Apodosis of the Nativity of the Mother of God

Sunday Before Exalation of the Cross

Today we find ourselves on the leave-taking of the feast of the Nativity of the Mother of God and in preparation for the coming feast of the Exaltation of the Cross. What beauty and meaning the Holy Church provides for us in the cycle of feasts which we celebrate throughout the year!

The feast which is concluding today is the great feast of the Nativity of the Mother of God. The Church year begins with this celebration of the birth of she who will give birth to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. There is so much joy and hope in this celebration! Through this young girl, all that God wishes for mankind is made manifest. She lived her life in great purity and piety… indeed being raised from a very young age within the temple in Jerusalem. Her purity of soul prepared the temple of her body to receive the Son of God. And now she is close beside Him in the Kingdom of Heaven, interceding for all those who turn to her in prayer. She is a quick helper to all those who call upon her in need.

As one homilist wrote: ‘How often in life do we experience a thirst for purity, renewal, and joy. And how often does our unworthiness, do our sins obscure the light of joy and Divine brightness? On the day of the Birth of our Lady Theotokos we turn to her, and we ask the Most Pure and Blameless One to help us be victorious over sin and all impurity, so that with a pure heart we might glorify God and rejoice in Him. Whoever runs to her with faith and hope will not leave empty and unheard, for to her is given the grace to pray for us and help us. Amen.’

Indeed, whoever turns to the Mother of God with faith and hope will not leave empty-handed

My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, we have begun a new year and we stand in the joyful light of the good news of the birth of the Mother of God. Her parents, Joachim and Anna, suffered for so many years of barrenness… they prayed daily that God would grant them a child, and in due time, God granted them this joy. So too must we, who may suffer from the barrenness of our soul, from the frustrations of the unfruitfulness of our spiritual life… we must also patiently and persistently pray to God that He would enkindle the divine spark within us, that the light of Christ might be born in us.

And as we take leave of this glorious feast, we now look to the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Tomorrow evening we will begin to celebrate the feast of the Exaltation of the Cross. This feast commemorates the finding of the Cross of our Lord by the pious Empress Helen, the mother of Emperor Constantine. She oversaw excavations at the site of Golgotha and, by God’s providence, three crosses were discovered: two were the crosses of the thieves crucified with our Lord, and one was the cross of Christ. In order to reveal which of the three was our Lord’s Cross, a sick woman was brought and likewise a dead man who was being carried to burial. The three crosses were laid in turn one by one upon the sick woman and upon the dead man. Two of the crosses had no effect, but through contact with the third cross, the sick woman was healed of her infirmity and the dead man came to life. These miracles clearly indicated which of the three was Christ's Cross.

Hearing of this discovery, all the faithful desired to see the Cross of the Lord and to venerate it. The Patriarch of Jerusalem, Makarios, took the Cross onto a raised platform and lifting it on high, exalted it for all to see. The people fell to their knees, bowing down before the Cross and crying out repeatedly: ‘Lord, have mercy!’

The Cross, once an instrument of capital punishment, of disgrace and torture – has now become the symbol of our greatest hope! As the Apostle Paul writes: ‘For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.’

These two feasts which start the new Church year – the Nativity of the Mother of God and the Exaltation of the Precious Cross of our Lord – are both bound up with the birth of our salvation.

With the nativity of the Most Holy Mother of God, the hope of our salvation finally comes to fruition. The incarnation of the long-awaited One Who will redeem mankind now becomes a reality with the birth of His Most Pure Mother.

And the Cross becomes the focal point of our new birth into life eternal with God. Those gates of Paradise which were closed to mankind are burst open as Christ tramples down death by death.

May the radiance of these two great feasts shine upon all of us. May they warm our hearts with gratitude to God, Who deigns to enter into human history by being born of the Virgin Mary, and Who accepts upon Himself the humiliation of death upon the cross… overcoming that death by His Life-creating Divinity and opening unto us the hope and joy of life eternal with Him.