We often say that there is no deed greater
than death for Christ. This is true, and it is no accident that the Church
glorifies the holy martyrs. But when one looks at the image of St. Symeon, one
sees here a different struggle accomplished by this man: he lived for Christ,
he lived in expectation of meeting Christ.
On this
festal day, brothers and sisters, the Holy Orthodox Church invites us all to
share the joy of the Most Holy Theotokos and the Righteous Symeon the
God-Receiver: “Rejoice, O Virgin Theotokos, full of grace, for from thee hath
shone forth Christ our God, the Sun of righteousness.” The Holy Church will
glorify and exalt the Most Holy Virgin with these words of the troparion
yesterday, today, and on all subsequent days until the afterfeast.
Today we
are all sharing the joy of the Mother of God and the Righteous Symeon by
remembering that sacred event that once took place in the Temple of Jerusalem.
From Holy Scripture we know that on the fortieth day after the Nativity of the
Divine Child, the Most Holy Virgin and Joseph the Betrothed went to the Temple
of Jerusalem in order to fulfill the Law by bringing their Child there. What
kind of law was this that the Holy Family is now fulfilling?
We should
all remember how once the Lord commanded His holy one, Moses the God-Seer, to
bring the people of Israel out of Egypt. Those of us who have read Holy
Scripture, who know the sacred history of not only the New but also the Old
Testament, know how Pharaoh resisted this command of God, being unwilling to
fulfill that for which Moses asked him. Not giving heed to the terrible
punishment that fell on Egypt by God’s will, Pharaoh did not learn: he did not
fulfill the request of Moses. The only thing that provoked Pharaoh finally to
concede was the terrible sentence enacted against the entirely innocent
firstborn infants of Egypt.
One night
the angel of death slew several thousand infants. Pharaoh was horrified and all
of Egypt shuttered, seeing in this the unstoppable hand of God. It was only
then that Pharaoh decided to release Israel from Egypt. Once Moses had led his
people into the Promised Land, the Lord commanded that every firstborn male
child, as the possession of God acquired by the blood of the Egyptian
firstborns, be sanctified and redeemed unto the Lord. This is the law the
Virgin Mary was fulfilling. He Who was to sanctify and redeem all people was
Himself first sanctified and redeemed unto God! “The Ancient of days, having
become a babe, is borne into the temple by the Virgin Mother, fulfilling the
promise of His own law” (kontakion of the feast); He is borne in order to
fulfill “the Counsel of the Most High, ancient and true” for the salvation of
man opened to him through the Most Holy Virgin Mary on the day of her radiant
Annunciation. The Lord God accepts this only “mystical and perfect” sacrifice
from His Son. This was the sacrifice on Golgotha, where the Lord was killed on
the Cross for us and our salvation, to save mankind from sin, the curse, and
death.
The
Virgin Mary, with the Christ-Child in her arms, and Joseph the Betrothed were
met by Symeon the God-Receiver and Anna the Prophetess in the Jerusalem Temple.
The struggle of unceasing expectation was the life of the God-loving Symeon,
who was vouchsafed a heavenly prophesy that he would not die until he saw the
salvation of Israel, until he saw the Savior, Messiah, and Christ promised by
the prophets (cf. Luke 2:26). He received this prophecy when – 250 years before
the coming into the world of Christ the Savior – he, along with other
translators, translated Holy Scripture from Hebrew to Greek for the Egyptian
king. He was given for translation the book of the Prophet Isaiah, that Old
Testament Evangelist who prophesied a great deal about Jesus Christ.
Translating the place where Isaiah says a virgin shall conceive, and bear a
son, and shall call His name Immanuel, which means God is with us (Isaiah
7:14), the Righteous Symeon thought that in all likelihood an error had crept
into the text: a virgin cannot give birth, and if there is a birth, it is from
a woman. He erased the word “virgin” and wanted to write the word “woman” in
its place, but at that very moment an angel of God took Symeon by the hand and
commanded him not to make this change. The truth of which the Prophet Isaiah
spoke was indeed fulfilled and he, Symeon, would be a witness to its
fulfillment, not dying until what was written had come to pass. Ineffable joy
filled the heart of the elder Symeon when he saw the long-awaited Savior of the
world.
But what
keen vision would be needed in order to recognize in a tiny Child the promised
Sun of Righteousness, the Redeemer of all nations! Symeon was very elderly and
his bodily eyes were weak, but his spiritual vision remained untroubled because
he had led his entire extraordinarily long life in purity and humility, full of
love and trust in the Lord.
What an
instructive lesson for us! Unfortunately, not only our physical vision but also
that of our soul has been greatly blunted; sometimes we do not notice God next
to us. Someone might say that he does much in life to meet God and to know God.
But here, brothers and sisters, we must turn our attention to the following
moment. Why did Symeon see Christ the Savior in the Child brought to the
Temple? Because he was righteous in his life and had a pure heart – he was
holy.
We often
say that there is no deed greater than death for Christ. This is true, and it
is no accident that the Church glorifies the holy martyrs. But when one looks at
the image of St. Symeon, one sees here a different struggle accomplished by
this man: he lived for Christ, he lived in expectation of meeting Christ.
Sometimes we say: “Grant me, O Lord, to live a little longer.” The best thing
we can wish one another is long life. But man cannot live long, above all,
because of his sins. Illness, tribulation, troubles, and temptations beset man,
and he cannot stand up under the weight of this burden.
Many of
us have heard from certain people that they are tired of living and have asked
God for death, because their soul is too weary and their body so ill: “Take me
sooner, O Lord, from this earthly vale of tears!” But one does not find these
words in the life of the Righteous Symeon, who lived not 60, not 160, not 260, but
360 years and, of course, was overcome by illness and the weakness of old age.
But he did not complain, but rather desired to live for Christ’s sake. This is
also a lesson for us, especially for those who have begun to tire of this life.
There is
yet another significant lesson that we should learn from today’s feast day. The
Holy Fathers bear witness to the fact that it is impossible to meet God in the
afterlife if this meeting has not taken place here on earth. This means that I
should make every possible effort to make this meeting take place in my earthly
life. The Lord has done everything necessary for this. Somewhere in the depth
of our souls we probably envy the Righteous Symeon, that at the end of his life
he was finally able to meet our Lord Jesus Christ and even to hold Him in his
arms. How we would have liked that! How we wish we could have been in the
Jerusalem Temple then! Nevertheless, we present Christians – followers of our
Savior, sons and daughters of our Holy Church – and much more fortunate than
the Righteous Symeon and Anna the Prophetess.
Yes, the
holy elder bore in his hands the Christ Child, but each one of us believers is
given the opportunity to meet Christ not just once, and not just in the Temple,
but in every place of our earthly existence. We are given the opportunity to
have Christ in our hearts – and this is much more important. The Lord appeals
to each one of us, saying: My son, give me thine heart, and let thine eyes
observe My ways (Proverbs 23:26). He always seeks the human heart, going out to
meet it. It befits us to hasten to Him both in joy and in sorrow. In joy we do
this less often, while in sorrow we more frequently run to the Savior. The Lord
approaches, and the weight of our life’s cross is lessened. In days of harsh
reality, when life tests us, we should rush to Him: And call upon Me in the day
of thine affliction, and I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify Me (Psalm
49:15), for The Lord is nigh unto all that call upon Him (Psalm 144:18).
The most
important place for our meetings with the Lord is God’s church. Here, in every
Mystery and in every prayer, a joyful meeting of God with man and man with God
takes place. The Mystery of Baptism cleanses one of the ancestral sin, opening
the doors of the Church to man and making him a Christian, a bearer of the name
of Christ. In the Mystery of Chrismation grace-filled power is given, so that
man would bear the name of Christ worthily, loftily, and sacredly.
Unfortunately, however, we do not succeed in this; our lives have neither
loftiness nor sanctity. Therefore the Church gives us another Mystery: through
repentance one is able, as in a “font of rebirth,” to be cleansed of one’s sins
and again worthy to bear the name of Christ.
Let us
examine another Mystery, one that was just celebrated at the Divine Liturgy:
the Holy Eucharist. What is this, if not my meeting with Christ? And not just a
meeting: I take Christ within myself through the Communion given me under the
form of bread and wine. And the other Mysteries? The Mystery of Matrimony
sanctifies our family. The Mystery of Unction enables us to ask God for healing
of soul and body. What grace-filled opportunities does Christ’s Church offer
us! Yet the majority of people rarely make use of these opportunities (and many
do not use them at all, unfortunately). We do not hasten to our meeting with
God! We think that meeting God imposes certain restrictions on our freedom, and
that I will not be able to do what I want. As such, I want to receive all good
things here on earth, and not wait until the coming of eternal blessedness (and
whether to expect it, I do not know); I do not want to labor for this, I do not
want to deny myself everything.
It turns
out that on such a wonderful feast day as this there are very few people in our
Orthodox churches. In our city there are ten churches, and in each is a handful
of faithful, but in a city of half a million ten handfuls is very, very little.
For the heart of this people has become gross… and is not converted, that I
should heal them (Isaiah 6:10). People do not wish to meet God! This is
frightful, for if one does not meet God in this life then one cannot hope to
meet Him after one’s physical death, in the life of the age to come. And if we
cannot meet Him there, then what awaits us? A place without God, a place called
hell. Could it really be that this is what mankind is preparing for? It is
frightful to think so! The Feast of the Meeting of our Lord Jesus Christ
reminds us of this time and again.
It is
essential that we consider that our meeting with God takes place every time we
perform any good deed. At the Dread Judgment the Lord will say to those
standing on the right: For I was an hungred, and ye gave Me meat: I was
thirsty, and ye gave Me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took Me in: Naked, and
ye clothed Me: I was sick, and ye visited Me: I was in prison, and ye came unto
Me. Then shall the righteous answer Him, saying, Lord, when saw we Thee an
hungred, and fed Thee? or thirsty, and gave Thee drink? When saw we Thee a stranger,
and took Thee in? or naked, and clothed Thee? Or when saw we Thee sick, or in
prison, and came unto Thee? And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily
I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these My
brethren, ye have done it unto Me (Matthew 25:35-40). If we live this way, if
we seek to see God in every person, no matter who this person is, then we will
indeed not only worthily fulfill our Christian duty and obligations, but a
meeting of the Creator with creation, of God with man, will also occur.
This is
what the Holy Orthodox Church of Christ is today reminding us of time and
again. May God grant, brothers and sisters, that having once met God in the
Mystery of Baptism, that each one of us would not part from Him in all the days
of our earthly life and the life of the age to come.As the hart panteth after
the fountains of water, so panteth my soul after Thee, O God. My soul thirsted
for God, the mighty, the living; when shall I come, and appear before the face
of God? (Psalm 41:1-2). Let us pray for this to our Lord Jesus Christ. Let us
pray to the Heavenly Queen, the Righteous Symeon, and Anna the Prophetess that,
by their prayers and intercessions, the Lord would help us worthily to bear the
name of Christian in this world, to take God into our hearts, and never to part
from Him.
By
Archpriest Valery Zakharov
Source: http://www.pravmir.com/we-do-not-hasten-to-meet-god/
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