👉🏾👉🏾👉🏾The Mystery of #Monday’s #Praise of the Virgin Mary
Beloved in Christ, children of the Holy Church, Grace and peace be to you from God, who out of His boundless mercy has not left us in darkness, but has shone upon us the light of salvation through His Only-Begotten Son, born of the Most Holy Virgin Mary. Today, on this blessed Monday, let us unfold the mystery hidden from ages how the mercy of God was revealed to Adam, how the glory of His love was made manifest in the Virgin, and how our salvation was accomplished in the flesh of Christ.
I. The Mercy of God Toward Fallen Adam
Brethren, consider the boundless compassion of our God! When Adam, the first-formed man, fell through transgression, he was cast out from Paradise, stripped of his glory, and made subject to death. For five thousand and five hundred years, he languished in bondage to the devil, groaning under the weight of his condemnation: "Dust you are, and to dust you shall return" (Gen. 3:19). Yet, the Lord, who is rich in mercy, did not abandon him to eternal ruin.
Behold the patience of God! He did not immediately pass judgment upon Adam and Eve, but rather, like a loving father seeking his lost child, He called out, "Where are you?" (Gen. 3:9). As St. Ephrem the Syrian teaches, this was not a voice of wrath, but of tender solicitude a divine summons to repentance. Yet, Adam, shrouded in shame, hid himself. Still, the Lord did not cease calling, just as He sends forth His prophets, and finally, His only-begotten Son, to seek and to save that which was lost (Luke 19:10).
O the depth of God’s love! As St. John Chrysostom proclaims, He who once pronounced judgment upon Adam later restored him, saying through the thief on the cross, "Today you shall be with Me in Paradise" (Luke 23:43). What was lost through disobedience is regained through the obedience of the Second Adam—Christ our Lord.
II. The All-Holy Theotokos: The Pure Vessel of the Incarnation
But how was this redemption accomplished? Through the womb of the Ever-Virgin Mary, the Mother of God!
Hearken, O faithful, to the marvel of her purity! Other women are purified in due season, but she was preserved from all defilement from the moment of her conception. As St. Theodotus proclaims, she remained "unchanged in mind and body, pure in soul and virginity."* Other women bear children in the way of nature, but she O wondrous mystery! conceived without seed, bore without corruption, and remained virgin after childbirth.
What honor can we give her that is sufficient? Other women are praised for bearing righteous men, martyrs, or teachers, but she bore God incarnate! She is the one who united in her person motherhood with virginity, servitude with divine dignity, nourishing with her milk the very One who sustains the sun and moon. The Cherubim tremble before Him, yet He deigned to dwell in her womb for nine months and five days!
And why was Christ born of a virgin?
1. To fulfill prophecy: "Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a Son" (Isa. 7:14).
2. To manifest divine power: Had He been born of seed, men might have doubted His divinity, as St. Gregory the Theologian warns.
3. To restore the likeness of Adam: As Adam was formed from the virgin earth, so Christ was formed from the Virgin’s womb. As Eve came from Adam’s side, so the Church flows from Christ’s pierced side.
Thus, the Virgin Mary is the new Eve, through whom life is restored to the world.
Continues 👇🏾