29th December >> Fr. Martin’s Gospel Reflections / Homilies on Luke 2:22-35 for the Fifth day in the Octave of Christmas: ‘The Holy Spirit rested on him’. (2024)

**29th December >> Fr. Martin’s Gospel Reflections / Homilies on*Luke 2:22-35***for the Fifth day in the Octave of Christmas: ‘The Holy Spirit rested on him’.

Fifth day in the Octave of Christmas

Gospel (Except USA)

Luke 2:22-35

'You have prepared a light to enlighten the pagans'.

When the day came for them to be purified as laid down by the Law of Moses, the parents of Jesus took him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord – observing what stands written in the Law of the Lord: Every first-born male must be consecrated to the Lord – and also to offer in sacrifice, in accordance with what is said in the Law of the Lord, a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons. Now in Jerusalem there was a man named Simeon. He was an upright and devout man; he looked forward to Israel’s comforting and the Holy Spirit rested on him. It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death until he had set eyes on the Christ of the Lord. Prompted by the Spirit he came to the Temple and when the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him what the Law required, he took him into his arms and blessed God; and he said:

‘Now, Master, you can let your servant go in peace,just as you promised;because my eyes have seen the salvationwhich you have prepared for all the nations to see,a light to enlighten the pagansand the glory of your people Israel.’

Reflections (6)

(i) Fifth day in the Octave of Christmas

The theme of light connects both of today’s readings. In the first reading, Saint John declares, ‘the night is over and the real light is already shining’. In the gospel reading, Simeon recognizes the child of Mary and Joseph as a ‘light to enlighten the pagans and the glory of your people Israel’. Simeon recognized that the light of God’s loving presence was shining through this new born child. He also recognized that not everyone would welcome this extraordinary light, declaring that the child is ‘destined to be a sign that is rejected’. The rejection of the one who embodied God’s loving light would impact on his mother, according to Simon, ‘and a sword will pierce your own soul too’. Some would experience the light of God’s all embracive love in Jesus to be scandalous, ‘Why does this man ear with tax collectors and sinners?’ What many experienced as good news, others found disturbing. The feast of Christmas calls on us to welcome this extraordinary light of God’s unconditional love shining through Jesus, as Simeon did, and allow it to fill our lives. As we welcome this light, we are sent to let it shine through us. As John says in the first reading, ‘anyone who loves his brother or sister is living in the light’. Jesus once declared to his disciples, ‘you are the light of the world’. We are sent to light up our world and the lives of others by allowing the light of God’s love that shone so brightly through Jesus to shine through us. We are to live in such a way that others can see in us something of what Simeon saw in the child Jesus when he was brought into the Temple by his parents. It is a wonderful calling and we can be faithful to it with the help of the same Holy Spirit who rested on Simeon.

And/Or

(ii) Fifth day in the Octave of Christmas

You often come across books with titles like ‘100 paintings you must see before you die’, or ’50 buildings you must visit before you die’. At the back of our minds we probably all have things we want to do and places we want to see before we die. In the gospel reading this morning we are introduced to man well on in years by the name of Simeon, whose deepest wish was to see one particular person before he died, the person the gospel reading refers to as ‘the Christ of the Lord’. That wish was granted on the day that Mary and Joseph brought the child Jesus into the temple in Jerusalem. In response to this wonderful event, Simeon breaks into prayer, blessing God. Simeon’s prayer has since become the prayer of the church; it is prayed as part of Night Prayer in the Liturgy of the Hours. Simeon’s prayer can be the prayer of every one of us, because, like Simeon, our eyes too have seen the salvation God has prepared for all the nations to see. We too have seen the Christ of the Lord, the light to enlighten the Gentiles. In the words of today’s first reading, ‘the night is over and the real light is already shining’. It is true that we won’t fully see God’s salvation, the Saviour, until the next life. Yet, in a very real sense our eyes have already seen our Saviour; we have come to see him with the eyes of faith in and through the church. Just as Mary and Joseph brought the child Jesus to Simeon, so the church has brought the risen Lord to all of us. That is why Simeon’s prayer can become our prayer. Now we see with the eyes of faith. Even if we are seeing as in a mirror dimly, we are grateful, and we know that one day we will see him face to face.

And/Or

(iii) Fifth day in the Octave of Christmas

Simeon is one of those very attractive people that feature in the opening chapters of Luke’s gospel. He is described in the gospel reading as an ‘upright and devout man’. In other words, he related well to other people (‘upright’) and to God (‘devout’). Just as Mary and Joseph brought their new born child to the Temple, Simeon was prompted by the Holy Spirit to go to the Temple. The Holy Spirit led Simeon to Jesus, and being the man he was, Simeon responded to the prompting of the Holy Spirit. That is the role of the Holy Spirit in all of our lives, to lead us to Jesus. In John’s gospel, Jesus says that the Paraclete will lead you to the complete truth, and the complete truth is none other than Jesus himself. Simeon was a seeker; he spent his life seeking the Christ of the Lord. On a certain day, the Spirit led him to the one he had been seeking. We are all seekers; we seek and long for truth, goodness, love, light, all of which are to be found in the person of Jesus. In seeking the Lord we are not left to our own devices. The Spirit is with us leading us to the Lord, prompting us to take paths that will bring us to the Lord. Simeon was so overjoyed to see Jesus that he was ready for God to call him out of this earthly life. ‘Now, Master, you can let your servant go in peace... because my eyes have seen...’. We too have seen the Lord with the eyes of faith. What the adult Jesus will say to his disciples, he says to us all who believe in him, ‘Blessed are the eyes that see what you see’. The Holy Spirit has led us too to see Jesus. We look forward in hope to seeing him face to face.

And/Or

(iv) Fifth day in the Octave of Christmas

Whenever a relative of ours gives birth to a child and family members stand around all agog at the child people invariably want to hold the child. There is something about holding this bundle of new life which is very special. Babies are endlessly fascinating; they engage us at so many levels. We focus on them and find it hard to take our eyes off them. In today’s gospel reading we hear of Mary and Joseph coming into the Temple of Jerusalem with their recently born baby, Jesus. There they came upon Simeon, on whom the Holy Spirit rested, an upright and devout man. He takes the child in his own arms and blessed God. If every child is endlessly fascinating, how much more would that have been true of the child Jesus? Having heard this child in his arms and having set his eyes upon him, Simeon was reading to leave this world for the next, ‘Now, Master, you can let your servant go in peace’. His short but beautiful prayer has become part of the official night prayer of the church. We have not had the privilege of holding the child Jesus in our arms, like Simeon, but we do behold the risen Lord with the eyes of faith. We recognize him in the breaking of bread in the Eucharist, we hear his voice when the gospels are proclaimed, and, if we are alert, we see him in each other. We also look forward to that day beyond this life when, like Simeon in the temple, we will see him face to face.

And/Or

(v)Fifth day in the Octave of Christmas

The prayer of Simeon in this morning’s gospel reading has become part of the night prayer of the church, ‘Now, Master, you can let your servant go in peace…’. It is the prayer of a man of faith who is ready to leave this world because his deepest longing has been fulfilled. He has finally set his eyes on the one for whom he had been waiting, the one whom God in the Jewish Scriptures promised to send as the light of the nations and the glory of Israel. It is the prayer of a truly contented person. This level of contentment is one that we might tend to associate with the life of heaven. We look forward to that eternal moment when we will see God face to face and all our deepest longings are satisfied. This morning’s gospel reading suggests that Simeon anticipated this heavenly quality of contentment in the Temple of Jerusalem as he held the child Jesus in his arms. ‘My eyes have seen your salvation’. Here was a seeing that came close to that seeing of God face to face which awaits us in eternity. We will never have the opportunity of holding the child Jesus in our arms, but on our journey of faith there can be moments when we too see the Lord clearly with the eyes of faith. At such moments, fleeting as they may be, we sense that the deepest hunger and thirst of our heart is being satisfied. We cannot produce these moments. They come to us as a gift from the Lord. It is said of Simeon in that gospel reading that he came to the Temple at the prompting of the Spirit. The Spirit will lead us too to such moments of grace if we are as open to the prompting of the Holy Spirit as Simeon was.

And/Or

(vi) Fifth day in the Octave of Christmas

There are some lovely prayers in the opening two chapters of Luke’s gospel. There is the prayer of Mary, the Magnificat, which is now part of the evening prayer of the church and the prayer of Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist, which has become part of the morning prayer of the church. The third great prayer in these chapters is the prayer of Simeon, which we find in today’s gospel reading, and which has become part of the night prayer of the church, ‘Now, Master, you can let your servant go in peace…’ It is the shortest of the three prayers, but some people find it the most attractive. It is the prayer of someone whose deepest longing has been satisfied and who, as a result, is ready to embrace death. Simeon is described as someone ‘who looked forward to Israel’s comforting’, in other words, to Israel’s Messiah. It had been revealed to him that he would not see death until he had set eyes on the Lord’s Messiah. When Mary and Joseph came into the Temple carrying their new born child, he recognized that here indeed was Israel’s comforting, the Lord’s Messiah. He now saw what he always longed to see, and he had nothing more to live for. He was ready to leave this world. ‘My eyes have seen the salvation which you have prepared for all the nations to see, a light to enlighten the pagans and the glory of your people Israel’. Whatever about the opening of Simeon’s prayer, we can certainly make that section of his prayer our own. Our eyes have seen God’s salvation. We have seen Jesus, our Saviour, with the eyes of faith. His light has enlightened us, has shone upon us. Like Simeon, we have been greatly graced. Yes, it is the case that, in the words of Saint Paul to the Corinthians, ‘now we see as in a mirror, dimly’, and it is only ‘then’, beyond this earthly life, that we ‘will see face to face’. Yet, dimly as it may be, we nonetheless see with the eyes of faith. Something of the light of eternity has shone upon us. We are called to live out of that vision, to allow the grace of that light to shine within us and to shine through us upon all whom we meet.

29th December >> Fr. Martin’s Gospel Reflections / Homilies on Luke 2:22-35 for the Fifth day in the Octave of Christmas: ‘The Holy Spirit rested on him’. (2024)