“As she is, we will be.” The feast of the Dormition.

So much could be said about the importance of the feast of the Dormition the Theotokos (Aug. 15th). Indeed many, beautiful and illuminating commentaries have been composed by the Fathers of the Church that convey its importance. Yet Saint Andrew of Crete’s (who also composed the Canon that we sing in the first week of Great Lent) commentary on the Dormition, is one that I always come back to. Indeed St. Andrew sees in the Dormition of the Theotokos, a  hope for humanity, with the simple phase  “as she is (raised and glorified) we will be”. 

Indeed by our struggle to be faithful, and work to live a life like hers (hearing the “word of God and keeping it” (Lk. 11:27)),  we also will be raised on that last day to life eternal by the perfect love of her son Jesus Christ. Her empty tomb being the template for our empty tombs, her “deathless Dormition”, being the template of for our “translation to life” (as we sing in the Troparion of the feast) . For good reason this feast is known as the “summer Pascha” as it is a witness of God’s saving victory over sin and death (Jn. 5:25) manifested in the Dormition of His mother, and our beloved intercessor, who by her prayers will “deliver our souls from death”.