So, I was reading Frederica Matthews-Green's book The Open Door. In the chapter I'm reading, she talks about the icon of the Theotokos and, from that, what Orthodox Christians believe about Mary She says: "[Mary] did in a literal way what we each hope to do spiritually, to be filled with Christ's presence. Often in ancient hymns she is compared to the Burning Bush, wholly on fire with the presence of God and yet unconsumed. Though the power of the Most High has overshadowed her, she is still fully herself, intact and uncompromised."
This terminology - that of the presence of God and being unconsumed - brought the myth of Semele to my mind. The woman Semele, having learned that her lover was in fact the great god Zeus, went to him and demanded that he show her his full glory. When Zeus was forced to comply, however, his glorious radiance destroyed her.
And I thought how much these two stories contrast. Before Christ's miraculous conception, mankind is incapable of enduring the glorious presence of God. But with the Theotokos, all that changes. Men can now bear the glory of God and not be consumed. They can remain intact in His presence. We do not now have the weakness of Semele; the Theotokos has shown that we can bear God and still remain whole. We can touch the divine and not be destroyed.
And that is a blessing beyond anything else we could be given.
This is beautiful - and an excellent reading of Classical Mythology through Christianity. The Church Father would be proud.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing this. Love it. Mary, the first person to say Yes to Jesus. The first Christian. :-)
ReplyDeleteInteresting insight to the myth too!
Kiernan was doing research this week on our ancestors, and she found an old will of an ancestor, John Spalding, from Lincolnshire. He lived from 1430-1521 (!). The will began, "Fyrst I bequethe my sowell to God Almyghty to o(u)r ledy seynt mary and all the holy co(m)pany of heven." :-)