My Beloved the Benevolent August 2024
Grace and peace, wishing you all goodness and blessings
The month of August is blessed every year with the fast of the Virgin Mary, which begins this year on Wednesday, August 7th, the 1st of Misra, and ends with the feast of the Assumption of her immaculate body to heaven on Thursday, August 22nd, 16th of Misra. This blessed fast bears the name of the Virgin, the Mother of Light, not because we fast for St. Mary, but because fasting is worship and worship is for God alone; also, because it ends with one of the feasts of the Virgin.
I wish you all a blessed, fruitful and acceptable fast, and in this fast we would like to look to the Virgin as a treasure of virtues to learn from.
One of the many virtues of the Virgin is the virtue of obedience.
When the angel brought her the joyful annunciation, “And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son, and shall call His name Jesus.” (Luke 1:31), the Virgin obeyed and said, “Behold the maidservant of the Lord! Let it be to me according to your word.” (Luke 1:38). Obedience of the Virgin is the beginning of the mystery of the divine incarnation. The Virgin obeyed even though no virgin ever conceived and gave birth.
The Virgin accepted the message because it is from God, it is for the salvation of mankind because Jesus means the Savior.
The obedience of the Virgin led to the salvation of the human race through the incarnation of the Son of God the Word, His birth from her, His death on the cross, and His glorious resurrection. Eve’s disobedience led to the destruction of the human race by inheriting Adam’s sin, so all of the humanity became subject to the rule of death, corruption, and sin. Therefore, we praise in the Thursday Theotokia, the second part saying:
The pride of all virgins is Mary the Mother of God
for her sake He has revoked, the first curse.
Which was pronounced upon our race through the violation
incurred by the first woman when she ate from the fruit of the tree
Because of Eve the door of Paradise was closed
and through the Virgin Mary it was opened to us once more
The first Eve, whose name means the mother of all living (Genesis 3:20), became by transgression, the mother of all dead. The Virgin Mary, by her obedience, became the mother of all living as the Church calls her in the Tuesday Theotokia, the third Part:
Hail to the saint the Mother of all the living
you are the one we pray to intercede for us.
We would like to ask this question, why did Eve disobey and why did the Virgin obey?
The answer to this question helps us avoid sin and learn to obey. When Satan wanted Adam and Eve to fall into disobeying God and eat from the tree that God said to Adam, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” (Genesis 2: 16,17), Satan did not tempt Eve through the serpent to eat from the tree by talking about the fruit of the tree and its benefits to her, but by pointing his arrows at the commandment itself. Why was the commandment given?
According to God’s words, the commandment not to eat from the tree is intended to protect man from eternal death, which is separation from God: “For the day you eat of it you shall surely die“. God did not say to Adam the day you eat from the tree I will kill you, but sin; and eating from the tree will lead to your death, because transgression of God’s commandment leads to death: “for the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23). Satan deceived Eve, so that the purpose of the commandment was not to protect them from death, but to deprive them of being like God, “You will not surely die. For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” (Genesis 3:4-5). Eve, followed by Adam, agreed with Satan and fell into sin. Their thinking about God changed from a loving God who wanted to protect them to a God who wanted to prevent them from being like Him.
The Virgin obeyed because she trusted in the loving God who wants the salvation of humanity. Therefore, she said with all submission and obedience, “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord, let it be as you say.”
We obey the commandments of God when we trust that God is the Lover of Mankind. He gives us the commandments for our good, for the commandments do not limit our freedom, but on the contrary, obeying the commandments of God gives us true freedom.
May our God, the Good One, grant us to imitate the Virgin in complete obedience to our God who loved us and gave Himself for us.
May God bless your gifts to support St. Verena’s charitable programs.
Metropolitan Serapion
Off