DYNAMIS!
A publication of St. George Orthodox Christian Cathedral
Wichita, KS
St. Luke 2:22-40 (2/2) Gospel for the Meeting
of Our Lord, God, & Savior, Jesus Christ
Revelation To Simeon: St. Luke
2:22-40, especially vs. 26: “It
had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before
he had seen the Lord’s Christ.” The
holy man, Simeon, took the Child Jesus in his arms and blessed God Who
revealed, in the Child, to the eyes of his heart, Light for the nations and
glory for God’s People (Lk. 2:28-32). The blessing prayer he offered is the
beautiful Hymn sung after the Aposticha at
Vespers. It discloses both
Simeon’s holiness of life and the revelation which God gave him.
First, the hymn discloses a true holy man, one
who kept constant, close communion with the Lord of the Universe. Notice how he spoke personally to God:
“Lord, now You are letting Your servant depart in peace, According to
Your word; For my eyes have seen Your salvation Which You have prepared before
the face of all peoples, A light to bring revelation to the Gentiles, And the
glory of Your people Israel” (Lk.
2:29-32). See how joyfully he
serves the Divine Master, living solely to do God’s bidding! He realized what a unique privilege he
had received from God: to live to a great old age and, at the last, to see the
Lord’s Anointed. His prayer
completes his life and service: “Now lettest
Thou me depart, O Master, as Thou wentest before and
promised me; for I have beheld Thee, O Light before eternity, the Lord and
Savior of the Christian People.”
Submission to God is the essential mark of St.
Simeon’s holiness, being clearly shown in his hymn. Consider: he lived in
The Holy Fathers call revelation like this
“the gift of discernment,” “diorasis,”
the ability to perceive invisible truths and happenings, a special ability
among the Saints, among those deified after years of ascesis
and prayer. St. Simeon’s
arrival was precise in timing and in place. He held the Child in his arms. He blessed God, and uttered pure
revelation. A deified man!
Let us also examine St. Simeon’s
revelation. The Child he held in
his arms is God’s universal salvation. Simeon looked beyond a woman with a child
coming to make a sacrifice. He
perceived the ultimate action of God in history: Incarnation. The Child was and is Divine Light, One
capable of renewing all cultures and peoples and the fulfillment of the People
of God.
The statement, “before the face of all
peoples,” is a scriptural way of declaring that God has tangibly acted in
the stream of human history. The
Almighty Who dwells beyond time and space, Whose works
everywhere disclose “His eternal power and Godhead” (Rom. 1:20),
came among us as a concrete, tangible, actual human being. “Salvation, life, mercy,
forgiveness,” all the truths we mortals use to speak about God and His
work, are removed forever from the mental abstract, from mere human ideas. He is embodied as a living Person, both
man and God.
The phrase, “a light to bring revelation
to the Gentiles,” prompts us to see with St. Simeon that God has
deliberately communicated His Word to every people within the human family in
order to restore and fulfill them.
The God-Man, Christ Jesus, alone overcomes mankind’s suppression
of truth, our denial of relationship with God, that lie that renders human
thinking futile and leaves our hearts dark and insensate (Rom. 1:21). Truly Jesus is the Light of the World (Jn. 8:12).
To speak of the Lord Jesus as “the glory
of Your people
The Lord hath made known His salvation; He
hath revealed His justice in the sight of the Nations. Save us, O Son of God, Who wast borne in the arms of Simeon,
as we sing to Thee.
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