RBWords

     These prophetic words are spoken by the "prophet" Simeon in the temple when Jesus' parents bring him to fulfill the Mosaic law about offering the firstborn male child to God and exchanging the child by making a substitute offering.   The point of the story is to assure the audience that Jesus is truly Jewish.  But the words of Simeon are designed to show also that the meaning of Jesus' birth is much broader than Judaism.  Jesus is a "light to reveal you to the nations and the glory of your people Israel."    For Simeon, the child Jesus is a fulfillment of a dream.  For the rest of the world it is the fulfillment of all the prophetic promises made by God.  Indeed, the first announcement of Jesus' birth was made to poor shepherds, people considered untrustworthy and unclean by Jewish religious authorities.  In the Gospel According to Matthew, the announcement is made to pagan astrologers by a star!

     The "Canticle of Simeon" is prayed by the church in the Liturgy of the Hours at Compline each evening.  Since the revelation to Simeon is made toward the end of his life, the canticle is a fitting prayer to the end of the liturgical and calendar day.  If we haven't already put away the nativity scene, we might pause for a moment before doing that and ask if the birth of Jesus has any of the same significance to us as it did to Simeon?  A crucifix is a continual reminder of Jesus' death.  What will remind us of his birth?  The great Dominican mystic, Meister Eckhart wrote: "We are all called to be mothers of God.  God is always in need of being born."  That is a year-round challenge.  AMEN