by Fr. Georgios Lekkas, priest of the Orthodox Archdiocese of Belgium
The All-Holy Mother of God underwent expansion, to the greatest human degree possible, in order to contain the uncontainable God, before and during His Divine Incarnation, and after His Ascension to Heaven.
This is perhaps the reason why the All-Holy Virgin is the most silent person in the history of the Divine Economy.
She lived within the silence of the Sanctuary until her Annunciation, in silence after her Son intervened publicly during the wedding at Cana, and in silence from the Ascension of the Lord Jesus until her own Translation into Heaven.
What is concealed in this mystery of the Virgin’s deafening silence, which is witnessed to in all the texts of the Holy Gospels? It is indeed her complete identification with the divine will and word of her Son and God, before, during and after His coming into this world.
The Fall had the effect of binding mankind and the world with diabolical threads. All that men and demons did, until God came into the world, worked death and increased it in the world.
Christ seems to have acted as a Trojan Horse in the plan of Divine Economy for the salvation of man and the world, for only Christ could and did cheat Death with His own death and become the origin and opportunity for Eternal Life for every condemned person.
Christ acted and continues to act as a Trojan Horse that contains us all and steals us one by one from Death, so long as we open ourselves to Him. Christ contains us within Himself, to the degree that we too make room for Him.
The one who contained Christ within Herself to the absolute degree possible for a human being was our All-Holy Virgin, and for this she is honoured by His Church above all the Saints. If the Apostle Paul was the first in the history of Christianity to proclaim, ‘It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me’, this is absolutely true of the Our Lady the Mother of God, who thus constitutes for the consciousness of the Orthodox faithful the supreme God-bearer.
The All-Holy Virgin contained God within herself to an absolute degree as a human being, before, during and after His coming into this world. Our Lady is silent in the Holy Texts because she is the supreme example of one who lived as though dead to the world, her will the divine will of her Son, her care the care of her Son for the salvation of the World, and her word His Divine Words.
The All-Holy Virgin remains silent as if she were dead because she wishes no other life than the Life of her Son. Her life bears witness to the life of a person who lived to an absolute degree in human terms through the God-man Jesus, who, although he received human flesh from Her as God-man, took her up entirely into Himself.
Our All-Holy Virgin is the First Lady of the Church because she succeeded to the absolute human degree in having no other life than the Life of her Son.
Her silence resounds through the ages as a deafening testimony of expansion of Her who was deemed worthy to become the holiest Abode of God by offering Him not only her body but also her entire existence.
The Presentation of the Virgin, 21.11.2022.
Fr Georgios Lekkas is a priest of the Orthodox Archdiocese of Belgium. He studied Law, Philosophy and Theology at the University of Athens. He has a PhD in Greek Studies from the Sorbonne (Paris IV) and was a postdoctoral researcher at the French National Research Agency (2000-2005). He taught Greek philosophy in Greek Higher Education (2005-2017). His latest poetry collection, PROSECHOS ANAGENNISI (IMMINENT REBIRTH) was published by To Koinon ton Oraion Technon (Athens, 2021, 79 pages), while his essay THE SECOND WORLD. ODYSSEAS ELYTIS AND GIORGOS SARANTARIS was published recently by Ekati publications (Athens, 2022, 171 pages).
