Presentation of Our Lord in the Temple |
Let
us Receive the Light
Whose Brilliance is Eternal
From a sermon by Saint Sophronius, bishop
In Honor of the Divine Mystery that we celebrate today, let
us all hasten to meet Christ. Everyone
should be eager to join the procession and to carry a light.
Our lighted candles are a sign of the divine splendor of the
one who comes to expel the dark shadows of evil and to make the whole universe
radiant with the brilliance of His Eternal Light. Our candles also show how bright our souls
should be when we go to meet Christ.
Presentation of Our Lord, Mary & Joseph, Simeon |
The Mother of God, the most pure Virgin, carried the true
light in her arms and brought Him to those who lay in darkness. We too should carry a light for all to see
and reflect the radiance of the True Light as we hasten to meet Him.
The Light has come and has shone upon a world enveloped in
shadows; the Dayspring from on high has visited us and given light to those who
lived in darkness. This, then, is our
feast, and we join in procession with Lighted candles to reveal the Light that
has shoe upon us and the glory that is yet to come to us through Him. So let us hasten all together to meet our
God.
The True Light has come, the
Light that enlightened every man who is born in this world. Let all of us, my brethren, be enlightened
and made radiant by this light. Let all
of us share in its splendor, and be so filled with it that no one remains in
the darkness. Let us be shining
ourselves as we go together to meet and to receive with the aged Simeon the
Light whose brilliance is eternal.
Rejoicing with Simeon, let us sing a hymn of thanksgiving to God, the
Father of the Light, who sent the True Light to dispel the darkness and to give
us all a share in His splendor.
Simeon Blessed God for Allowing him to see the Messiah |
Through Simeon’s eyes we too have seen the salvation of God
which He prepared for all the nations and revealed as the glory of the new
Israel, which is ourselves. As Simeon
was released from the bonds of this life when he had seen Christ, so we too
were at once freed from our old state of sinfulness.
By faith we too embraced Christ, the salvation of God the
Father, as He came to us from Bethlehem.
Gentiles before, we have now become the people of God. Our eyes have seen God Incarnate, and because
we have seen Him present among us and have mentally received Him into our arms,
we are called to new Israel. Never shall
we forget this presence; every year we keep a feast in its honor.
No comments:
Post a Comment