Showing posts with label 39-40. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 39-40. Show all posts

Sunday, January 3, 2021

Holy Nights January 3, 2020 God Pours Light

 

Holy Nights

Luke 2:25–35, 39–40

And see, there was in Jerusalem a man named Simeon. He was devout, entirely dedicated to the 

Good, and lived in expectation of him who was to bring the consolation of the Spirit to the people of God. The Holy Spirit was upon him, and through the power of the Holy Spirit, it had been revealed to him that he would not die before he had seen the Lord's Messiah. Inspired by the Spirit, he went into the Temple court, just as the parents brought in the child to fulfill for him the custom of the Law. And Simeon took the child in his arms, praising the divine Ground of the World, 

and said:

de Gelder

Now you dismiss your servant in peace, O Master, according to your word.

For my eyes have seen your healing deed,

which you have prepared before all peoples:

A light that leads the peoples of the world to revelation and makes your own people shine in the Spirit.

And his father and mother were amazed that such words were spoken about him. And Simeon blessed them and said to Mary, his mother:

See, he will cause the fall of many among his people,

But he will also let them rise again.

He is a being who will call up dissent.

A sword will pierce your soul, too.

Through him, the thoughts and ponderings of many hearts will be revealed.

. . . .

And when they had completed everything that the Law of the Lord demands, they returned home to Galilee, to their own town Nazareth. And the child grew strong, wise in his spirit-filled soul; divine grace was upon him.


Holy Nights

January 3, 2021

Luke 2:25–35, 39–40


A small light can light up a small space; a large light, such as the sun, can illuminate the world. And the light of the sun not only illuminates; it creates and sustains life.

Simeon is in the presence of the Child who will grow to call himself the Light of the World. And the intense light of this Child illuminates not only space but also time—the past and the future. In this light, Simeon recognizes the fulfillment of a long-waited and long-prepared promise made to the folk Israel.

And to the Mary soul, he reveals the future—a dynamic falling and rising of individuals, hints of future suffering, but also resurrection. And he intimates that the inner workings of souls will one day become transparent.

As sweet and innocent and paradisally glorious as this Child is, his destiny nonetheless will arouse dissent. He will embrace all pain and suffering and will transform them into resurrection and ascension. He will wrestle with death, illuminate it and infuse it with Life so that souls in all the world and in times to come may live in his Life after their own deaths. Through his Light and Life, humankind's future will open, blossom, and bear fruit beyond death. For, as the poet Hafiz says,

God

pours light

into every cup,

quenching darkness.*


*Hafiz, Interpretive version of Ghazal 11 by Jose Orez

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