WEEK 2 - THE ORTHODOX READINGS - [Continued from page 1]
The birth of The Holy Ever-Virgin Mary is a major event and it is most important for the Orthodox Faithful that she is permanently recalled in the course of the liturgy, in the last normal litany and in the final blessing. In every litany is chanted: "Calling to remembernce our all-Holy, immaculate, most blessed glorious Lady, the Theotokos [Mother of God] and Ever-Virgin Mary with all the Saints, let us commit ourselves and one another and our whole life unto Christ our God". In the final prayer is chanted: "He That rose from the dead, Christ our true God, by the intercession of His all-immaculate and all-blameless holy Mother, by the power of the honoured and life-giving Cross, by the protection of the venerable, heavenly Bodiless Powers, by the supplications of the venerable glorious Prophet, Forerunner and Baptist John and all the holy, glorious and all-famed Apostles, of the holy, glorious Martyrs, of our righteous and God-bearing Fathers, of the holy, righteous Ancestors of God, Joachim and Anna... [Greek version]".
In most Byzantine prayers and intercessions, the Ever-Virgin Mary is called "Shelter of Life", "Holy Temple", "Holy Ark", "Sacred Presence". She hosted the Saviour that she was bearing as any normal woman, but her Womb is compared to the "Holy Mountain", referring to Mount Sinai. All her other names are linked to the Temple of Jerusalem, the Holy Dwelling and Residence of God. Since Jesus Christ, in His Body, is the true and living Temple, it is normal for His Mother to be connected with the Holy of Holies. Moreover, in most prayers Our Lady also symbolizes the Crossing of the Red Sea and the Exodus of the holy people from Egypt. The Mother of God, Mary is thus the "Tabernacle" [= Sukkah] in which Our Saviour was preparing to come into the world. This shows how deeply the Biblical tradition is present in the Orthodox prayers and comprehension of the birth, life and death of Jesus Christ and His human family and environment.
THEREFORE, OUR MOST HOLY LADY MARY IS THE TABERNACLE WHICH RECEIVED AND SHELTERED IN HER WOMB JESUS AS THE SON OF GOD AND TRUE MAN. IN HER WOMB HE WAS NOT VISIBLE BUT GROWING BY THE POWER OF THE HOLY SPIRIT THAT HAD OVERSHADOWED HIS MOTHER. THE MOTHER OF GOD IS THE "GO-BETWEEN", ALLOWING GOD TO MAKE VISIBLE IN THE FLESH WHAT WAS UNDISCLOSED OVER THE CENTURIES: THE INVISIBLE WORLD OF SALVATION BECOMES VISIBLE THROUGH THE BODY OF A YOUNG WOMAN THAT REMAINS A VIRGIN FOREVER. THIS IS A SIGN WHICH IS ALSO PRESENT IN SUKKOT, THE FEAST OF TABERNACLES.
In Hebrew, the common word which corresponds to "Virgin" is "Betulah". It applies both to women and to men., For example, the Prophet Elijah was considered as a "betulah" because he never had any relations with women [Talmud Sota 22a]. But the conception of Jesus Christ is to be found in the Book of the Prophet Isaiah 7:4: "Therefore the Lord Himself shall give a SIGN ["ot" in Hebrew. cf. Week 1]. Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son and shall call his name Immanuel". The Greek version of the Septuagint, written by the Seventy Jewish Sages of Alexandria, translates "betulah" as "parthenos" [Virgin]. We might have the opportunity in the future to explain the correlation between the meaning of the word in Hebrew and its exactitude in the Greek version because of the legal rabbinical rules still in force in Judaism. In the Hebrew text every word in important; "HINNEH [therefore, here is] HA'ALMAH [THE-young-woman] HARA [shall bear, be like a mountain, the arrow of the teaching of the Torah] VEYOLEDET [and shall conceive, shape a child] BEN [son, 'building']".
The word HA'ALMAH encompasses various meanings that are difficult to translate into any language. The root is based, as is usual in Semitic languages, on three consonants: AYIN -LAMED - MEM [glottal' - L - M] and relates to the following words:
a] ALAM/ALEM: to be strong, strengthened, tied, concealed. To keep a secret. In the Talmudic commentary Kohanim Rabbah 3:11, the passive form of the verb, "hu'alam", explicitly refers to the pronounciation of the Tetragrammaton [Holy Four Letters of the Name of God] which was concealed, except from the High Priest. Therefore, what is kept secret is called to be uncovered. It is definitely normal to consider that a child is a secret in his mother's womb and is revealed at the time of his birth. In a similar way, God Who is hidden, is shown in the Flesh of His Son Jesus Christ.
b] ELEM/ALEM: to be vigorous, a lad. And what is vigorous and is refreshed year by year and over ages: "the world" [OLAM] which is still a secret but a visible one to be conquered and understood and leads to everlasting life. Thus, the young woman is a virgin because she bears the Saviour, hidden from the beginning of the world, visible at the fulfillment of time and leading to everlasting life.
We know nothing concrete about the biographies of Saints Joachim and Anna. These two Saints, whose lives are extensively described by the Fathers with miracles and wonders, are not mentioned either in the Bible or in the Gospel. But it is of great importance that the Ancestors of Our Saviour are permanently recalled. The Ever-Virgin Mary is not coming out of some unknown zone.... There are some personalities like Melchisedek [The King of Justice] or Henoch whose human backgrounds are not accounted. On the contrary, Jesus Christ is deeply enrooted in the history of His parents and the House of Israel.
We may suppose that there is a strong biblical link between the unexpected conception and birth of Jesus Christ and the birth of the Prophet Samuel as recounted in the first Book of Kings [1:1-3:21]. There was a man called Elkanah who had two wives, Hannah and Peninah. Hannah had no children, and they prayed in order to conceive a child. Hannah prayed in such a way that the High Priest Eli thought she was drunk: her lips were moving without sounds. She conceived a child, calling him Samuel [Hebrew Shmu'El, "God has heard"] and she decided with Elkanah that he will be consecrated to God and spend his life serving in the Temple.
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