ON THE ENTRY INTO THE HOLY OF HOLIES OF THE MOTHER OF GOD AND EVER-VIRGIN MARY
(November 21)
by St. Gregory Palamas, Archbishop of Thessalonica (1296-1357)
[This extract of Homily 53 is translated by Christopher Veniamin, in Saint Gregory Palamas the Homilies (Mount Thabor Publishing, 2009)]If someone attempts to touch the stars with his hand, even though he is tall and stretches his arm further than the rest, he is almost as far away from those ethereal heights as men of much shorter stature, the difference not being worth mentioning. In the same way, on subjects transcending words, eminent speakers are not significantly better at saying something than anyone else.
The highest summit of all the saints, the Mother of God, passes, in the words of the Psalm, “into the place of the wonderful tabernacle,” entering the Holy of Holies “with the voice of joy and praise” (Ps. 41:4), the inspired sound of those escorting her then, and us keeping the festival now. She is more exalted than the saints in heaven, and not only would it be impossible for anyone on his own to come anywhere near to honoring her as she deserves, but neither could all those together who have been saved by her Son, even if all were to be united as one voice. The whole creation would fall short of offering her the glory that befits her, for she has become the mother of the Creator of all. How could any words of ours adequately express the great things done for her by her Son, even taking all of us together?
In the beginning, God put on earth every kind of sensible, sentient creature, but as none of these at all had a mind, He formed man with this capacity. As the human race progressed, there was no one able to contain God, as the situation demanded, “By whom are all things, and for whom are all things,” to use the apostle’s phrase (Heb. 2:10). So later He graciously willed to create this ever-virgin Maid, His palace, if I may use the expression, who was shown to be capable of holding the fullness of the Godhead bodily (Col. 2:9) on account of her utmost purity, able not simply to contain Him but – O marvelous wonder! – to bring Him to birth and to form for all men, before and after her time, ties of kinship with God.
Two races were chosen by God throughout the ages, and between these two stands the Mother of God, conspicuous in her pre-eminence, the living image of everything good, the human icon of every virtue, the shrine and focal point of divine and human graces, to be emulated, as it were, by heaven and earth and what lies beyond them, to the common benefit of all. She is the sacred starting point of the spiritual Israel, by which I mean all Christian people, because she was the cause of Him who is above all causality, and through Him she lifted men up from the earth and rendered them heavenly, showing them to be spirit instead of flesh, and making them children of God. As for the carnal Israel, of whom she was born according to the flesh, she exalted her ancestors to such glory that through her they are called God’s forefathers.
Indeed, to express the honor of the virgin Bride as is her due, she did not just act as a mediator for certain chosen races, but, standing between God and every race of men, she made God the Son of man, and men the sons of God. She alone was shown to be the natural mother of God in a supernatural way, and by her indescribable child-bearing she became the Queen of the entire creation in this world and beyond, for “all things were made by Him” who was born of her, “and without Him was not anything made that was made” (John 1:3).
Who can look into the innermost sanctuary, not to mention enter its depths? Who can reach even the outer doors of the place where He who dwells far above all that exists rested, the King of heaven and sovereign Lord, who by His nature has power over all things? What words can come anywhere near being worthy of her, even if, without attempting to speak of her directly, they tell of matters concerning her, which happened before and after her indescribable child-bearing? Who can adequately describe how she was provided with ineffable nourishment, how people were guided from above to come from far away to venerate her, the praise is sung by a multitude of angels which united heaven and earth, and brought both into obedience to this universal Queen?
Prior to all these events, however, and because of them, there were pronouncements by inspired prophets, miracles which obscurely foreshadowed the great miracle to come, spiritual ordinances which prefigured in various ways the truth that was to be, changes affecting nations and history which opened the way for the new mystery to be accomplished, the promise which God made and kept to Joachim and Anna that they would have a child in old age, although they had been childless since their youth, and this admirable couple’s vow to God that they would give back the gift of their daughter to the Giver. In accordance with this truly worthy and most righteous vow, they went up to the holy Temple with their promised child, and the heavenly Queen made her extraordinary entry into the Holy of Holies, the place reserved solely for God, where He once a year received the current high priests when they went in (Ex. 30:10; Lev. 16:2, 34; Heb. 9:7), and where the Virgin Mother entered at three years of age, and stayed for our sake. (See the Proto-Gospel [Protevangelium] of James, mid-second century.)
We keep festival this day because we have seen the prize won for the good of us all by her unrivalled patient endurance there: God’s marvelous descent to earth through her and our own glorious ascent to heaven through Him. While the holy Maid dwelt in the innermost sanctuary, she “Made high ascents in her heart” (Ps. 84:5), which truly reached as far as the heavens themselves, and drew the heavenly Lord thence to us. There, according to the Scripture, “The King’s daughter was all glorious within” (Ps. 44:13), and, as she was vastly superior to the rest of mankind in the inexpressible beauty of her purity, it pleased the Creator to prepare from her, His creature, as from radiant gold, an image sharing His divine nature, and “being made in the likeness of men” (Phil. 2:7) – O Lord, how ineffable is Your love for mankind! – He adapted the work of His hands to be worthy of Him, its Maker.
Anybody who considers how she represents and bestows everything good, will say that the Virgin fulfills the same role as regards virtue for those living virtuously as the sun does in relation to visible light for those who live by it, and that what happened to light in the beginning foreshadowed and prefigured the wonders to be accomplished later concerning her (cf. Gen. 1:1-3, 16-18). If, however, you turn the eyes of your understanding towards the Sun, who rose marvelously upon men from her, and who has by His nature all the gifts which accrued to her by grace, and more besides; if you turn your mind’s eye to Him, the Virgin will immediately appear to be heaven, blessed with the possession of everything noble, and as much more radiant than divinely favored beings both on earth and in heaven, just as the heavens are larger than the sun, though the sun is brighter than the heavens.
Possessing so many spiritual gifts and natural endowments from her mother’s womb, she did not take in any sort of additional knowledge – for this in my opinion is how we should regard what is learned from lessons – by studying with teachers. Instead, making her sovereign mind obedient to God in everything, she decisively abandoned human instruction and so received abundant wisdom from above, at an age when parents place children into the care of teachers and hand them over to schoolmasters, regardless of their own will, because they are so young. Within the innermost sanctuary, as though in a sublime palace, she was committed to God, as a living, royal throne, higher than any other, and provided with all the virtues appropriate to the great King who was to sit there.
How can these events fail to inspire amazement? The three-year-old puts herself into the hands of him (i.e., the high priest) who can direct her course in accordance with higher providence. She makes her own wise choice between nature and its Creator, and gives higher esteem to what is better. She chooses God instead of her mother and father’s embrace, and prefers God’s Temple and its high priest to being cosseted at home. Reckoning all these things worthless, but valuing God and everything pertaining to Him above all else, she ran gladly towards His Temple.
Surely it was of her that David the prophet said to God, “Justice and judgment are the preparation of Thy throne” (Ps. 88:14), and “Righteousness and judgment are the achievement of His throne” (Ps. 96:2). For she is styled the living throne of God, and in fact this honor belongs solely to her (because the word “throne” in the singular is not actually used of the bodiless, heavenly orders). It is through her rather than by means of those angelic Thrones that the foundation of great justice and ineffable righteousness came about and was revealed. So even before her birth the Virgin’s discerning judgment was extolled, and now, before she had grown up, she publicly demonstrated its steadfastness.
If anyone draws attention to the fact that afterwards the Virgin went out among people, he should be aware that he is greatly enhancing her superiority. For as the only-begotten Son of the Father came down from the sanctuary of heaven for our sake, so she too came forth for our sake from the sanctuary of the Temple. The unwedded Bride of the immortal Father was betrothed to a mortal man, not because this was necessary for her, but to make known to us by means of witnesses the great miracle of her indescribable child-bearing.
The sun rises upon us at intervals and continuously moves around us in a circle, so that no one is hidden from its heat, according to the Scripture – “His going forth,” it says, “is from the end of the heaven, and his circuit unto the ends of it” (Ps. 18:6), meaning, back to the point at which it came out. In the same way, the all-pure Virgin made her departure from mankind when she entered the Holy of Holies, then she went back among men, in order that, being pre-eminent in holiness, she might share the inalienable gift of hallowing with everyone. Nowhere was excluded, not even the world’s secret places, that is to say, that innermost sanctuary.
Do you see how the whole creation gives thanks to the Virgin Mother, not in years gone by, but for ever and ever to endless ages? From this it can be understood that she too will never cease throughout the ages to do good to the whole creation, not just our own, but also to the immaterial, supernatural orders. For Isaiah gave clear proof that they, like us, only commune with, and touch, the intangible divine nature through her. He did not see the seraph taking the burning coal directly from the altar, but taking it by means of tongs, with which he also touched the prophet’s lips and bestowed cleansing (Isa. 6:6-7). The vision of the tongs is equivalent to the great vision seen by Moses of the burning bush which was not consumed (Ex. 3:2). Surely, everyone is aware that the Virgin Mother is both that burning bush and those tongs, as she conceived the divine fire without being consumed by fire. An archangel also ministered at that conception, and through her he united Him who takes away the sins of the world with the human race, thoroughly cleansing us by this union (Lk. 1:26f.).
She alone forms the boundary between created and uncreated nature, and no one can come to God except through her and the Mediator born of her, and none of God’s gifts can be bestowed on angels or men except through her.
Just as it was through her alone that He came to us, and “appeared on earth and lived among men” (Baruch 3:37), whereas previously He was invisible to all, so in the unending age that follows, any progress toward divine illumination, every revelation of the mysteries of the divine order, and every kind of spiritual gift is beyond the capacity of anyone, without her. Being the first to receive “the fullness of Him that filleth all” (Eph. 1:23), she brought Him within grasp of all, sharing with each according to his strength and in proportion to the measure of his purity. Thus she is both the treasury and the treasurer of the riches of the Godhead, and the highest ranks of cherubim look to her and trust in her.
She is the reason for everything which preceded her, the protectress of everything which came after, and the cause of eternal blessings. She is the theme of the prophets, the starting-point of the apostles, the support of the martyrs, the foundation of teachers. She is the glory of those on earth, the delight of those in heaven, the adornment of the whole creation. She is the beginning, source, and root of good things past telling, the summit and fulfillment of everything holy.
The Virgin entered the Holy of Holies. At once she looked around and, when she saw that it pleased her, she felt it was a suitable place for her to stay. Through the beauty of what she saw, she immediately cast her mind’s eye to unseen beauties, and no longer counted anything on earth delightful. Having risen above the needs of human nature and the pleasures of the senses, she decided that sights that are fair to look upon are not even worth seeing, and that things that are good to eat should be ignored. In this way, she was the first and only person to be shown to be in no danger from him (i.e., the devil) who imposes his tyranny on us by these means, and in her turn she triumphed over him. She did not struggle with him just from morning until evening, nor just concerning the fruit of one plant (Gen. 3:2-9), but for the space of many years in respect of all the various pleasures invented by the powers of darkness as bait to catch souls. This holy Maid, alone of mankind, utterly despised all these delights while still an infant, and as a reward was rightly brought food from heaven by an angel, by which she was physically strengthened, and which served as a testimony that her way of life was worthy of heaven.
She lived, as though in paradise, in a place removed from the earth, or rather, as though in the courts of heaven, for that sanctuary was a symbol of those courts. Thus she led an unencumbered life without cares or occupation, free from sorrow, with no share in base passions, above that pleasure which is inseparable from pain. She lived for God alone and was sustained and preserved only by Him who was to pitch His tent among us through her. Obviously she saw only God, making God her delight and continually waiting on Him. With profound understanding she listened to the writings of Moses and the revelations of the other prophets when, every Saturday, all the people gathered outside, as the law ordained.
Having thought over these things so relevant to her, the Virgin full of grace interceded for all humanity in an amazing way defying description. Since the Virgin recognized that nothing revealed by men before her time went this far, she inaugurated something better and more perfect. She invented, put into practice, and handed down to those who came after her, a practice higher than any vision, and a vision far superior to that which was formerly so highly acclaimed as the truth is superior to imagination.
Let us consider, from a theological and philosophical point of view, things completely free from matter, a subject which the Greeks, or rather the fathers and patrons of the art, called the first philosophy, being unaware of any higher kind of contemplation. Even this, although it contains some truth, is as far removed from the vision of God, and as different from converse with Him, as possessing is distinct from knowing. Saying something about God is not the same as encountering Him.
It is absolutely impossible, however, to truly encounter God unless, in addition to being cleansed, we go outside, or rather, beyond ourselves, leaving behind everything perceptible to our senses, together with our ability to perceive, and being lifted up above thoughts, reason, and every kind of knowledge, above even the mind itself, and wholly given over to the energy of spiritual perception, which Solomon calls divine awareness (Prov. 2:3-5), we attain to that unknowing which lies beyond knowledge, that is to say, above every kind of much-vaunted philosophy, even though the purpose of the most excellent part of philosophy is knowledge.
Seeking after this – for it is absolutely necessary for ambassadors to meet those to whom they have been sent – the Virgin found that holy stillness was her guide: stillness, in which the mind and the world stand still (cf. Ps. 45:10; Gk., hesychia), forgetfulness of the things below, initiation into the things above, the laying aside of ideas for something better. This is true activity, a means of approaching contemplation or, to state it more aptly, the vision of God, which is the only proof of a soul in good health. Every other virtue is like healing medicine for the soul’s illnesses and the evil passions which have put down roots in it through sloth. Contemplation, by contrast, is the fruit of a healthy soul; it aims to achieve a certain end and is of a kind that deifies; for it is through contemplation that a person is made divine, not by speculative analogies on the basis of skillful reasoning and observations – perish the thought (for that would be something base and human) – but under the guidance of stillness. Continuing in our life’s upper room, as it were, in prayers and supplications night and day (Acts 1:13-14), in some way we touch that blessed nature that cannot be touched.
The immediate proof of this is the Virgin, who, having kept company with quietness from the earliest age, brings the greatest benefits to us, and commends to God those in need as no one else can. She alone lived in holy quiet from such early childhood in a manner surpassing nature, and she alone of the human race bore the Word, who is the God-man, without knowing man. She prudently understood what the apostle, too, said later: “The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God” (1 Cor. 2:14). She therefore looked for something higher, a truly spiritual life unadulterated with earthly concerns, and, in a way which goes beyond the limitations of created nature, she longed for God and heavenly union with Him.
She found that the purest thing in us, the only perfect and indivisible essence that we have, is precisely intended by nature for this holy and divine love. As the greatest power of the soul, the mind defines and unifies even those processes of reason upon which the things pertaining to the sciences are based, which creep forward almost like reptiles, together or individually, making inferences and interpretations. Although the mind can come down to the level of human reasoning, and by it to a life full of complexities, since its energies are available for all, yet it indubitably has another, superior mode of operation, which it is capable of putting into action by itself. For it is able to remain on its own, either when separated from the body and the things pertaining to the body, or when, although still bound to it, it is enabled, by means of diligence, and assisted by divine grace, to leave behind this varied, complex, and lowly way of living.
The all-pure Virgin threw off those ties from the very beginning of her life, and withdrew from people. She escaped from a blame-worthy way of life, and chose to live in solitude out of sight of all, inside the sanctuary. There, having loosed every bond with material things, shaken off every tie and even risen above sympathy towards her own body, she united her mind with its turning towards itself and attention, and with unceasing holy prayer. Having become her own mistress by this means, and being established above the jumble of thoughts in all their different guises, and above absolutely every form of being, she constructed a new and indescribable way to heaven, which I would call silence of the mind. Intent upon this silence, she flew high above all created things, saw God’s glory more clearly than Moses (Ex. 33:18-23), and beheld divine grace, which is not at all within the capacity of men’s senses, but it is a gracious and holy sight for spotless souls and minds. Partaking of this vision, she became, according to the sacred hymnographers, a radiant cloud of the truly living water, the dawn of the mystical day, and the fiery chariot of the Word.
For this reason, she alone of all mankind throughout the ages was initiated into the highest mysteries by these divine visions, was united in this way with God, and became like Him. She then accomplished the super-human role of intercessor on our behalf, and brought it to perfection through herself, not just acquiring the exaltation of mind that lies beyond reason, but using it for the sake of us all, and achieving this great and surpassingly great deed by means of her boldness towards God. For she did not merely come to resemble God, but she also made God in the likeness of man, not just by persuading Him, but by conceiving Him without seed and bearing Him in a way past telling. Having been fashioned by God through grace – which is why she was addressed as “thou that art full of grace” by the archangel – she shaped God in human form – which is why she was given the good tidings with the greeting, “Rejoice” (Lk. 1:28).
“Who shall tell of your mighty acts, O Virgin, or who can show forth all your praise, whose child is divine?” (Ps. 105:2). You became the Mother of God. You have united the mind with God. You have joined God with flesh. You have made God the Son of man, and man the son of God. You have reconciled the world to the Creator of the world. By your deeds, you have taught us that visions do not come to those who are truly human through their senses alone, or even through their thoughts – for then they would be little better than beasts – but much more by means of the purification of the mind and by participation in divine grace, through which we shall delight in the divine beauties, not by thoughts but by immaterial contact.
She did not bring us temporary relief through rain, but brought us the Treasure of all goodness, the everlasting fount that springs without ceasing from the Father’s bosom, the Word who is seated above the vaults of heaven. Thence He has brought us living water, and bestowed on us food which makes those who partake of it immortal and sons of God, not adopted merely in name, but in the fellowship of the Holy Spirit – O ineffable gift! – brought close to God and one to another through God’s flesh and blood.
Let us therefore preserve this unity with God and one another, which has been divinely wrought within us by God through the ordinances of love. Let us always look to our heavenly Father. Let us forsake the world, for we are no longer of the earth, earthy, like the first man, but like the second man, the Lord, from heaven (1 Cor. 15:47). Let us lift up our hearts to Him. Let us contemplate this magnificent spectacle, our nature dwelling eternally with the immaterial fire of the Godhead. And putting aside our coats of skins (Gen. 3:21), in which we were clothed as a result of transgression, let us stand in the holy place, each of us marking out his own holy ground through virtue and by turning unswervingly towards God, that, as God dwells in fire, we may have boldness to run towards Him and be enlightened and, once illumined, to live with Him in the glory of His sublime light, the radiance of three suns and one sovereignty.
