The Dormition Fast will end soon and we will reach the feast of the Dormition of the Theotokos on the 15th of this month. We have fasted in order to earn the Theotokos’ care and affection. This affection was declared by the Savior on the cross where Mary was standing with the disciple that Jesus loved. This disciple heard the Lord say to him: “This is your mother”. This motherhood wasn’t only poured on this disciple but also on every believer that is loved by the Master.
Our sense for the Theotokos isn’t only an emotional feeling towards her but is also the Savior’s will to be her sons, i.e. to have Mary in our spiritual life. Honoring Mary was an order from Jesus. He is the one that declared her motherhood for us.
Believers ask about what happened to her after her death. The divine service uses the word “assumption” in the sense that God let her body ascend to Him. In the year 1950, the Western Church declared that the assumption is related to Mary’s body and soul together and said that this is a doctrine.
We did speak liturgically about Assumption; however we didn’t make it a doctrine. Some theologians accept it and others don’t. The icon of Dormition pictures the virgin sleeping and Jesus next to her carrying her soul in the form of a child covered with white clothes as a sign that she is in heaven. Everything for us shows that she is in glory, like martyrs, and that she intercedes for us as we call her “More honorable than the Cherubim and more glorious beyond compare than the Seraphim”.
The common belief in the Church is that Mary is without stain or corruption, i.e. the Church considers her impeccable and calls her “the bride of God” and stresses on her importance in the Divine Incarnation that was fulfilled through her submission to God’s will that was expressed by the Angel’s annunciation where she said: “I am the Lord’s servant. May your word for me be fulfilled”. The Divine Incarnation demanded her acceptance for Gabriel’s call in order to carry inside her this great mystery and to be an image of the virgin Church as the author of the Book of Revelation thought (Rev 12).
Yes, Jesus is the only mediator between God and people in the sense that He is the only one that fulfilled the salvation. However, saints and especially the Theotokos are also with Him and around Him praying for us. Jesus gave them the power of intercession for our salvation after being loaded by sin.
In the Kingdom, Mary is above any judgment or conviction. Her son has put her next to Him in the Kingdom to intercede for us alongside all other saints.
This is why she is mentioned a lot in liturgical books, and there exist no service that doesn’t speak about her and with her.
Therefore, she has many feasts with the Dormition being the peak of those where we declare that she dwells in the divine glory waiting for us to gain resurrection on the last day and see her glory next to Jesus’ glory.
Translated by Mark Najjar
Original Text: “مريم في المجد” –Raiati 33- 12.08.2012
