprise that so many people know so little about who we are or what we believe. 
 
Yesterday, we began a period of fasting and prayer for the greatest of saints, the Mother of God, in preparation of her Dormition, which we will observe on August 15th.  To millions of non-Orthodox, our deep love for the Panagia is odd.  To these Christians, Orthodoxy can be a strange thing.  They don't understand the role saints play, and see our reverence for the Theotokos in particular as troubling, even idolatrous.
 
So why do we reverence the Panagia so deeply? 
 
Notice, the answer has more to do with her Son with her. 
 
There is something earth-shaking and momentous in the simple words Mother of God.  The Second Person of the Holy Trinity, the Son of God, True God of True God, had no mother.  Nor did He have a body.  Yet, in the fullness of time, God the Father sent forth His only-begotten Son.  He who had no flesh put on flesh.  God became man. 
 
 
As all children are born of mothers, Christ was born of a blessed woman.  Yet, as loving and pious and holy as she is, we honor her not simply for her own sake.  The Theotokos is important because her life is a testimony to our salvation.  God became man!  Salvation has come to the world!  And it came through the greatest of missionaries, the Theotokos herself, who shared God's Word with the world. 
 
To reverence her is to remember: the wall of alienation between God and man has been shattered.
 
We take the Panagia seriously because the Incarnation of Christ is a serious matter.  Nothing is as it was.  Salvation has come to the world!
 
Salvation is not abstract.  It is real, and very personal.  It is the transition from mere survival to true life, as we share in Christ's true life.  To be baptized in Christ is to literally put on Christ, to become a member of His very Body
 
We see this, as we see all truth, at the foot of the Cross.  When the rest fled, terrified, the Beloved Disciple remained and stood at the foot of the Cross as his beloved Master washed the world in His blood.
 
 
If, in baptism, we are Christ, then His mother is our mother, as His Father is our Father
 
And His mother, our mother, deflects all honor we offer her and directs it back to Christ.  To confess her as the Mother of God is simply to confess the reality of baptism, the reality of the Church, the reality of our salvation in Christ.  It is no accident that we very, very rarely see her depicted in an icon apart from her Son.  She is a signpost, steering us back into God's loving embrace. 
 
As we stand at the foot of the Cross, as we are thrice submerged into the waters of baptism, we are incorporated into Christ Himself.  One day, we will stand before God the Father as his sons and daughters, and by our side will stand our mother, Christ's mother, praying for us and encouraging us every step we take.
 
 
Originally posted at http://orthodoxyouthministry.blogspot.com/.