The Shepherd, February 2006
Adapted from
“THE HOUSE OF GOD AND THE CHURCH SERVICES, 1”
By the Priest N. R. Antonov
Continuation
§ 127. The Services of the Feast of the Meeting of the Lord (2nd
February). The feast of the Meeting was inaugurated to commemorate
the taking of Christ the Saviour into the Temple, when He was a forty-day
old Infant that the appointed sacrifices might be made there, and His
meeting with the righteous Simeon and the Prophetess Anna. The origins
of the feast date back to the mid-point of the fourth century.
In the hymns for the feast, the thought is contained that the bringing
of the Saviour into the Temple was the realisation of the fulfilment of
the Old Testament Law, and that Jesus is the Saviour foretold by the
prophets, incarnate for the salvation of mankind. The Ancient of Days,
the God of Sabaoth, one of the Persons of the Holy Trinity, is now seen
as an Infant, and He Who of old gave the Law, the Creator, is now seen
to fulfil the law. Now that light shines, which is to illumine the nations.
Christ, Who is mystically borne aloft by the Cherubim and hymned by the
Seraphim, is taken in the aged arms of Simeon and, as He is the
Originator of the Old and the New Testaments, two doves are offered in
sacrifice representing the Church of the Old Testament and that of the
New, which was to comprise people from among the nations who had
been newly illumined (by Baptism).
In the Old Testament readings we have the following themes:- the
first, which is composed of sections from the books of Exodus and
Leviticus, speaks of the Old Testament law that the firstborn son should
be consecrated unto God; the second (Es. 6:1-12) tells of the vision of the
Prophet Esaias (Isaiah), in which he saw the Lord of Sabaoth seated upon
a throne and surrounded by the Angels; and the third (Es. 19:1, 5, 12, 16,
19-21) is composed of a prophecy about the flight into Egypt, about the
affliction that should come upon the Egyptians and their turning to God,
and in fact, according to tradition, during the time when the Saviour was
abiding in Egypt, in the town of Heliopolis, the pagan gods of this city fell
down before Jesus Christ.
Troparion: Rejoice, thou who art full of grace,
O Virgin Theotokos,
for from thee hath risen the Sun of Righteousness,
Christ our God, enlightening those in darkness.
Rejoice thou also, O righteous elder,
as thou receivest in thine arms the Redeemer of our souls,
Who also granteth unto us the Resurrection.
Contakion: Thou Who didst sanctify the Virgin’s womb by Thy birth,
and didst bless Symeon’s hands as was meet,
by anticipation didst even now save us, O Christ God.
But grant peace in the midst of wars unto Thy commonwealth
and strengthen the hierarchs whom Thou hast loved,
O only Friend of man.
[Fr Antonov repeats these hymns in Russian translation for those of his readers who would not have understood Church Slavonic.]
In the canon, heaven and earth and all living creatures are called
upon to witness how the Only-begotten Son of the Most High, Who sits
upon the Cherubim, more exalted than all the heavens, appears in the
Temple as the Son of an earthly Mother, as a tiny Infant, and as One Who
had not the slightest sin He submits to the Law, which was given for us
sinful mortals. Then it describes how the Infant Christ was taken from the
hands of the All Immaculate Virgin Mary by the Righteous Simeon, and
it repeats his prophetical words concerning Jesus Christ, the Light of revelation
for the nations and the glory of Israel.
In the prokeimenon we have “My soul doth magnify the Lord”
from the hymn of praise of the Mother of God.
The Apostle reading (Hebrews 7:7-17) speaks of the the high
priestly ministry and death of the Saviour and how they excelled the Old
Testament sacrifices, and then it tells how the Law of Moses was transformed
with the advent of the Saviour.
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