Homily I — Death made blessed, and her burial
O wonder truly beyond nature! O astonishing events! Death, once loathed and hated, is now praised and called blessed. What once brought mourning and gloom, tears and sadness, has now been shown to be the cause of joy and festival. It is true that for all the servants of God whose death is called blessed, it is the end that brings the security of having pleased God, and for this reason their death is called blessed. For death perfects them and shows them to be blessed, granting that their virtue can no longer change, according to the saying: 'Call no one blessed before his death' (Sirach 11:28). But we shall not take this to apply to you. For your blessedness is not your death; your passing did not become your perfecting, nor does your departure bestow your security. For in your case the beginning, the middle and the end of all the good things that pass understanding, and their security and true confirmation, were the conception without seed, the divine indwelling and the birth without corruption. That is why you truly said that you would be called blessed by all generations (Luke 1:48), not from your death but from the conception itself. So death did not make you blessed; rather, you made death glorious, undoing its gloom and showing death to be joy. And so your sacred and all-blameless body was given over to a holy burial. Angels ran before it, surrounded it and followed it, doing whatever it was fitting to do in service of the mother of their own Master, while the apostles and the whole fullness of the Church cried aloud hymns inspired by God, set ringing by the Spirit: 'We shall be filled with the good things of your house; holy is your temple, wonderful in righteousness' (Psalm 65:4–5). And again: 'The Most High has sanctified his dwelling' (Psalm 46:4). 'The mountain of God, a rich mountain, the mountain in which God was pleased to dwell' (Psalm 68:15–16). The company of the apostles lifted you, the true ark of the Lord God, on their shoulders, as once the priests lifted the ark that was a figure (Joshua 3:14–17); and laying you in a tomb, they escorted you through it, as through a kind of Jordan, to the true land of promise, I mean the Jerusalem above, the mother of all the faithful (Galatians 4:26), whose designer and maker is God (Hebrews 11:10). For your soul did not go down into Hades, nor did your flesh see corruption (Psalm 16:10). Your undefiled and all-pure body was not left behind on earth; you have been carried over to the royal dwellings of heaven, you the Queen, the Lady, the Sovereign, the Mother of God, she who truly gave birth to God.
Greek
Ὦ θαύματος ὄντως ὑπερφυοῦς! ὦ πραγμάτων ἐκπλήξεως. Ὁ πάλαι βδελυκτὸς καὶ μισούμενος θάνατος, καὶ εὐφημεῖται καὶ μακαρίζεται. Ὁ πάλαι πένθους καὶ κατηφείας, δακρύων τε καὶ σκυθρωπότητος πρόξενος, νῦν χαρᾶς ἀναδέδεικται καὶ πανηγύρεως αἴτιος. Ὅμως εἰ καὶ πᾶσι τοῖς τοῦ Θεοῦ θεράπουσιν, ὧν ὁ θάνατος μακαρίζεται, ἐκ τοῦ τέλους τὸ ἀσφαλὲς περιγίνεται τῆς πρὸς Θεὸν εὐαρεστήσεως, καὶ τούτου χάριν ὁ θάνατος αὐτῶν μακαρίζεται. Τελειοῖ γὰρ αὐτοὺς, καὶ μακαρίους δείκνυσι, τὸ ἄτρεπτον τῆς ἀρετῆς χαριζόμενος, κατὰ τὸ φάσκον λόγιον· μὴ μακάριζε ἄνδρα πρὸ τελευτῆς αὐτοῦ· ἀλλ' οὐκ ἐπὶ σοὶ τοῦτο ληψόμεθα. Σοῦ γὰρ μακαρισμὸς, οὐχ ὁ θάνατος· οὐδὲ ἡ μετάστασις τελείωσις γέγονεν, οὐδ' αὖ πάλιν ἡ ἐκδημία χαρίζεται τὴν ἀσφάλειαν. Πάντων γὰρ σὺ τῶν ὑπὲρ νοῦν ἀγαθῶν ἀρχὴ, καὶ μεσότης, καὶ τέλος, ἀσφάλειά τε καὶ ἀληθὴς βεβαίωσις, ἡ ἄσπορος σύλληψις, ἡ θεία ἐνοίκησις, ὁ τόκος ὁ ἄφθορος γέγονεν. Ὅθεν ἀληθῶς ἔφησας, οὐκ ἀπὸ τοῦ θανάτου, ἀλλ' ἐξ αὐτῆς τῆς συλλήψεως ὑπὸ πασῶν τῶν γενεῶν μακαρίζεσθαι. Ἐντεῦθεν οὐ σὲ ὁ θάνατος ἐμακάρισεν, ἀλλ' αὐτὴ τὸν θάνατον κατηγλάϊσας, τὴν τούτου κατήφειαν λύσασα, καὶ χαρὰν τὸν θάνατον δείξασα. Ὅθεν σου τὸ ἱερὸν καὶ πανάμωμον σῶμα ὁσίᾳ ταφῇ παρεδίδοτο, προτρεχόντων ἀγγέλων, περικυκλούντων, ἑπομένων, μήτι πραττόντων ὧν εἰκὸς τῇ μητρὶ τοῦ ἑαυτῶν λειτουργῆσαι Δεσπότου, ἀποστόλων, καὶ παντὸς τοῦ τῆς Ἐκκλησίας πληρώματος θεηγορικοὺς ὕμνους ἐκβοώντων, καὶ κροτουμένων τῷ πνεύματι· Πλησθησόμεθα ἐν τοῖς ἀγαθοῖς τοῦ οἴκου σου· ἅγιος, ὁ ναός σου, θαυμαστὸς ἐν δικαιοσύνῃ. Καὶ πάλιν· Ἡγίασε τὸ σκήνωμα αὐτοῦ ὁ Ὕψιστος. Ὄρος τοῦ Θεοῦ, ὄρος πῖον· τὸ ὄρος ὃ εὐδόκησεν ὁ Θεὸς κατοικεῖν ἐν αὐτῷ. Σὲ τῶν ἀποστόλων ὁ δῆμος τὴν ἀληθῆ κιβωτὸν Κυρίου τοῦ Θεοῦ ἐπὶ τῶν ὤμων ἀράμενοι, ὡς πάλαι ποτὲ οἱ ἱερεῖς τὴν τυπικὴν κιβωτὸν, καὶ ἐν τάφῳ θέμενοι, δι' αὐτοῦ, ὡς δι' Ἰορδάνου τινὸς, ἐπὶ τὴν ἀληθῆ τῆς ἐπαγγελίας παρέπεμπον γῆν, τὴν ἄνω φημὶ Ἱερουσαλὴμ, τὴν πάντων τῶν πιστῶν μητέρα, ἧς τεχνίτης καὶ δημιουργὸς ὁ Θεός. Οὐ κατελήλυθε γὰρ ἡ ψυχή σου εἰς τὸν ᾅδην, ἀλλ' οὐδὲ ἡ σάρξ σου εἶδε διαφθοράν. Οὐκ ἀπελείφθη ἐν γῇ τὸ σὸν ἄχραντον καὶ πανακήρατον σῶμα, ἀλλ' ἐν οὐρανῶν βασιλείοις μοναῖς ἡ βασιλὶς, ἡ κυρία, ἡ δέσποινα, ἡ Θεομήτωρ, ἡ ἀληθὴς Θεοτόκος μετατεθεῖσα.