Holy Trinity Cathedral, San Francisco, California
August 16, 2025
In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Today, we continue to celebrate the great feast of the Dormition of the Most Holy Theotokos.
As Christians, we understand that death, the last enemy, has already been defeated by Christ on the Cross. Therefore, we know that death is no longer our final end, a consignment to the darkness of Sheol. Instead, death is now a falling asleep: just as Christ fell asleep on the Cross to rise on the third day, so do we fall asleep in the flesh to rise again at the sounding of the trumpet on the last day. This is the literal meaning of dormition: fall asleep.
We also understand death as a new and true birth. The ancient word for a saint’s feast in Latin is natalis, his birthday. St. Maximus the Confessor likens this world to a womb, and, in this view, death is our birth into true life, a life that is not temporary, but eternal.
As we celebrate the Dormition of the Theotokos, we see in her both of these new understandings of death in light of the saving work of her Son Jesus Christ. Like her Son, the Theotokos passed through death and fell asleep for three days, being raised by him on the third day. Her resurrection is an assurance that Christ’s Resurrection applies, not just to himself, the God-man, but each of the saved, each member of the Church, his Bride.
On traditional icons of the Dormition, we further see that this falling asleep is also a new birth. On icons of the Nativity, the Theotokos lies in the center, with the newborn Christ in her arms. In icons of the Dormition, the Mother of God lies again at the center, asleep in the flesh, but above her is the full grown Christ, holding in his arms what appears to be a baby girl – the soul of the most holy Theotokos.
This is the true emphasis of the feast: the entrance of the Mother of God into heaven, where she now stands always in intercession for the Christian people. In celebrating her Dormition, we are not primarily celebrating her physical death, or even her physical resurrection, however befitting and glorious that bodily rising may be. Rather, the accent in the hymnography for the feast is on the Theotokos’s abiding intercession and undying, unyielding care for all of us, her children adopted through the Cross of Christ.
We recall what the Lord said to his disciples on Holy Thursday: “It is to your advantage if I go away.” Likewise, it was to our advantage that the Mother of God has departed the narrow confines of this mortal world. In the days of her flesh, it is true, she was a comfort and joy to the apostles of Christ, but they had to travel from around the world to see her. Indeed, it was only by a miracle that they were able to gather for her funeral. But now that she has passed beyond this world, she is available to everyone, everywhere, at all times. Whenever we venerate her icon, address her in prayer, or praise her in song, she is present to us.
Indeed, St. Gregory Palamas, in his homily on the Dormition, teaches that, such were the Mother of God’s purity and holiness that she was not subject to death in the same way as other mortals; rather, she died in obedient emulation of her and for our sake, that she might rise, be assumed into heaven, and take on the role of the steadfast protectress of the Christian faithful.
Therefore, as we remember her falling asleep, we show prayerful gratitude for her willingness to pass through death with her Son that she might become for us a most powerful intercessor in his presence forever.
Through the prayers of his most pure Mother, may Christ our true God have mercy on us always, all the days of our life. Moreover, by intercessions of her whose Dormition we celebrate, may he grant us a death that is painless, blameless, and peaceful, so that falling asleep to this world, we may awaken unto a day that never knows night, and so that passing beyond this womb-like existence, we may, as children of God reborn by grace, delight in true and divine life forever.
Amen.
Most holy Theotokos, save us!