HOMILY ON THE LORD AND THE HOLY RENCONTE ON THE PURIFICATION OF THE ALL-PURE VIRGIN MOTHER OF GOD AND
(St. Dimitri of Rostov)
Forty days have elapsed after the Nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ, the time of purification imposed by the Act was gone, and the Virgin Mother, all pure and all-blessed , St. Joseph left Bethlehem with her fiance, carrying in her arms the Christ. She sailed for Jerusalem, to accomplish two ordinances of the Lord: be obtained by the prayers of the priest and the offering of a sacrifice to God, purification following the birth and spend her little firstborn child to the Lord by paying amount dictated by God to Moses.
Indeed, as mandated by the Act for the purification of the mother, when a woman is pregnant and bear a male, she shall be unclean for seven days. On the eighth day, the child shall be circumcised. It will still thirty-three days to purify his blood. Meanwhile, she shall touch no holy thing and will not enter the sanctuary until the days of her purifying be fulfilled. When the days of her purifying are completed, it will provide a lamb for a burnt offering, and a young pigeon or a turtledove for a sin offering. If it was not enough to buy a lamb, it will take two doves or two young pigeons, one for the Holocaust, the other for a sin offering. The priest will pray for her and she is pure .
Upon presentation of the firstborn child to the Lord, it is said: Consecrate Me every male firstborn (...) You will give me the first of your son . This donation was prescribed to the Israelites in appreciation of great benefit received in Egypt, when God slew the firstborn of the Egyptians, but pardoned the firstborn of Israel. Since that time, the Israelites were driving their firstborn son to the temple to dedicate it to God as tribute legal, and He redeemed against a fixed amount, called ransom money. This money belongs to the Levites who officiated at the temple of the Lord. According to an established custom in the fourth book of Moses, the ransom money amounted to five shekels of the sanctuary, twenty gerahs the shekel (Nb.3, 47).
Thus, the Mother of God went to the temple to submit to the law of the Lord, carrying in her arms the Lawgiver Himself. Immaculate, undefiled, incorruptible, and all-pure, she came to ask purification, although it still had no need. How those who had conceived without pleasure and without the assistance of a husband, who gave birth without pain, which had preserved the virginal purity without being the bane of women in childbirth who gave birth to the Source of all purity, have could she be impure? In it Christ was born! The fruit is not tainted by the tree, the tree is not tainted by the fruit: the Holy Virgin remained pure and spotless after the birth of Christ, the blessed fruit. As he crossed the sunlight penetrates the crystal, without breaking nor tarnish. Even more, it enhances its purity. The Sun of Justice does not affect the virginity of his mother all-pure. The usual effusion of blood stained the door not sealed, the seal of purity. Exceeding the natural law, the Lord through that door, that kept the virginity, and rasped the purity and sanctified by His passage, flooding it with light divine grace.
The Word was God-given birth without corruption, no purification was necessary. However, that which is eternally pure and undefiled came the request to show himself in all things obedient to the law. Humility does not suffer from pride in his incorruptible purity. So as impure as the All Holy would stand in the place for new mothers, at the gates of the temple of the Lord. She waited there, without showing any contempt against impure or sinful.
She offered the sacrifice, not as rich, with a lamb a year, but as the poor, with a dove or two young pigeons, showing again, as elsewhere, humility and love of poverty. She pushed the pride of the rich, rewarding the poor and unfortunate gold of the Magi, keeping only the lower part to his trip to Egypt.
Having offered the pair of birds, she presented her first-born son to the Lord, calling to God what is God, under the Act. Kneeling before the Creator, she handed him the child with great respect: "Behold your Son, O Eternal Father, here whom you have sent down here to me that he incarnated for the salvation of men! Here's whom you have created without a mother before the ages, one that by Thy benevolence, I have given birth without a father at the end of time! Here is the first-born of my womb, the Son developed in me through Your Holy Spirit, and left me indescribably, as only you know! Here are my firstborn, He who thee here consubstantial, and, without beginning, returns only you alone, for He has come to you without leaving his divinity! Get this First-born with whom You created all things for centuries and made the light! Get Your Word, incarnate me, with whom You strengthened the heavens, founded the earth, and gathered the waters! Get Me Your Son for the purpose essential that you have arranged for him and for me as you know, to redeem His flesh and blood human race! .
Having uttered these words, the Virgin Mother filed his beloved child in the arms of the high priest, the representative of God, as the hands of God Himself. Then she bought for the price mentioned above, five shekels foreshadowing the five wounds that Christ suffered on the cross to redeem the world from the curse of the Law and the work of the enemy.
According to Saint Gregory of Nyssa, St. Cyril of Alexandria and St. Andrew of Crete, the Holy Prophet Zechariah, father of the Forerunner, seeing the all-pure Virgin and Child with advancing women's side impure for purification, placed among the virgins, where no wife should behave. The scribes and Pharisees were indignant at once, but Zachary resisted, claiming that Mother, in spite of childbirth, was still pure and untouched. Faced with skepticism, he recalled that if any creature is subject to the law nature, it is even more so by the Creator of this Act, who is to organize His creation by His powerful hands, and ensure, if it sees fit, a virgin birth and remains a virgin after childbirth. Therefore, he concluded he had not ruled out the all-holy Mother of range of virgins, she, the Virgin par excellence.
Of the meantime, here are just entering the temple, led by the Holy Spirit, San Simeon, an old upright and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel in the Messiah. Knowing the prophecy of the patriarch Jacob, he knew that Christ approached, since the scepter of Judah had fallen into the hands of Herod. In fact Jacob had prophesied that the scepter shall not depart from Judah, there comes the consolation of Israel, Christ the Lord. Moreover, here which had been ended the seventy weeks of Daniel, announcing the coming of the Messiah. The Holy Spirit had promised Simeon that he would not taste death before they see the Lord's Christ. And indeed, when the old man noticed the all-pure Virgin and Child in his arms when he saw the grace of God that surrounded them both, the Holy Spirit revealed to him that had before him the expected Messiah. So he went eagerly to the hug. It is with joy unspeakable, with fear and reverence, he gave thanks to God. Then he sang, like the swan before death, crowned with his bleached hair long, " Now Master you may let your servant depart in peace according to Thy word! No peace was not living my thoughts. Every day I waited for Your coming praying. Now I've seen, and I found peace. It is free from all sorrow that I'm wearing the good news to my fathers. I'm Your report came into the world to Adam our forefather, Abraham, Moses, David, Isaiah, and other fathers, the holy prophets. I'll dump a joy unspeakable to those who until now had known nothing but sadness! Let me go quickly, so that they rejoice in Thee, their Deliverer! Let from Thy servant who longs rest in the bosom of Abraham, after his long years of hard work! I have seen Your salvation prepared for all men! My eyes have seen the light to hunt for darkness, to lighten the Gentiles by the revelation of divine mysteries still unknown. My eyes have seen the Light which burst for the glory of Thy people Israel! As promised in Thy Name the prophet Isaiah: I will put My hello in Zion and My glory over Israel ! "
Hearing the words of the holy and righteous old man uttered the Child, the Bridegroom Joseph and the Virgin Most Pure marveled. Simeon spoke to the child as an old man, he prayed as we pray the God who rules over life and death, which can immediately let an old man from the next life, or detain him in this.
After his speech, Simeon blesses the child, then he glorified and praised this all-immaculate Mother, whom he had been given birth to the God-Man. It also magnified Joseph, foster father, and worthy servant of such a mystery. Contemplating the discerning eyes of his Mother Unwedded, that she, not Joseph, he said: "This is He who is set for the fall and rising of many in Israel. The fall of those who will not believe His words, and rehabilitation of those who receive His holy love with preaching. The fall of the scribes and Pharisees blind malice of sinners and recovery simple and ignorant. Here is one who chooses the foolish to confound the wise of this world, which will cause the downfall of the synagogue of the Jews of the Old Covenant and instituted the Church of Grace. Whoever is here is a sign of contradiction. We deliver a lot of judgments on him. Some say the good, the others accused him of deceiving the people. It will, as said the prophet Jeremiah, a target for the arrows. We hang on the cross, the nails and the spear wound him. And you yourself, O Mother Unwedded, the sword of sorrow will pierce your soul and your heart when you see your Son nailed to the Cross. It is with great sorrow of heart and strength that you will accompany crying at the door of this world The one you children without suffering for the good of humanity. "
But here at this time was in the temple, the prophetess Anna, the daughter of Phanuel of the tribe of Asher, widow advanced in years. She had only lived with her husband seven years from her virginity, and after her widowhood, she had spent every day of his life in the temple to please God, serving Him day and night in fasting and prayer, until his eighty-four. Who also came to attend the Holy Encounter, she prophesied that on this small child had to drive to the temple of the Lord, speaking to everyone who looked for redemption in Jerusalem.
Witnesses all these wonders, the scribes and Pharisees were angry. They reproached Zechariah have violated the Act by placing a mother who came to ask the purification in the space reserved for virgins. They also harbored resentment against Simeon and Anna for their testimony about Child, so they were unable to silence, and went to tell Herod what had happened at the temple. This was soon find that Christ, the Divine Child for the kill. But it was impossible to find because, on an order from above, an angel appeared to Joseph in a dream, which he took the Child and the Mother of God, and brought them to Egypt, after a detour through their city of Nazareth in Galilee. L'Enfant, meanwhile, grew and became strong in spirit and in wisdom and grace of God was upon Him.
The Feast of the Meeting of the Lord was introduced the reign of Emperor Justinian. The event was celebrated by the Church before, but in a less solemn. It is this pious emperor who ordered the register among the great feasts of the Lord and the Mother of God. Here's how this happened ...
the reign of Justinian, Constantinople and the surrounding areas experienced an outbreak of plague that lasted several months. The disease appeared in early October. Initially, there were daily between five and ten thousand deaths. It was impossible to bury all the corpses, even those people rich and honorable, as the servants also died. At Antioch, God's punishment was more terrible still. A fever was added for the sins of men, a devastating earthquake that struck down the great houses, tall buildings, and numerous churches . A multitude of people perished under the rubble. The bishop of the city died in the ruins of his cathedral. Pompéopolis in Mysia also was destroyed, and all its inhabitants swallowed by the earth. In these terrible times of death and destruction, a man pleasing to God was the revelation that it was appropriate to celebrate Hypapante, that is to say Meeting of the Blessed Lord, among the other major feasts of the Lord and the Mother of God.
When it came on Feb. 2, the day of the Holy Encounter, was celebrated vigils. As we came out the cross in procession the plague ceased, and with it the earthquake. It praised the very mercy of God and the prayers of His all-pure Mother.
to Christ our God be rendered praise and worship and His Mother, honor and gratitude, for ever and ever, amen!
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