Homilizing The Praise of Mary, 1st Sabbath
To understand why I refer to "Saturday" as the 1st Sabbath, go read this.
The EOTC traditionally has taught their faithful literacy through the reading and hearing of Scripture with soul soothing melodies that have subtly eased the entry of God's life-giving instruction into the hearts of the Ethiopians.* In addition to the biblical texts, the EOTC has made her faithful literate by reciting The Praise of Maryam - which she attributes to Efreym the Holy One of Syria.
As I was reading through the selection of The Praise of Maryam, in Ge'ez, assigned for the 1st Sabbath, I paused. I could not help but delight in the cerebellum-shaking wisdom I was receiving in terse bursts. I have more time, by which I mean less distractions, now that I am in the legendary North Dakota, and so I would be remiss in not sharing my jubilee with you all. Enjoy.
ኦ ፡ ማርያም ፡ አማን ፡ ወልድኪ ፡ ቃለ ፡ ወልደ ፡ አብ ፡ ዘይነብር ፡ ለዓለም ፡ መጽአ ፡ ወአድኀነነ ፡ እምኃጢአት ። ሰአሊ ፡ ለነ ፡ ቅድስት ።
O Maryam, truly your son, the Word, the Son of God, who will remain forever, came and rescued us from sin, pray for us holy one
"O Maryam", says Efreym the Holy One of Syria. He finds her very name to be savory. This can be dangerous, if taken out of context. It has the potential to blur the line betwixt Creator and creation/creature. But, we have context. And in this context, Efreym praised Maryam for being a vessel of her son. This is pure and perfect. God's glory reflects upon His holy ones, for He is the Holy One of holy ones.
"Truly", what a word. Anytime the Holy Bible means business, not to say that at other times it doesn't, but when it truly means business, it hits us with the classic nay ancient word aman (truly, verily, most assuredly, amen). Whatever comes after, we better pay extra attention to. This is the biblical version of emojiis and CAPITAL LETTERS - 21st Century devices to grab your attention.
"Your son, the Word, the Son of God, who will remain forever". So much life-giving theology in so few words. Eeyesus of Nazareth, is fully-man and fully-God without separation and without confusion. He is the Son of Mary and the Son of God. He empathizes with us, but has none of our faults. He is the Word that gave life to life and light to light. There is no end to His kingdom, His reign, His dominion. What are you waiting for? Hop on the bandwagon to eternal life.
He "came and rescued us from sin". There is a difference between being forgiven of your sins and being liberated from your sins. The former relieves you of your debt. The latter commands you to receive grace that you did not earn, from above, that you may live more wisely by loving your neighbor.
"Pray for us holy one". ቅድስት (qidist) is the feminized way of saying what is oft translated as saint. I say holy one so that you can more immediately call to context every instance of the word holy you have come across. Maryam is made holy by the grace of God, not by her own nature. We should be unashamed to call her holy, thereby glorifying He who made her holy. But, let us never forget that last part.
አንቲ ፡ ውእቱ ፡ ዘመድ ፡ ዘእምሥርወ ፡ ዳዊት ፡ ወለድኪ ፡ ለነ ፡ በሥጋ ፡ መድኃኒነ ፡ ኢየሱስ ፡ ክርስቶስ ፡ ዋሕድ ፡ ቃል ፡ ዘእምአብ ፡ ዘእምቅድመ ፡ ዓለም ፡ ህልው ፡ ኀብአ ፡ ርእሶ ፡ ወነሥአ ፡ እምኔኪ ፡ አርአያ ፡ ገብር ። ሰአሊ ፡ ለነ ፡ ቅድስት ።
You are the relative, from the root of Daweet, who gave birth for us, in the flesh, our savior Eeyesus Kristos, the only word of the Aba, who hid himself by taking from you the likeness of a bondservant, pray for us holy one
The root of Daweet (David) is placed here to remind us of the messiah-ship (christ-ness/anointed-ness) of our savior Eeyesus Kristos. God the Aba sent His one-of-a-kind (monogenes) Son to be with us in the flesh and shame the purported wisdom of this world and the wisdom of its rulers. He shamed the wisdom of this world by arriving in the womb of the Virgin rather than on clouds accompanied by thousands and tens of thousands of visible angels (messengers). He shamed the wisdom of this world by being born in a smelly cave with lowly farm animals rather than in a palace. He shamed the rulers of this world, the principalities and powers and Satan, by stripping fear naked. Fear was their #1 power, particularly fear of death. But, Eeyesus Kristos trampled down death by death, by lovingly submitting to the will of God in all of His 33 years amongst us."O death, where is thy victory? O death, where is thy sting?"
In Mark, Romans, and Galatians you find the transliterated and the translated Abba/Father. In this selection, as is often the case with Ge'ez, God the Father is referred to simply as Ab. Being a Semitic tongue, it should be no surprise to us that the Ge'ez Ab shares the same root as the Aramaic Aba. In fact, in Ge'ez we also say Aba. This word has the formality of a word like father, but it also retains the informality or intimacy of daddy and papa.***
The maker of the heavens and the earth, of all that is visible and invisible, the Lord of Lords, and the God of gods, was hidden in the womb of a teenage girl for 9 months. How much humility would it take you to wash your friends' feet? To clean up toilets at your parish? How much humility is put on display when God becomes man for your sake? When the master takes on the likeness of a bondservant? Can you imagine an 18th century heterosexual white male property owning slave-master picking the cotton fields? Well, this is not 1/1quadrillionth of the humility that it takes for the Word of God to be made flesh and dwell amongst us. Let us pay attention.
በመንክር ፡ ምስጢር ፡ ወለድኪዮ ፡ ለዐማኑኤል ፡ ወበእንተዝ ፡ ዐቀበኪ ፡ እንበለ ፡ ሙስና ።
By a marvellous mystery, you gave birth to Amanueyl (the Lord is with us), and because of this, He kept you without corruption.
We do not use the word mystery to describe a Gnostic wet dream of secret knowledge only for the elites. The Evangelion (the good news) is food for you and I and for every soul that is. This mystery of faith is that you have superlative trust that the Virgin Maryam gave birth to the Lord of Hosts. With His grace, anything is possible. If the God-man Eeyesus Kristos had the grace of God upon Him, and if our Lady the Virgin Maryam had the grace of God upon her to keep her from corruption, how much more do you and I need the grace of God? Pray for His grace daily. Nag Him. Pester Him. Harass Him. As our father Yaiqob (Jacob) relentlessly struggled with God, until he was called Israel (he who struggles/contends with God), you and I must relentlessly plead for the grace of the Holy Spirit in our lives.
Furthermore, we must love each other.
Post Scriptum:
*It is for purposes of clarity, to distance my diction from obscurity, that I identify this tradition with the nation-state of Ethiopia. This is a fault of mine. Depending on how you want to count, the modern Ethiopian nation-state arose from either Emperor Teywodros or Emperor Miniyilik the 2nd. Regardless, it is a 19th Century construct of coercion. "Ethiopia" (burnt-face) was really a decentralized collage of kingdoms and sultanates and the form of historical governance I am quasi-partial to - the Geda System. Anyhoo, my preferred term for the inheritors of this ancient form of education I laud above is አግዓዝያን (agazyan - the free peoples).
**All translations of the Ge'ez above are mine, and I will take full blame for any errors. Please correct me if you see a missing of the mark.
*** The word Pope means papa. The term ppappasat, used for bishops in the EOTC, means papa.