Speaking the Truth in Love

Characteristic of Eastern Orthodox worship, both liturgical and personal, is the prayers that ask for the intercession of the saints, of the holy people, those whom God has revealed as really being holy, those whom the Church and the leadership of the Church have officially canonized, have set the seal that God has glorified this person. And so we dare to ask their prayers. We believe that they are alive in Christ and with Christ, and they live to intercede for us with him, and that we can ask them to help us and to pray for us, and to beg God’s mercy and grace and forgiveness and kindness and wisdom for us while we are still here alive on earth.

Now when we say, “O holy ones, pray to God for us,” or “Most-holy Theotokos, intercede for us sinners,” “O holy prophet, forerunner, and baptist of the Lord, John, intercede for us sinners,” “Holy apostles, prophets, pray for us sinners,” we do this—and of course sometimes there are Christians who think we ought not to do it, but we Orthodox believe that it is absolutely fitting and proper so to do, that the whole scopos of the New Testament, the whole teaching of what happens to us in Christ and the risen Christ compels us in love to be together with all of the Christians and all the holy people of all the ages who suffered for Christ and with Christ and are already preliminarily, so to speak, enjoying the bliss of the coming kingdom.

But there is one sentence in some church services that really causes some people some difficulty. Some Orthodox are bothered by this exclamation, and many people who come to the church, especially people from Protestantism, they ask this question: How can you possibly say that? And what this sentence is is in regard to Mary, the Mother of God, the Mother of Christ, the Theotokos, because there is a liturgical formula used sometimes in the Orthodox Church that in Greek says, “Hyperagia Theotoke, soson imas.” In Slavonic, it’s Presvyataya Bogoroditsa, spasi nas, and that, translated into English, is: Most-holy Theotokos or Most-holy Birth-giver of God, or All-holy Mother of God—save us. So the prayer is: Save us. It’s not “intercede for us,” it’s not “pray for us,” it’s “save us.”

Sometimes people are scandalized by that. They’ll say, “How can you say to Mary: Save us? Jesus is the Savior. Only God saves. Jesus is the Redeemer. How can you say to a mere mortal person, even if that person is very holy, how can you say: Save us? Why would you say such a thing?” Now, I heard that once a very dedicated, very firm, committed Protestant Christian asked this question to an Orthodox priest. She said to the priest, “How come in your services, you’re always saying: Most-holy Theotokos, save us? Why aren’t you saying: Jesus, save us? Why are you saying: Most-holy Theotokos, save us?” So the priest responded and said to this good woman; he said, “Well, first of all, that expression is used, but it’s not used very often. I mean, you seem to have the impression that it’s being said all the time, so to speak.”

As a matter of fact, it’s never said during the Divine Liturgy, which is the main service of the Orthodox Church. Some traditions will sing that line over the petition that says, “Remembering our most-holy, most-pure, most glorious Lady, Theotokos and ever-virgin Mary, with all the saints, let us commend ourselves and each other and all our life to Christ our God.” So we’re saying we’re commending ourselves with Mary and the saints. But in some Orthodox churches—not all of them, but some of them—the cantors will quietly sing over that, “Most-holy Theotokos, save us,” but it’s not part of the Divine Liturgy; it’s not in the text at all. If you look in a service book, it’s not there. In the hours of the Church, the first, the third, the sixth, and the ninth hour, that exclamation is not at all in the services; it just doesn’t exist there. In compline it’s not there. In baptisms and things like that, the line is not there.

When is it there? Actually, it’s there at the dismissal service of vespers and matins. That’s when people mostly hear it. It’s at the end of the service, when the service is ending, and in the rite of the dismissal of the service when the people are leaving the church. Before they leave the deacon will say, “Wisdom!” and then the people will say, “Father, bless,” or “Give the blessing,” and then the priest will say, “Christ our true God, he who is, the ho on, the Yahweh, the existing One, is blessed always, now and ever, to the ages of ages. Amen.” And then at that point, the response of the people would be, “Preserve, O God,” or “Establish, O God, the holy Orthodox faith and the Orthodox Christians unto ages of ages. Amen.”

Originally that particular prayer didn’t say “Orthodox Christians.” It was a prayer for the state; it was a prayer for the Christian empire. So originally that prayer would say, “Preserve” or “Establish, O God,” or “Defend, O God, the holy Orthodox emperor, the Orthodox Christian emperor,” like against the barbarians or against the Muslims or something, in a political context. “Save the Orthodox emperor and the Orthodox commonwealth, the Orthodox politevma, the Orthodox people, unto ages of ages.” In other words, it was a prayer simply for earthly preservation. It wasn’t the prayer for divine redemption or getting to go to heaven when you die or something. It was simply a prayer that God would protect his people on earth.

Then the next line was: “Most-holy Theotokos, save us.” And then the response was: “More honorable than cherubim, beyond compare more glorious than seraphim, without corruption, without loss of your integrity, without loss of your virginity, you gave birth to the Word of God, God the Word, Jesus Christ. You are truly the Theotokos, and we magnify you.” So this prayer, “Most-holy Theotokos, save us,” at that point was the same type of prayer for earthly protection. It had nothing to do whatsoever with being redeemed or saved from the devil or sin or death. It had nothing to do with Mary being a savior like Jesus is a Savior. It was simply an expression of wanting to be saved from disease or from attack or from hardship or from danger. It was a very, you might say, earthly, temporal kind of prayer. Then that dismissal ritual would end with, “Glory to you, Christ our God and our hope. Glory to you. Glory to the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, now and ever and to ages of ages. Amen.” And then the benediction would be, “Christ our true God…” if it was Sunday we would say, “...who was risen from the dead,” by the prayers of his mother, all the saints, “have mercy on us, and save us,” and then that “save us” meant in every possible way. Save us in an earthly, temporal way from all enemies, and save us from death and the devil, and save us for everlasting life.

So the priest explained this to the nice lady, and he said that expression, “Most-holy Theotokos, save us,” is not used very often, and when it is used, that’s what it means. Well, the woman responded and said to the priest, “Well, I’ve been at Orthodox churches where this was sung over and over again, Father. I heard it with my own ears. It wasn’t just once at the end of a vespers or a matins; it was continuously sung.” To which the priest then responded; he says, “Oh, I understand! You went to a paraklesis service. You went to a service where people are praying to Mary for comfort. Paraklesis means ‘comfort.’ You went to a service where people were praying for Mary to help them in their earthly life, to help them if they’re suffering, to bear their crosses, to help them if they’re in affliction, if they’re in hardship, to protect them from all kinds of troubles and diseases and dangers.” And there are services like that, and it’s true that when the hymns are sung at those services, the refrain that’s constantly repeated is, “All-holy Theotokos,” or “Most-holy Mother of God, save us,” but it’s “save” in this particular meaning.

Well, then the good woman said to the priest, “Yes, but, still, that’s dangerous to do, because people might get the wrong idea. They might think that Mary is some kind of co-redemptrix or co-savior or so on. Maybe you shouldn’t use that word.” To which then the priest then responded and said: Well, you know, that word is used that way in the Bible. It’s used that way in the gospels. For example, every time Jesus heals someone in the gospels—not every time, but almost every time—he’ll say to the person, “Your faith has”—and in, let’s say, King James’ Version, it might say, “Your faith has made you whole.” In the Revised Standard Version, it might say, “Your faith has healed you,” but we should know that in Greek what it says literally is, “Your faith has saved you.” It’s the same verb, soson, “save”: Your faith has saved you. And what it meant was, your faith has saved you from the diseased; your faith has saved you from being possessed by the devil; you have been saved from this infirmity or from this paralysis or from this possession. It doesn’t mean redeemed or saved from death.

And that word is used that way in the Bible, and it’s used that way by the apostles. For example, St. Paul, in the letter to the Corinthians, ninth chapter, he said when he was saying about the Jews and the Gentiles and how he wants them to be saved, he said to those with the Law, he was as one under the Law, but being himself free from the Law so that he could be with those under the Law; to those without the Law, he became as one without the Law though being under the Law. Then he said to those who were weak, he became weak; to the Gentile he became like a Gentile. And then he said this sentence: “I have become all things to all people, so that by all means I might save some.” He didn’t say that some might be saved; he said that I might save some, because he claimed that by his preaching he was saving them. And he even meant saving them for everlasting life, but he didn’t think that he was the Savior, and he didn’t think that he was doing anything wrong by using the word “to save” in that context. He didn’t think that he was pretending to be equal to Jesus or to be some kind of savior of the universe or redeemer or even healer. I mean, the apostles certainly did healings, and their activities were certainly saving, saving people, but they didn’t consider themselves to be the savior. But he does say, “I became all things to all people that by all means I might save some.”

In the New Testament also you have this same verb, “save,” also being used in that same, everyday way. Like if you were drowning and you held out your hand to somebody: “Save me! Save me, I’m drowning!” You weren’t asking them to redeem you; you’re asking them to pull ‘em out of the water. So we do use that term, “save,” and that’s even why we use it for the ultimate redemption, because it’s an ultimate saving; that’s why the words are used. But every time you hear the word “save,” it doesn’t necessarily mean to take away anything from Jesus as the Savior. And if anyone—an apostle or anybody—by their prayer or by their preaching or by their activity was engaged in a saving activity, they would admit immediately, and they would even think it would be silly not to understand that the only Savior, who saves us ultimately from the tomb and from death, is Jesus himself.

For example, also in the New Testament, in the letter of James, the letter of James ends with these words:

My brethren, if anyone among you wanders from the truth, and someone brings him back, let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from the error of his way will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.

So here he claims that any one among us might bring back a sinner from the error of his way and save his soul from death. But the Savior is Jesus, not us. So the word “save” can be used in this generic, general way, but it doesn’t necessarily mean to be redeemed. When in the Orthodox Church we say, “Most-holy Theotokos, save us,” that’s how we’re using the word. We’re not using it as if she were a savior or a savior together with Jesus or a co-savior, no; we’re just using that in just that general, everyday sense that it is used. And it’s pretty clear that in the dismissal rite that’s exactly what it meant specifically, because that’s what those prayers at that time in the service meant.

Well, this woman, after the conversation went with the priest, she was still kind of troubled about it. So a few days later after this conversation, this good woman sent an email to the priest, and she said to the Orthodox priest, “Yeah, I can understand what you said and so on, but I’d like to ask you a very, very personal question. When you say that, or when an Orthodox Christian says that, what’s going on inside them when they say that? What would be their subjective experience when the priest would say: Most-holy Theotokos, save us? Or where at a special service of paraklesis, of comfort, to Mary, the people would all sing, very heartily: Most-holy Mother of God, save us? What would you think that you are doing? What are you asking for when you do that?”

And this is what the priest responded in writing to this woman. This is what he said; he said:

I’m asking Christ’s all-holy Mother, the greatest saint, the greatest Christian, the greatest human being who ever lived, the greatest virgin and the greatest mother, and our own very mother, given to us by Christ, her Son, when he was hanging on the cross, when he said, “Son, behold your mother”—I am asking her to save us from every possible evil and harm. I’m asking her to save us, first, from ourselves, to save me from my own ego, my own opinion, the vain imaginations of my own heart. I’m asking her to save us and to save me from drowning in the sins and sorrows of this corrupted world. I’m asking her to save us from our failures, weaknesses, and ignorances and prejudices; to save us from becoming angry and disappointed and upset with our fellow human beings, who can drive us, in our sinfulness and lack of love and patience and mercy, to the very brink of contempt and despair, by what we perceive to be their sinful and ignorant and ridiculous attitudes and actions.

We are asking her—we are begging for her—to save us in all these ways, and to use her own sanctified and glorified and deified beauty and wisdom and power, in her Son, Jesus, her own personal, holy presence that is wholly filled with the wisdom and the strength of God, to reach down to us and to snatch us out of the hands of the devil and to save us from our own sinful thoughts and feelings and to rescue us and to keep us safe. I’m asking her and crying out to her as a little child in great danger or horror or fear would not only call out to God, who is very far away or at least seems that way, but who would call out to his or her own mother, perhaps even before calling on God. The child in trouble would cry out, “O dearest mother! Save me!”

O holy Mother, save us all! O purest Virgin Mother, save us by the power and grace and glory and compassion and love and comfort that you yourself have from Christ your Son and our Lord and our God and your Lord and your God. Christ, your Son, gave you this great grace and power from his Father. Christ gave you this gift to use for us, so that we would have your maternal, motherly care and comfort and protection. You bore him, you gave him birth, you protected him, you raised him, you suffered with him and for him like no other human being on earth. You know what it is to be a mere, mortal human being. You know what it is to be a mortal creature, and you even know perhaps by living with others more than in yourself what it is to be a sinner. You know what it is to be attacked by demons. You know what it is to be tempted and tried. You know what it is to see your Son rejected, mocked, beaten, spit upon, reviled, ridiculed, humiliated, scourged, whipped, nailed to a cross in the greatest agony and the most vile possible suffering until he was dead.

Therefore you, O Mother, more than anyone else know what we are feeling and enduring and suffering right now. You know more than any other mortal person, beside your Son, Jesus Christ, who is God made man; you know what I am feeling, what I am suffering, what I am enduring. You know my doubts, my despondency, my despair, my disappointment. You know how I—and we all—are tempted and tried, and you have God’s saving power. You have it; he gave it to you. You are most highly graced. You are most highly favored among all women and all human beings. He gave himself wholly to you, who gave yourself wholly to him. He gave all that he is and all that he has to you, to use for us so that we could also have all that he is and all that he has and all that he gives us.

O most-holy Theotokos, Mother of God, Birth-giver of God, Virgin, Mother of Christ our God, and our own dearest and most-precious Mother, through Jesus Christ your Son, your Lord and your God, save us. Pray for us. Intercede for us. Bring God to us. Bring us to God. Bring God’s presence and power and grace to us. Bring us into the presence of his grace and power. O Mother, don’t let us perish; save us. You can do this. God has given you the grace to do this. He has given you this power. He has given you this work. He has given you this task. This is your duty. This is your job as our mother, until the end of the ages. O most-holy Theotokos, save us!