Feast of the Presentation of the Lord
“Now, Master, you may let your servant go in peace,
according to your word,
for my eyes have seen your salvation,
which you prepared in sight of all the peoples,
a light for revelation to the Gentiles,
and glory for your people Israel.”
Whenever I read this Song of Simeon I feel a strong tug at my heart. The aged Simeon, filled with the Spirit, rejoices in the fulfillment of God’s promise to him—that he would not see death before he had laid eyes upon the Messiah. This canticle, known as the Nunc Dimittus, is recited (or sung) each and every day of the year during Complin, the closing prayer of Liturgy of the Hours. To participate in night prayer, we are participating in the ‘prayer of the Church’ and, in a very real way, praying with the entire Church throughout the world. What an amazing thought! We are praying in unity with the entire Church and giving thanks for yet another day of living secure in the knowledge of our salvation.
Today, at the Presentation of the Lord, we stand forty days past Christmas and only a little over two weeks before the beginning of Lent. During this short period of Ordinary time, between the two great seasons of the Church, we have the opportunity to reflect on how we have invited Jesus to come closer, allow his redemptive touch to change us, and notice how we are still resisting him. These are important aspects of growing spiritually. But sometimes it just seems that singing praise to God in total gratitude and joy, as Simeon does, is what we really need (and want) to do. Simeon was surely aware of his personal weakness; he was surely aware of his inability to save himself. But his disposition and his ‘song’ reveals a joy and an abandon that reflects his closeness to God. He was completely and utterly dependent on God and thus completely at peace. The act of praising God in total abandon has the power to deeply affect us; our ‘singing’ the praises and glory of our God can change us—will change us. We just need to ‘go for it’!
As Simeon holds the infant Jesus, his song proclaims the long waiting is over. He declares that humanity’s long night of shadow has been pierced by the light of salvation. Through Jesus, we have been claimed and adopted and our alienation over. Nothing will ever be the same, nothing we ourselves can do will ever approach what God has done for us, and nothing at this moment suffices but singing praise to the Creator of the universe. This day, may we be granted the gift of pure praise for our God and Creator. May we abandon ourselves to the feelings and emotions that accompany the love we have for him and for our Savior through the power of the Holy Spirit. And may God give us the strength, not only to press forward on this path of discipleship, but to constantly sing with Simeon in complete joy and praise.
--Gail Lyman