The Example of Anna and Simeon

Homily for the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord
2 February 2014

         Poinsettias at the altar. The Christmas icon at the ambo. Singing songs from Advent. What the heck is going on here today?!

        My brothers and sisters: We gather this fortieth day after Christmas to celebrate, once again, the manifestation of God’s Love in human form. However, today’s celebration doesn’t come from shepherds or angels or men from the East. Today’s acknowledgment of the Incarnation comes from two faithful members of the Jewish faith. They are the representatives of the Chosen People who welcome Who and What this Child is and was to become for Israel. The words of the poem, A Christmas Carol, that I mentioned in my Christmas homilies come true here:

What shall we call Him, this child of our dreams,
Israel’s beacon through many dim years,
The promise of ages, the long-waited dawn,
The future we cherish in God’s only Son!

        Both Simeon and Anna profess the faithfulness of the Father in the recognition of Jesus. On this day, which celebrates the ritual consecration of the Son to the Father, we welcome, as a child, the light of revelation for the Gentiles and the glory of the people of Israel. The moment that they had waited for so long was finally becoming a reality, and they were able to see and to touch the enfleshed manifestation of the Divine Love of God in their midst. Once again, the words of A Christmas Carol continue to describe the encounter with the Anointed One:

Here where our hatred comes to an end,
Here where the stranger is brother and friend,
No longer abandoned by nation or race,
Here in our midst we touch God’s human face.

        It is in this encounter that we must now enter. We, no matter our age or state in life, must become Anna, must become Simeon, who greet the Child and praise our God for His faithfulness. We, now, represent all the ages as we once again recognize the Light given to us to show us the way. (This is one of the reasons we blessed the candles at the beginning of Mass.)

        Yet, like Simeon and Anna, we must recognize the sign of contradiction that Jesus Christ is.

        As much of a Light that this Child is, His end will be met at the Cross. And, oddly enough, this is where the Light will shine His brightest. In his book, Jesus of Nazareth: The Infancy Narratives, Pope-Emeritus Benedict XVI reminds us that the Light of the Nations and Glory of Israel could only liberate humanity from the imprisonment of darkness, death and sin through “the anguish of the Cross.” Our “retired” Holy Father teaches us: “The prophecy of light and that of the Cross belong together” (page 86).

        This contradiction, however, is what we celebrate Sunday after Sunday when we, the Body of Christ, gather in this place. We celebrate the victory the Paschal Mystery won for us, yet we also recognize that to be a follower of Jesus, to model our lives after Him, we, too, must become signs of contradiction – we must learn to live in this world, but not be of this world. In coming to profess Who this Child is through word and deed, we, ourselves, profess this great Mystery of Faith.

        This, my brothers and sisters, is why we have poinsettias at the altar, why the Christmas icon at the ambo, why we are singing songs from Advent: The anticipation of Christ’s coming and the celebration of the Incarnation is not something that we celebrate once a year. Rather, the journey of our lives must always reflect our joyful anticipation of the coming of our Lord in glory, must always reflect the joy that He has come already in time to bring about our salvation, and must always reflect the contradiction for why He came to Earth in the first place.

        As the Annas and Simeons of this day, we must continue to profess the love of the Father given to us through His Son. We must also prepare for periods of time, both long and short, to greet this great Contradiction when we meet Him. And as we “touch God’s human face” through Word and Sacrament here, now, we do so rejoicing in the Mysteries of Faith that bind us together as the Body of Christ. We rejoice for, like Simeon and Anna, we know that our salvation – and the salvation of the world – has been seen by our own eyes.

        We should heed the words of Saint Bonaventure:

Rejoice, then, with that blessed old man and the aged Anna; walk forth to meet the mother and Child. Let love overcome your bashfulness; let affection dispel your fear. Receive the Infant in your arms and say with the bride: I took hold of Him and would not let Him go. Dance with the holy old man and sing with him: Now dismiss Your servant, . . . according to Your word in peace.

(The Tree of Life, page 131)

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Enjoy the journey . . .