De occursu domini

On the Meeting of Our Lord Jesus Christ, and on the Theotokos and on Symeon, a sermon. Not only does our Lord Jesus Christ bear flesh, but he is also circumcised according to the law, in order to remove the pretext of Jewish disbelief. For he comes to the law as one above the law, so that he might free the disciples through the faith of the law; and he takes on flesh, and is circumcised along with the Jews. He partook of flesh, he partook also of circumcision; he confirmed the kinship, so that they might not deny the Christ coming from the seed of David, whom they also expected; he showed the proof of kinship. For if, even while he was being circumcised, they said, "We do not know where he is from," had he not been circumcised in the flesh, their denial would have had a reasonable pretext. So then, when the eight days for circumcising the child were fulfilled, Jesus was awaiting the growth of the organ. When the eight days were fulfilled—for the law commands circumcision on the eighth day, and if the eighth day falls, the physician comes in the middle and handles the iron, and practices his art; and the Sabbath is idle because of the circumcision. Let us then ask the Jews: The Sabbath is a day of rest, a day of complete idleness; why does the eighth day expel the seventh? Why does the eighth day come to be above the seventh? But the Jews do not know Jewish matters; the Church of Christ knows Christ and Jewish teachings. For the child is circumcised on the eighth day, because on the eighth day the resurrection was to occur, that is, the Lord's Day circumcision of the whole world. For why did Moses not command circumcision on the sixth day?

Why not on the ninth or the tenth? So the eighth day is manifest, on which the Lord rises. Therefore, if anyone does not believe in the resurrection, he is uncircumcised in heart, being alienated from God through unbelief. Circumcision is the true knowledge and perception of faith. For this reason, beloved, circumcision is handed over to the faithful through the word of holy baptism; and holy baptism is a type of Christ's resurrection. Pass, then, from flesh to spirit, and from the bodily to the anagogical meaning of the spirit, and you will find there a fleshly circumcision, but here a spiritual one, and a cleansing of sins. The eighth day is circumcision; the eighth day is also the resurrection; and baptism is a type of the resurrection—from the small to the greater, from the bodily to the more spiritual. Let the Jews, therefore, come and advance; for one must advance from the fleshly and not remain in them. So our Lord Jesus Christ, who came not to destroy the law but to fulfill it, was circumcised with the Jews. The evangelist says, then: Eight days were fulfilled for him to be circumcised, and his name was called Jesus, the name called by the angel before he was conceived in the womb. For we are named after being born, but Jesus is named before being born; for he existed before conception. And he was called Jesus because his work was that of a savior. And when, it says, the days of their purification were fulfilled, according to the law of Moses.

Of what purification? Of Mary and Joseph; for the law commanded that a woman who had recently given birth be purified, and that she observe the days and remain at home. When, then, the days of purification according to the law of Moses were completed—although the Virgin had no need, yet the law was fulfilled—they brought him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord, as it is written in the law of the Lord. Where there is bodily purification, it says, according to the law of Moses; where there is presentation of the holy one, it says, as it is written in the law of the Lord. Not that the law of Moses was not also the law of the Lord; for whatever a prophet speaks, discoursing by the Holy Spirit, he does not speak himself, but the Lord prompts it. Nevertheless, since the purification had a bodily type, it says, the law of Moses; but since the firstborn was being presented, it says, according to the law of the Lord, honoring the one being born: As it is written in the law of the Lord, every male that opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord. Therefore, this word and the whole law and the reason for the law were established for the sake of the one who was to open the womb. For all firstborn of animals and of men never opened the womb, but were only firstborn; but he whom a Virgin bore alone opened the womb. See, then, how the entire formation of the law was for the sake of the one who was to be born only from a virgin.

How could the Jews have been able to understand this? For being fleshly, they are as far as possible from being able to perceive the meanings of spiritual understanding. Then they go up to offer sacrifice, according to what is said in the law of the Lord, a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons. And these things also happened typologically according to the law, so that nothing might be lacking for the fulfillment of the law. These are legal enigmas; but let us come to the evangelical explanation: And behold, a man in Jerusalem, whose name was Symeon; and that man was righteous and devout; and the Spirit of God was upon him. He had been instructed by the Holy Spirit not to end his life before he should see the Christ of the Lord. Symeon was an old man, and he awaited the good news; he remained in the temple, saying within himself: Wherever he is born, he will certainly come here. He came in the Spirit to the sanctuary at that hour when the parents were bringing the child. For he had come many times before, but on his own initiative; then, led by the Holy Spirit, he comes opportunely for the fulfillment of the promise. He received Jesus in his arms, and blessed God, and said: Now you release your servant, Master, according to your word, in peace. From what do you release? From the arena of life; for things are grievous, life is a prison. That one, then, wished to be released; but if anyone considers departure from here a loss, that one is not yet perfect in faith. Nevertheless he said: Now you release your servant, Master, according to your word, in peace.

For the one who was about to make peace for the world was present; the peacemaker has come, the one who joins heaven to earth and fashions the earth into heaven through the teaching of the Gospel, has arrived. Simeon cries out: “Now you release your servant, O Master, according to your word, in peace; for my eyes have seen your salvation,” he says. What is it that he says? For previously they believed in their mind and knew by reasoning; but now my eyes have also seen; and what I anticipated in my heart, behold, my eyes have seen it fulfilled. What then? “I have seen,” he says, “your salvation.” Which one? That which you prepared before the face of all peoples, not of one people, nor of Israel alone, but before the face of all peoples; for the one born is a universal teacher. A light for the revelation of the nations, and the glory of your people Israel. Why a light? Because the nations were in darkness; because the darkened nations were being illuminated. A light for the revelation of the nations, and the glory of your people Israel. Here glory, there revelation; there the beginning of teaching, here the subsequent learning. The glory of your people Israel. But someone will surely say: “And where are the Israelites?” You have Peter, you have Paul, you have John, you have the three thousand, you have the five thousand, you have the Church of Jerusalem, you have those from among the Jews who have believed; for the nation was among those who believed. If not—

For the Lord of Hosts left us a seed; otherwise we would have been born like Sodom and become like Gomorrah. For God says: “I left for myself seven thousand men who did not bend the knee to Baal.” Thus the seed of faith was preserved among the people, and the whole people did not perish—far from it! Nor were all the Jews destroyed, since even now in this blessed state and calling, many are called, but few are chosen. For Christ called the whole world and prepared the sacred feast of the Gospel. But when he comes at the second coming, he enters and makes a selection, and examines those who are reclining; and if he finds any of those reclining not having a wedding garment, he says to him: “Friend, how did you enter here without a wedding garment?” And he will cast him out, as we heard in the Gospels. So there a selection took place, and here a selection will take place. For just because we have been called, should we from now on be presumptuous, as though we already possess perfection? Let the fall of the first be our security. Thus, beloved, the people did not all perish, nor were they all destroyed, nor did they all disbelieve, nor did they all persecute the apostles; but through the apostles three thousand believed at once, apart from women and children. And a church of ten thousand men came to be in Jerusalem, while the temple had not yet been destroyed, while the Jews had not yet been expelled, while Jerusalem had not yet been razed. A church was built, and the words of John became manifest truth: “He must increase, and I must decrease.” So Simeon, being a prophet, says:

The glory of your people, Israel. For the glory of those who were waiting was the meeting with the one awaited; and both Joseph and Mary glorify what was said: an angel announced, magi recognized, shepherds heard, armies of angels danced, a star signified from above, Symeon prophesies, Anna daughter of Phanuel prophesies, the earth rejoiced, the heaven spoke through a star, the magi denied the tyrant, the shepherds worshipped the chief shepherd, all things recognized, the mother knew, Joseph heard, they trembled at the events, and they understood the outcome of the events. And Symeon blessed them, and said to Mary his mother: Behold, this one lies for the fall and resurrection of many in Israel, and for a disputed sign. For the fall of whom? Clearly of the unbelieving, the contradicting, the crucifying. For the resurrection of whom? Of those who recognize and gratefully confess. And for a disputed sign. What disputed sign? The sign of the cross, which the Church knows as the salvation of the world, which the Jews hate, which often even the heaven proclaimed. And the sign is disputed, so that the truth may conquer; for without contradiction a complete victory does not occur. Therefore it was necessary for contradiction to be introduced, so that the judge might with forbearance deliver the verdict through the whole age. Hence he says: And for a disputed sign; and the unbelieving dispute it. And you, he says, seem to be a mother; will you then be untested, since you confessed to be a mother, since you bore him, since you seemed to lend him your womb?

For your womb became a vessel of the energy of the Spirit. Therefore, will you be without trial, because you have become Theotokos, because, being unwed, you conceived, because you were fashioned as mother of your own creator? Will you be without trial? Not even you will be without trial, but a sword will also pass through your own soul. Why, O Lord? For what sin have I committed? You have sinned in nothing; but when you see him hanging on the cross, when you see him suffering for the world, when you see his hands stretched out on the cross and nailed to the wood, then you begin to doubt and say: Is this the one about whom the angel spoke to me? Is this the one for whom the miracle of my conception occurred? I was a virgin and I gave birth and remained a virgin. Why is this one crucified? And a sword will also pass through your own soul. So no one has been without trial, according to the prophecy of the righteous Symeon. Peter, the foremost of the disciples, denied three times; the other disciples abandoned him and fled. For the shepherd had no need of protection for his sheep while driving away wolves, nor did the contestant have need of those who assist, but all withdrew; Christ alone was like a ram hanging. Therefore a sword also passed through her soul: the trial and the doubt. And a sword will also pass through your own soul, so that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed. Thus Jesus suffers for the refutation of disbelief, for the establishment of the gratitude of those who believe. And the sign is disputed, so that those who dispute out of wickedness may be refuted.

If the truth were in every way uncontradicted among men, piety would be untested; but the allowance of contradiction creates a test for the choice of truth. The sign is contradicted; for how else would martyrs have been tested in persecutions? How else would they have contended, being proclaimed victors through their endurance? See how much benefit contradiction has brought, that it has produced not merely believers, so to speak, but even martyrs who advanced to tortures and death, and who provided a demonstration of the grace of Christ through their endurance. Therefore, when Symeon says, "This is set for the fall and rise of many in Israel, and for a contradicted sign," it must be understood that it neither works the fall nor forcibly brings about the rise; but it is set for a fall to those who stumble against the stone of stumbling, and for a rise to those who believe by choice; for it is set, as one might say, "The light rises so that those with healthy eyes may see; but those with sore eyes flee all the more from the rays of the brightness." How would some have fallen, being worthy of refutation, and others have risen, having good hopes by choice, if the sign were not contradicted? Why does Symeon say, "And for a contradicted sign"? So that contradiction may not astonish the believers. That even the truth according to God is contradicted is clear, because God allows it; for no one could contradict unless God permitted it; and the permission is necessary so that the tested may become manifest. For there will be a time when there is no longer contradiction.

For when the sign shines forth from the heavens beforehand, then every knee of the heavenly, earthly, and subterranean beings will bend, and every tongue will confess that Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. For as long as the sign itself alone is shown, and it is only a sign, and the thing signified is nowhere visible, the sign is contradicted; but when the signified one himself is revealed in his second coming, no one any longer dares to contradict the sign, since the signified one is present in his clear divinity against those who contradicted. Then those who received the sign will be glorified by the one signified; but those who contradicted the sign will be condemned by the one indicated. And then will be the end of contradiction, the end of error, the end of doubt, the end of unbelief, and the beginning of prizes and crowns. May it be that we all attain these in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom is the glory and the power unto the ages of ages. Amen.