Paideía & Praxís - Nov. 21: Feast of the Entry of the Theotokos

November 21 – The Feast of the Entry of the Theotokos

We have arrived at the first major feast of the Nativity Fast, the Entrance of the Most Holy Theotokos into the Temple. Which is rather fitting, for as our hymnography reveals, it is the “prelude” of the goodwill of God and the “salvation of mankind.” It is the prelude of the Incarnation itself.

While you can read more about Mary’s parents, Joachim and Anna, on December 9, on the Feast of the Conception of the Theotokos, the story of today’s feast begins when Mary was three years old. Her righteous parents, after their miraculous conception, promised to dedicate their child to God. The time came for Mary’s dedication at the age of three, when she was to be taken to the Temple to be taught and cared for by the holy men and women there–others who had dedicated their lives to the service of the Lord.

Keep in mind, this is during the Second Temple period, which refers to the time after Solomon’s temple had been destroyed and the majority of Israel had been carried off in exile. While the second Temple had been built roughly 500 years before Mary was brought there, something important had not returned – the Shekinah, or God’s Presence. While a Holy of Holies had been built (just as there was in the first Temple), the very place meant to be the dwelling place of God, the Ark of the Covenant, was gone. Israel carried on with their rituals and sacrifices and King Herod made the temple grander and grander, yet the Holy of Holies was empty.

According to Tradition, as the time arrived for Mary to be taken to the Temple, Joachim calls the young girls of the neighborhood and gives them each a lighted candle to walk before the young child so that she would not be afraid, and Mary joyfully follows them to the Temple. There she is greeted by the High Priest Zacharias, who does something very extraordinary. He brings Mary into the Holy of Holies.

It is almost as if the Temple itself, with all its glory and splendour, was a prophecy and a promise written in stone that God would one day dwell in the very hearts of His people, in temples of human flesh. This seemingly quiet event, becoming a revelation of what the Temple was meant to be. A small child, walking into the empty Holy of Holies, as one who would become the Ark of the Covenant – a container for the uncontainable God.

This beautiful moment in the story of our salvation is described further:

In the Temple, fifteen high steps led to the sanctuary, which only the Priests and High Priest could enter. The child Mary, so it seemed, could not make it up this stairway. But just as they placed Her on the first step, strengthened by the power of God, She quickly went up the remaining steps and ascended to the highest one. Then the High Priest, through inspiration from above, led the Most Holy Virgin into the Holy of Holies, where only the High Priest entered once a year, to offer a purifying sacrifice of blood. Therefore, all those present in the Temple were astonished at this most unusual occurrence.

Righteous Joachim and Anna, having entrusted their Child to the will of the Heavenly Father, returned home. The Most Blessed Mary remained in the quarters for virgins, near the Temple. The earthly life of the Most Holy Theotokos, from the time of Her infancy to the time of Her ascent to Heaven, is shrouded in deep mystery. Her life at the Jerusalem Temple was also a secret. "If anyone were to ask me - writes Blessed Jerome - how the Most Holy Virgin spent the time of Her youth, I would answer, that is known to God Himself and the Archangel Gabriel, Her constant guardian.”

Just as the Theotokos prepared herself in the Holy of Holies to become the Holy of Holies, and St. John the Forerunner readied himself in the wilderness so that he might “Prepare the way of the Lord,” so ought we ready ourselves for the coming of the Christ child. And more than a month before Christmas, we already hear for the first time the words, “Christ is born, glorify Him!” as we begin singing on the feast today. Here we are called to rise up and meet Christ, as we refocus our vision on the Great Feast ahead and “sing out in gladness” to the Lord:

Christ is born, glorify Him!

Christ is from heaven, go to meet Him!

Christ is on earth, be ye lifted up.

Sing to the Lord, all the earth!

Sing out with gladness, all ye people.

For He is glorified!

Blessed Feast!