The Encounter of Our Lord with Simeon & Anna (and Zacchaeus Sunday)

Hebrews 7:7-17 and Luke 2:22-40

Today is the final feast of the Christmas season: the Encounter of Our Lord with Simeon; and the first Sunday of our pre-Lenten preparations: The Sunday of Zacchaeus. Both Simeon and Zacchaeus longed to see Our Lord but in different ways. This homily is taken from the readings for the Encounter.

God gave the Old Law to Moses to prepare the people for the coming of Jesus, the Messiah. The Old Law was full of ritual purifications, animal sacrifices, and atonement offerings. However, this Old Law couldn't bring people to Heaven; it was established by God to prepare His people for the coming of Christ.

Jesus came to give us a New Law that restores communion with God and gives us the hope of Heaven through baptism, confession, and the Eucharist. Since the purpose of the law changed, the way to reach this new goal had to change too. This is why Jesus established a new priesthood and a New Law, called the Holy Mysteries or the Sacramental Life of the Church. The rituals of the Old Law are no longer needed because Jesus fulfilled them by giving us the Sacraments.

One of the aspects of the Old Law was ritual purification and making atonement for sin, but Our Lady, the Mother of God, was without sin, which according to St. Cyril, means she had no obligation to the Old Law. However, like Christ and in union with Him, she submitted herself to the Old Law, of her own free will, in order to participate in Christ’s transformation of it. She didn’t need to be ritually purified because she was a virgin, inviolate, and every aspect of her maternity was absolutely pure and holy; the conception, gestation, and birth were immaculately chaste and perfect, without any corruption or weakness; without any defilement of original sin.

The Light of the World had come into the world, through this perfect Vessel of Grace, to dispel all darkness, which is precisely what St. Simeon the priest was waiting for. He had been told that he would see the Messiah before he died. And true to the promise, Simeon was able to hold His Beloved Savior in his arms on this blessed day when Mary and Joseph brought the baby Jesus to the Temple to fulfill the obligations of the Old Law.

As St. Simeon cradles the Christ Child in his arms, it is further revealed to him that, not only is Israel redeemed, but that the Light has come for the Gentiles who have been in great darkness, which is why we bless candles on this day, to remember that the Light of Christ has come into the world to conquer the darkness of sin and death.

Then St. Luke says that Mary and Joseph marveled at the proclamation of the fulfillment of the prophesies, not because they were unaware of the truth of these prophesies being fulfilled in their Son, but because they were contemplating the beauty and goodness of these supernatural truths. As St. Photius says, “the knowledge of supernatural things, as often as it is brought to recollection, renews the miracle in the mind;” which is why continual remembrance of God is so important for the Christian life and why the noise of the world is so distracting for us.

Jesus came to save and sanctify us, but He also came to judge us based on the strength of our faith, whether we have remained in a state of grace, and the merit of our actions. We need to guard our souls because, as St. Simeon predicted, many will fall and many will rise. Whether we fall or rise depends on our own choices, and though we may struggle, if we commit ourselves to prayer and the Sacraments, God's grace will strengthen our resolve. As followers of the New Law, we have hope in the Resurrection, which strengthens the weak through the Holy Mysteries.

Let us then, like Simeon, welcome the light of Christ into our souls, to illuminate the darkness of sin lurking there, so that we may root it out in the sacrament of confession—that we may receive in our arms and contemplate anew the beautiful Christ Child in Holy Communion. The Light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it (Jn 1:5). Amen.