Menu
Jan 28, 2025 Written by 
Art'working

Presentation of the Lord

Presentation of the Lord

(Lk 2:22-40)

Luke 2:29 "Now let your servant, O Lord, be

go in peace according to your word;

Luke 2:30 for my eyes have seen your salvation,

Luke 2:31 prepared by you before all peoples,

Luke 2:32 light to enlighten the Gentiles

and the glory of your people Israel".

 

Very ancient is the liturgical use of the Nunc dimittis, prayed in the evening before going to sleep. What does it mean to pray the Nunc dimittis? It means first of all to confess that, having believed in God, it is now indifferent for us to die or to live, because by faith we know that we no longer see death. For the believer, true death lies behind us and is in baptism (Rom 6:3-11), so that the death that lies before us should no longer be a cause for anguish or fear. To every believer are addressed the words: "whoever lives and believes in me will not die eternally" (Jn 11:26), which Jesus said to Martha.

Repeating Simeon's words leads us to a confession of faith whereby we can tell God that he can now dismiss us from his service. By going to sleep we prepare ourselves for a moment of powerlessness, a moment in which we are not masters of anything, we prepare ourselves for sleep, which is a figure of death. With this canticle we prepare ourselves to welcome in peace the hour when we will die. To die is a difficult thing, and to die well is a rare grace, but if we practise every night to make sleep a prophecy of death, then we prepare ourselves to go towards death as to an encounter with the Lord.

With the Nunc dimittis we confess the Lord as the Master of our lives, he who by his power can call us to himself every day, and so we learn to make our lives a service from which we can ask to be dismissed.

To pray the Nunc dimittis is to thank God for the miracle of making us come to evening still with faith in him: this alone is a great miracle that must be acknowledged with thanksgiving. Asking each evening to be dismissed from the Lord's service teaches us that it is not for us to finish the work, but that it is for us only to believe and confess that God's work has been accomplished and completed in us. It is we who in our little faith think that we always have something to accomplish.

For the Lord we should always be ready, for he returns as a thief in the night. Before sleep, when night comes, we must be ready to lay down our breath in the Lord's hands, handing our existence back to him.

By praying the Nunc dimittis we also confess that we have seen salvation, that we have seen and recognised God's action. Even at the end of a day of suffering, of weeping, with the Nunc dimittis we acknowledge in faith that God works salvation even through events that make us suffer, that constitute a contradiction for us. But from faith descends the peace that makes us confess: 'we have seen with our own eyes the salvation of God'. And so we bring our whole day before the Lord, and if we have been faithful, then we ourselves will have been 'light of the world'. Even our day, though marked by our weaknesses, will have been light to the heathen, to the unbelievers, to all the people we have encountered.

Even the events that have contradicted us must therefore be considered as something good through which the Lord leads us. After all, Simeon, now old and without a relevant role, is contradicted in his life. Anna, in her condition of old age and widowhood, also experiences events of contradiction. In the first two chapters of Luke we encounter barrenness, poverty, irrelevance, all events of contradiction that run through the lives of all men of God in this part of the gospel. Yet it is precisely these who see themselves superabundantly rewarded by the Lord.

So even amidst the events of contradiction we are called to walk and carry out our mission. According to Luke, the mission was carried out by Simeon, by Anna, not by those who had been commissioned. The one who says: "I am the light of the world" (Jn 8:12) is also the one who says: "You are the light of the world" (Mt 5:14), associating us with his mission, which takes place both in our abasement and in our success.

This opens us up to great freedom in our Christian life and in our calling: whether successful or stoned, we must move forward in obedience to God's promise, not stopping at the contradictions of each day.

If we have lived obedience during the day, we have been light in the world. But in this world we are also the glory of Israel, because Christians, the church, are the missionaries of Israel in the world.

Behold, the Nunc dimittis is truly what seals our day. Simeon sang it at the end, at the sunset of his life; we sing it every evening, at the end of our days, waiting to do it at the end of our existence, at the evening of our lives. Argentino Quintavalle, author of the books 

- Revelation - exegetical commentary 

- The Apostle Paul and the Judaizers - Law or Gospel?

Jesus Christ true God and true Man in the Trinitarian mystery

The prophetic discourse of Jesus (Matthew 24-25)

All generations will call me blessed

 Catholics and Protestants compared - In defence of the faith

 

(Buyable on Amazon)

 

 

160 Last modified on Tuesday, 28 January 2025 13:00
Rate this item
(1 Vote)
Argentino Quintavalle

Argentino Quintavalle è studioso biblico ed esperto in Protestantesimo e Giudaismo. Autore del libro “Apocalisse - commento esegetico” (disponibile su Amazon) e specializzato in catechesi per protestanti che desiderano tornare nella Chiesa Cattolica.

Email quintavalle@noemail.it

Latest from Argentino Quintavalle

Previous
« 3rd Sunday in O.T. (1Cor 12,12-30)
Next
5th Sunday in O.T. (1Cor 15:1-11) »
back to top
In today’s Gospel passage (cf. Jn 10:27-30) Jesus is presented to us as the true Shepherd of the People of God. He speaks about the relationship that binds him to the sheep of the flock, namely, to his disciples, and he emphasizes the fact that it is a relationship of mutual recognition […] we see that Jesus’ work is explained in several actions: Jesus speaks; Jesus knows; Jesus gives eternal life; Jesus safeguards (Pope Francis)
Nel Vangelo di oggi (cfr Gv 10,27-30) Gesù si presenta come il vero Pastore del popolo di Dio. Egli parla del rapporto che lo lega alle pecore del gregge, cioè ai suoi discepoli, e insiste sul fatto che è un rapporto di conoscenza reciproca […] vediamo che l’opera di Gesù si esplica in alcune azioni: Gesù parla, Gesù conosce, Gesù dà la vita eterna, Gesù custodisce (Papa Francesco)
To enter into communion with God, before observing the laws or satisfying religious precepts, it is necessary to live out a real and concrete relationship with him […] And this “scandalousness” is well represented by the sacrament of the Eucharist: what sense can there be, in the eyes of the world, in kneeling before a piece of bread? Why on earth should someone be nourished assiduously with this bread? The world is scandalized (Pope Francis)
Per entrare in comunione con Dio, prima di osservare delle leggi o soddisfare dei precetti religiosi, occorre vivere una relazione reale e concreta con Lui […] E questa “scandalosità” è ben rappresentata dal sacramento dell’Eucaristia: che senso può avere, agli occhi del mondo, inginocchiarsi davanti a un pezzo di pane? Perché mai nutrirsi assiduamente di questo pane? Il mondo si scandalizza (Papa Francesco)
What is meant by “eat the flesh and drink the blood” of Jesus? Is it just an image, a figure of speech, a symbol, or does it indicate something real? (Pope Francis)
Che significa “mangiare la carne e bere il sangue” di Gesù?, è solo un’immagine, un modo di dire, un simbolo, o indica qualcosa di reale? (Papa Francesco)
What does bread of life mean? We need bread to live. Those who are hungry do not ask for refined and expensive food, they ask for bread. Those who are unemployed do not ask for enormous wages, but the “bread” of employment. Jesus reveals himself as bread, that is, the essential, what is necessary for everyday life; without Him it does not work (Pope Francis)
Che cosa significa pane della vita? Per vivere c’è bisogno di pane. Chi ha fame non chiede cibi raffinati e costosi, chiede pane. Chi è senza lavoro non chiede stipendi enormi, ma il “pane” di un impiego. Gesù si rivela come il pane, cioè l’essenziale, il necessario per la vita di ogni giorno, senza di Lui la cosa non funziona (Papa Francesco)
In addition to physical hunger man carries within him another hunger — all of us have this hunger — a more important hunger, which cannot be satisfied with ordinary food. It is a hunger for life, a hunger for eternity which He alone can satisfy, as he is «the bread of life» (Pope Francis)
Oltre alla fame fisica l’uomo porta in sé un’altra fame – tutti noi abbiamo questa fame – una fame più importante, che non può essere saziata con un cibo ordinario. Si tratta di fame di vita, di fame di eternità che Lui solo può appagare, in quanto è «il pane della vita» (Papa Francesco)
The Eucharist draws us into Jesus' act of self-oblation. More than just statically receiving the incarnate Logos, we enter into the very dynamic of his self-giving [Pope Benedict]
L'Eucaristia ci attira nell'atto oblativo di Gesù. Noi non riceviamo soltanto in modo statico il Logos incarnato, ma veniamo coinvolti nella dinamica della sua donazione [Papa Benedetto]

duevie.art

don Giuseppe Nespeca

Tel. 333-1329741


Disclaimer

Questo blog non rappresenta una testata giornalistica in quanto viene aggiornato senza alcuna periodicità. Non può pertanto considerarsi un prodotto editoriale ai sensi della legge N°62 del 07/03/2001.
Le immagini sono tratte da internet, ma se il loro uso violasse diritti d'autore, lo si comunichi all'autore del blog che provvederà alla loro pronta rimozione.
L'autore dichiara di non essere responsabile dei commenti lasciati nei post. Eventuali commenti dei lettori, lesivi dell'immagine o dell'onorabilità di persone terze, il cui contenuto fosse ritenuto non idoneo alla pubblicazione verranno insindacabilmente rimossi.