Română
In this recording, Archimandrite Athanasios Mytilinaios (1927-2006), answers the question: “Why does the Virgin Mary seem to show so much favor to Greece when she was of Jewish descent?” Earthly identities versus our spiritual destinies: why saints like the Theotokos and prophets like Elijah transcend their worldly origins to embrace all of humanity.
Audio source: “Answers to questions”, no. 499 (in Greek), December 1st, 1991
https://arnion.gr/index.php/diafora-uemata/pantiseis-pori-n-katixitiko
Fr. Athanasios:
Another question is the following: why the Virgin Mary shows great favor to Greece whereas she is of Israeli descent? Now, children, when a person is born into the world, he comes under a certain form, meaning that he belongs to a certain people, a certain time and culture and so forth. All these are forms. No one falls from the sky onto the earth, am I right? He is “registered”, so to speak, somewhere.
Does it not surprise you now that Christmas is coming, that according to the Scripture, Joseph went to Bethlehem, his place of origin, to be registered just like the Virgin Mary? Jesus who was born in Bethlehem also went there to be registered, since he was a citizen of the Roman Empire. The Roman Empire wanted to register its citizens in catalogues for taxation purposes not just for curiosity; it was there that Joseph, the Virgin May and Jesus went to be registered.
So, the Lord by becoming human entered our very lives. This is a truly significant event. Therefore, we did not fall from the sky. The Jewish people believed that the Messiah would come from the heavens. Do you know what they said? That when the Messiah comes, we would not know where he would come from, thinking he might descend from the sky. Nevertheless, we do know him; we know his family, his homeland, we know him. This was the prevailing belief. Do you think that when we come into this world, we do not come under certain forms? We certainly do, but a spiritual person does not remain bound by his form. On the contrary, when he departs from this world, he does not need these earthly forms anymore.
For instance, what are the clothes we are wearing? Are they not just forms? They are indeed. They are like the leather coats that God gave us to dress ourselves. When the Prophet Elijah was lifted up from the earth and ascended to heaven, Eliseus, being a prophet himself, prophesized that his lord will ascend. This prophecy was also known to a few other thousand people, the so-called sons of the prophets. Do you know what happened? Pay attention to this; he told him: “you will receive greater ability to prophesize than the others if you manage to take my milote”. Milote is a leather coat, a sheepskin, and neither the prophet Elijah nor John the Baptist wore anything but a leather coat. Indeed, while Elijah was ascending to the heavens, he dropped his milote and Eliseus caught it. Besides, it was with this sheepskin that he crossed the river Jordan, hitting the river open. But why did he drop it?
Here we have a form that is the garment, the sheepskin. We have another form that Eliseus gains which is the greater ability to prophesize. So, the prophet Elijah gets rid of his garment because he does not need it anymore. He would not need to wear clothes anymore and he would not need to eat as well in his future home, which is the place where he would live as being in heaven. So, when Elijah and Moses appeared to the Lord, were they naked? I will answer with another question: when Christ was resurrected His shroud was found in tact, so where did He find the clothes with which he appeared to the Myrrhbearers? You would not expect my answer but the Lord did not wear clothes. He was naked because He did not need to wear clothes anymore. They cast lots for His clothes, while His shroud remained in the tomb. You may ask, is it difficult for God to find clothes to wear? Of course not but he did not wear anything. Was He seen clothed? Yes, He seemed clothed in the eyes of the people but His human nature did not wear clothes anymore.
What is the meaning of these things? That when we leave this world, we no longer need the forms that define us in it, like our mother and father. They are just forms. My child, my brother, my compatriot, my country, my home, my school, all these are forms. But when someone departs from this world, does he need any of these forms anymore? Of course not.
The Virgin Mary, was undoubtedly of Jewish descent, just like Jesus of course. But we cannot advocate that she should take care of the Jewish people only and not all the other peoples of the earth. On the contrary, she bestows her grace upon every single person on the earth who loves Jesus Christ, not just the Greeks or the Jews. Respectively, we cannot say that she favors the Greeks instead of her own people, the Jews.
