Reflection on the Feast of the Entrance of the Theotokos into the Temple

Today, the holy Maiden enters into the temple of the Old Law, and all the shadowy symbols of the ancient covenant—the jar, the staff, the golden censer, the ark with the cherubim—are fulfilled. “Today is the prelude of the good will of God, of the preaching of the salvation of mankind. The Virgin appears in the temple of God, in anticipation proclaiming Christ to all.” As she takes up residence in the holy of holies, the Virgin Mary activates the dead letter of the Mosaic Law: it is now a living word, proclaiming the coming of Christ, who enters the world through the Theotokos, she who is the true meaning of the scriptures, the true meaning of the world. In the words of Saint Gregory Palamas, “she alone is the frontier between created and uncreated nature. . . . . She is the cause of the benefits which preceded her . . . and through her those good things which are eternal shall be received. She is the theme of the prophets, the first of the apostles.”