The Metastasis of the Theotokos
Arise , O Lord, and come to your resting place, you and the ark of your might—Psalm 132 : 8
From the Holy Tradition of our Church, we know about and we believe in the dogma of the Metastasis of the Theotokos.
The Ever-Virgin Mother of the Son of God died bodily. However, because of Her ever - virginity and Her great holiness of life, she was taken from this earth to heaven with Her body, where she is now the Queen who is ‘clothed and adorned’ with the gold attire of Her Virtues.
In the Old Testament, the Ark of the Covenant was the visible dwelling of the invisible God. In the New Testament the Theotokos is the visible dwelling of the God/Man (Theanthropos) Jesus Christ.
From the depths of the ages emerges the blessed desire of the righteous who await the Resurrection of the Lord, but also the resurrection of the Ark, who is the Ever-Virgin Mary, His Holy Mother, who received inside Herself, so lovingly and with such great respect, the Source of Life.
Yes! She became the Mother of Life! As Our Lord is the source of Life, and this fact has been emphasised by Him saying : “ I am the Life, the Truth and the Way.”
The ever-existent Son of God entered time and became “the Son of the Virgin”, thus honouring His All-Holy Mother for the multitude of Her virtues and through the world-wide historic and great event, of becoming the Mother of Life.
For all these she was deemed worthy enough to be glorified and to be placed from earth into heaven along with her body. In the bright heavenly kingdom, in the indescribable glory of God, the Ever-Virgin Mary reigns and is present, as the Queen of all Christians, at the right hand of Her Son and Her God ‘in gold attire clothed and adorned.’
No mortal was ever worthy enough to be considered by the Church as ‘more honoured than the Cherubim and more glorified than the Seraphim’, like the All-Holy Theotokos is, and this honour and glory is according to the Will of God, who, through His Archangel Gabriel, calls Her “the most Highly favoured amongst women”
With your holy Assumption and glorious Metastasis, O Holy Mother of God, we also chant appreciatively with a bold voice:
“The grave and death could not hold the Theotokos, who is unsleeping in her intercessions and an unfailing hope in her mediations. For as the Mother of Life she was translated to life by Him who dwelt in her ever-virgin womb.”
By the late Father Nicholas Moutafis 1931-2001