Fr David 020907

The Orthodox Parish of St Aidan & St Chad, Nottingham

ECUMENICAL PATRIARCHATE

EPISCOPAL VICARIATE OF GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND

Exarchate of Parishes

of Russian Tradition in Western Europe

Fr David, 2/9/07
Afterfeast of the Dormition

" The Kingdom of heaven is like a certain king who arranged a marriage feast for his son,......." ( Matt 22:1-14)

The king spared no trouble to set out this feast and expected that his loyal subjects would readily attend, but those who were invited were not willing to come. On the second invitation, as the king stressed the trouble he had taken, they "made light of it and went their ways, one to his own farm, another to his business".

This parable is usually interpreted as the transfer of the Kingdom from the chosen people, the Jews, to Gentiles. One can speculate on the reasons for their refusal to accept God's invitation. Paul speaks of those who are devotees of the Law but who in their observance of it somehow miss out God. Others are simply distracted and the excuses made have a very modern ring about them: " one went to his own farm, another to his business". On this particular day in our own time, one would be going shopping and another to a football match. People will not recognise this as such, but it is a return to the devotion of pagan idols, that which provides an alternative means of devotion rather than to the living God.

Fortunately, not all Jews refused to attend the king's wedding feast. Joachim and Anna were particularly attentive to God. Their daughter, Mary, was so attentive, as it were waiting on tip-toe for God's invitation, that she became the instrument of his great plan of salvation. Her cousin Elizabeth's son was John the Baptist. Then there was Simeon, who received the infant Jesus in the Temple on the fortieth
day after His birth, Hannah, the prophetess, Nicodemus who came to our Lord by night, the disciples and eventually the Apostles who would take
the saving Good News of the Gospel throughout the world. With them, we are now the ones who have been given the wedding garment of baptism and who are invited to the Great Feast.

The many epithets to Mary the Mother of God are sometimes quite extravagant in language and yet convey poignant meaning. Take the seventh morning prayer, the Midnight song to the Most Holy Mother of God, where she is described as Bearer of the life-giving God, Bearer of the never-waning light, Marvellous Palace of the Master, Bearer of the Healer. In this prayer we are encouraged to sing her grace and seek her help. These attributes are to become reality for us:

" Bearer of the life-giving God, enliven me, dead in passions.
Bearer of the never-waning light, enlighten my blinded soul.
Marvellous Palace of the Master, make me a house of the divine Spirit.
Bearer of the Healer, heal my soul from the passions of many years.
Guide me to the path of repentance, for I am tossed in the storm of life."

Why should we seek the help of the Mother of God, when we can also appeal to Our Lord directly?. Because this is the way He directs it to be. He could have spent much more time on earth. Sometimes His life seems to have been much too short. However, in God's view it was sufficient and it enabled His saving work to be continued by His Apostles and all His saints throughout the millennia.

We too are included in this. In heaven we seek the assistance of the Mother of God and the prayers of the saints. On earth we seek the prayer and assistance of any saints we know, but we also seek the help and prayers of each other. This is our Lord's Church on earth and in heaven. Each one of us has a place in that Church and a task to perform. If we are absent there is a vacancy, if we fail to perform our task there is a weakness. In the alternative pursuits I have referred to above, shopping and football, if there is a shop which is not fully staffed and well organised it will fail; if the football team is not full of competent players pulling together it will lose. It is the same in the Church, albeit on a more spiritual plane rather that a purely material one. We have a great task to perform in God's service.

To refer to the Midnight Prayer of the Most Holy Mother of God again, we pray to the Bearer of the life-giving God that we may be enlivened. to the Bearer of the never-waning light that we may be enlightened, to the Marvellous Palace of the Master, that we become a house of the divine Spirit, to the Bearer of the Healer, that we may be healed and guided as we pass through the storm of life with all its distractions. We pray to Our Lord himself, through the prayers of His most pure Mother, that we become faithful servants, ready to accept the invitation to the king's marriage feast with our garment ready to wear. taking our place in His saving plan for those around us.