Thus says the Lord God: Lo, I am sending my messenger to prepare the way before me; And suddenly there will come to the temple the Lord whom you seek, And the messenger of the covenant whom you desire. Yes, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts. But who will endure the day of his coming? And who can stand when he appears? For he is like the refiner’s fire, or like the fuller’s lye. He will sit refining and purifying silver, and he will purify the sons of Levi, Refining them like gold or like silver that they may offer due sacrifice to the Lord. Then the sacrifice of Judah and Jerusalem will please the Lord, as in the days of old, as in years gone by.
Second reading from the Letter to the Hebrews HEB 2:14-18
Since the children share in blood and flesh, Jesus likewise shared in them, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the Devil, and free those who through fear of death had been subject to slavery all their life. Surely he did not help angels but rather the descendants of Abraham; therefore, he had to become like his brothers and sisters in every way, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest before God to expiate the sins of the people. Because he himself was tested through what he suffered, he is able to help those who are being tested. Gospel of the day
From the Gospel according to Luke LK 2:22-32
When the days were completed for their purification according to the law of Moses, Mary and Joseph took Jesus up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord, just as it is written in the law of the Lord, Every male that opens the womb shall be consecrated to the Lord, and to offer the sacrifice of a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons, in accordance with the dictate in the law of the Lord. Now there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon. This man was righteous and devout, awaiting the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him. It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he should not see death before he had seen the Christ of the Lord. He came in the Spirit into the temple; and when the parents brought in the child Jesus to perform the custom of the law in regard to him, he took him into his arms and blessed God, saying: “Now, Master, you may let your servant go in peace, according to your word, for my eyes have seen your salvation, which you prepared in the sight of all the peoples: a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and glory for your people Israel.” Words of the Holy Father
Those who have met Jesus no longer fear anything. We too can repeat the words of the elderly Simeon; he too was blessed by the encounter with Christ, after a lifetime spent in anticipation of this event: “Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word; for mine eyes have seen thy salvation” (Lk 2:29-30). At that instant, at last, we will no longer need anything; we will no longer see in a confused way. We will no longer weep in vain, because all has passed; even the prophecies, even consciousness. But not love: this endures. Because “love never ends” (1 Cor 13:8). (General Audience, 25 October 2017)
FAUSTI - After the presentation of the Shepherd to the shepherds, the Savior Christ the Lord to the humble ones, there is the official presentation of Jesus to the people to whom the Law, the Temple, and the Prophecy have been given. The time between the announcement in Zechariah and the presentation to the Temple is 490 days, 70 weeks. The time predicted by Daniel is fulfilled, which marks the passage from the promise-waited to the fulfillment (Dan 9:24). Law, Temple and Prophecy are the three figures of the One who had to come... He is the Word made flesh, the Glory of God and His own Face. His first coming to Jerusalem marks the threshold of the passage from the economy of expectation to that of fulfillment. The course of the night ends, the trembling expectation of the day, and the course of the sun begins. The humble entry into the Temple of Jesus, who fulfills the word of the Law, is related to the terrible vision of Malachi 3 on the final visit of the Lord and His judgment. No one has ever seen God. No one has ever known Him or even mentioned Him. It is the unmentionable Name, the origin of every name! "Tell me Your Name" asks Jacob (Gen 32:30) ; "Show me Your Glory" asks Moses (Ex 33:18) , "Show me Your Face" countless Psalms supplicate. To see the Face of God is the salvation of man, who finds his face. To say the Name of God is to find the Name that substantiates every name, it is to find that "You" that makes every "I" existing. The desire of all religions is to give a Face and a Name to God. What is man's greatest desire now finds satisfaction. What a surprise to give the Name to the One who called all things from nothing and made them exist! The Name of God for man can be only "Jesus" that is, "God saves", both because naming God is man's salvation and because man is lost and can know God only as the One Who saves him. That God who caused us fear, because Most Holy, can be named in every place of perdition and despair, because He is the Saviour. God is for us , who are lost and far from Him, because He is called Jesus, God-with-us and Saviour. Luke lets us glimpse the sweetness of being able to call God by Name, the sweetness, the power and brightness of this Name, Jesus. The Lord visits His Temple. But he comes with the weakness of a Child and not to judge the non-observance of the Law, but to submit Himself as man to obedience to the Father to Whom we have disobeyed. He comes to pay our debt, offering Himself to the One who has offered everything. He is the giver of life. Presenting Him to Him means recognizing from Him the gift of Life and in Him the Life itself as a gift, so that we can draw from it in abundance. Simeon, which means "God has listened"... is the man who "hears the Word of God" and is just and pious. To him the Spirit promises that he will see the Messiah of the Lord, the consolation of Israel (Is 40:1), the fulfilment of the Word of God. As on all prophets, the Spirit was upon him. Directed by this Spirit comes to meet Him. He can finally embrace Him. Simeon's arms are the dry, bi-millennial arms of Israel that receive the flower of Life. His voice is a cry of joy, suffocated by a very long wait, which finally explodes: a calm and irrepressible cry, the spreading of a river that breaks the bank, the breath of all humanity, held in mortal fear, which is now relaxed.
-->Man, kept slave in life for fear of death - in an insufficient and anguished life - is now satiated with life. He can retire satisfied from the banquet. Simeon's eyes no longer see the darkness before him, but the dawn of life, "the salvation" of God. This is the Glory of Israel, which sanctifies the Name of God and reverberates on his face the Glory of His Face. Salvation is prepared by God "in the face of all peoples". It is not only for Israel. It is a light for all people who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death. Jesus is today still comprehensible to us only from the Old Testament. Simeon is also able, moved by the Spirit, to predict His destiny to Mary. The Child will be both cause of fall and resurrection for the multitudes of Israel. In fact, He brings a salvation that is unacceptable to all. For this reason all are against Him, they are scandalized by Him and fall. The disciples first. But He is the Savior of all those who have fallen. The mystery of the Death and Resurrection of the Lord is shrouded here. This is the Word that like a double-edged sword will pass through the heart of every disciple and of the whole Church, of which Mary is a figure. This mystery will live on continuously in the history of the disciple who traces his own path from the Cross to Glory.
RispondiEliminaReading of the day
First reading from the Book of Malachi
MAL 3:1-4
Thus says the Lord God:
Lo, I am sending my messenger
to prepare the way before me;
And suddenly there will come to the temple
the Lord whom you seek,
And the messenger of the covenant whom you desire.
Yes, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts.
But who will endure the day of his coming?
And who can stand when he appears?
For he is like the refiner’s fire,
or like the fuller’s lye.
He will sit refining and purifying silver,
and he will purify the sons of Levi,
Refining them like gold or like silver
that they may offer due sacrifice to the Lord.
Then the sacrifice of Judah and Jerusalem
will please the Lord,
as in the days of old, as in years gone by.
Second reading from the Letter to the Hebrews
HEB 2:14-18
Since the children share in blood and flesh,
Jesus likewise shared in them,
that through death he might destroy the one
who has the power of death, that is, the Devil,
and free those who through fear of death
had been subject to slavery all their life.
Surely he did not help angels
but rather the descendants of Abraham;
therefore, he had to become like his brothers and sisters
in every way,
that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest before God
to expiate the sins of the people.
Because he himself was tested through what he suffered,
he is able to help those who are being tested.
Gospel of the day
From the Gospel according to Luke
LK 2:22-32
When the days were completed for their purification
according to the law of Moses,
Mary and Joseph took Jesus up to Jerusalem
to present him to the Lord,
just as it is written in the law of the Lord,
Every male that opens the womb shall be consecrated to the Lord,
and to offer the sacrifice of
a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons,
in accordance with the dictate in the law of the Lord.
Now there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon.
This man was righteous and devout,
awaiting the consolation of Israel,
and the Holy Spirit was upon him.
It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit
that he should not see death
before he had seen the Christ of the Lord.
He came in the Spirit into the temple;
and when the parents brought in the child Jesus
to perform the custom of the law in regard to him,
he took him into his arms and blessed God, saying:
“Now, Master, you may let your servant go
in peace, according to your word,
for my eyes have seen your salvation,
which you prepared in the sight of all the peoples:
a light for revelation to the Gentiles,
and glory for your people Israel.”
Words of the Holy Father
Those who have met Jesus no longer fear anything. We too can repeat the words of the elderly Simeon; he too was blessed by the encounter with Christ, after a lifetime spent in anticipation of this event: “Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word; for mine eyes have seen thy salvation” (Lk 2:29-30). At that instant, at last, we will no longer need anything; we will no longer see in a confused way. We will no longer weep in vain, because all has passed; even the prophecies, even consciousness. But not love: this endures. Because “love never ends” (1 Cor 13:8). (General Audience, 25 October 2017)
FAUSTI - After the presentation of the Shepherd to the shepherds, the Savior Christ the Lord to the humble ones, there is the official presentation of Jesus to the people to whom the Law, the Temple, and the Prophecy have been given. The time between the announcement in Zechariah and the presentation to the Temple is 490 days, 70 weeks. The time predicted by Daniel is fulfilled, which marks the passage from the promise-waited to the fulfillment (Dan 9:24).
RispondiEliminaLaw, Temple and Prophecy are the three figures of the One who had to come...
He is the Word made flesh, the Glory of God and His own Face.
His first coming to Jerusalem marks the threshold of the passage from the economy of expectation to that of fulfillment. The course of the night ends, the trembling expectation of the day, and the course of the sun begins.
The humble entry into the Temple of Jesus, who fulfills the word of the Law, is related to the terrible vision of Malachi 3 on the final visit of the Lord and His judgment.
No one has ever seen God. No one has ever known Him or even mentioned Him.
It is the unmentionable Name, the origin of every name! "Tell me Your Name" asks Jacob (Gen 32:30) ; "Show me Your Glory" asks Moses (Ex 33:18) , "Show me Your Face" countless Psalms supplicate.
To see the Face of God is the salvation of man, who finds his face.
To say the Name of God is to find the Name that substantiates every name, it is to find that "You" that makes every "I" existing. The desire of all religions is to give a Face and a Name to God.
What is man's greatest desire now finds satisfaction. What a surprise to give the Name to the One who called all things from nothing and made them exist!
The Name of God for man can be only "Jesus" that is, "God saves", both because naming God is man's salvation and because man is lost and can know God only as the One Who saves him. That God who caused us fear, because Most Holy, can be named in every place of perdition and despair, because He is the Saviour. God is for us , who are lost and far from Him, because He is called Jesus, God-with-us and Saviour.
Luke lets us glimpse the sweetness of being able to call God by Name, the sweetness, the power and brightness of this Name, Jesus.
The Lord visits His Temple. But he comes with the weakness of a Child and not to judge the non-observance of the Law, but to submit Himself as man to obedience to the Father to Whom we have disobeyed. He comes to pay our debt, offering Himself to the One who has offered everything.
He is the giver of life. Presenting Him to Him means recognizing from Him the gift of Life and in Him the Life itself as a gift, so that we can draw from it in abundance.
Simeon, which means "God has listened"... is the man who "hears the Word of God" and is just and pious.
To him the Spirit promises that he will see the Messiah of the Lord, the consolation of Israel (Is 40:1), the fulfilment of the Word of God. As on all prophets, the Spirit was upon him.
Directed by this Spirit comes to meet Him. He can finally embrace Him.
Simeon's arms are the dry, bi-millennial arms of Israel that receive the flower of Life. His voice is a cry of joy, suffocated by a very long wait, which finally explodes: a calm and irrepressible cry, the spreading of a river that breaks the bank, the breath of all humanity, held in mortal fear, which is now relaxed.
-->Man, kept slave in life for fear of death - in an insufficient and anguished life - is now satiated with life. He can retire satisfied from the banquet.
RispondiEliminaSimeon's eyes no longer see the darkness before him, but the dawn of life, "the salvation" of God.
This is the Glory of Israel, which sanctifies the Name of God and reverberates on his face the Glory of His Face.
Salvation is prepared by God "in the face of all peoples". It is not only for Israel.
It is a light for all people who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death.
Jesus is today still comprehensible to us only from the Old Testament.
Simeon is also able, moved by the Spirit, to predict His destiny to Mary.
The Child will be both cause of fall and resurrection for the multitudes of Israel.
In fact, He brings a salvation that is unacceptable to all. For this reason all are against Him, they are scandalized by Him and fall. The disciples first. But He is the Savior of all those who have fallen.
The mystery of the Death and Resurrection of the Lord is shrouded here.
This is the Word that like a double-edged sword will pass through the heart of every disciple and of the whole Church, of which Mary is a figure. This mystery will live on continuously in the history of the disciple who traces his own path from the Cross to Glory.