This feast is celebrated on 2 February. It is drawn from the Gospel of St Luke 2:22-38 (ESV):
And when the time came for their purification according to the Law of Moses, they brought him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord 23(as it is written in the Law of the Lord, “Every male who first opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord”) 24and to offer a sacrifice according to what is said in the Law of the Lord, “a pair of turtledoves, or two young pigeons.” 25Now there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon, and this man was righteous and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him. 26And it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Christ. 27And he came in the Spirit into the temple, and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for him according to the custom of the Law, 28he took him up in his arms and blessed God and said,
29“Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace, according to your word; 30for my eyes have seen your salvation 31that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, 32a light for revelation to the Gentiles,
and for glory to your people Israel.”
33And his father and his mother marvelled at what was said about him. 34And Simeon blessed them and said to Mary his mother, “Behold, this child is appointed for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign that is opposed 35(and a sword will pierce through your own soul also), so that thoughts from many hearts may be revealed.”
36And there was a prophetess, Anna, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was advanced in years, having lived with her husband seven years from when she was a virgin, 37and then as a widow until she was eighty-four. She did not depart from the temple, worshiping with fasting and prayer night and day. 38And coming up at that very hour she began to give thanks to God and to speak of him to all who were waiting for the redemption of Jerusalem.
The icon by the late Fr Badwi is revealing: St Joseph presents the turtle doves which are to be sacrificed, and St Simeon seems to be presenting the Holy Child to His parents. This shows, in one neat symbol, the inter-relationship of the Old and New Dispositions, Testaments, and Peoples (Jew and Gentile). The Church is neither Jewish nor Gentile, it is both, we are the third people.
St Joseph is presenting the doves in the Temple to God, and the Holy Child is being held in worship by St Simeon. The Mother of God is pondering the scene which unfolds before her, and St Anna is lifting a finger to the heavens, as if she were saying “This is the work of God.” The cloth with which St Joseph holds the sacrificial doves is ornamented with crosses: a symbol of how the new sacrifice, the sacrifice of the Cross, is now made present in reality. So too, the halo of Our Lord is marked by the Cross.
I have previously commented on the mess which modern scholars have made of this passage in St Luke, through thinking that they could know more about first century Judaism than the evangelist, and that at a distance of two thousand years: https://www.fryuhanna.com/2021/09/17/st-luke-and-modern-scholars/
Beyond all this, the typology of this scene has been lost. The Temple is the archetype of the cosmos, the creation, and it also of heaven. Here the appropriate type is clearly the creation: each of us enters life and an entry-ritual is in order. The ritual of the sacrifice of animals has been superseded by the new initiation rite of baptism (and chrismation). Thus, the entry of the Lord into the Temple is an antetype of Baptism and Chrismation.
When He entered the Temple, He was greeted by two elderly people who had been waiting for the coming of the Messiah. When they see Him with their own eyes, then are able to depart in peace. This is still true for us: we are able to see Christ with our own eyes in the form of the Most Holy Eucharist. As the great Jesuit poet G.M. Hopkins said, the Real Presence, once grasped, is “the life of the soul.”
Likewise, Christ is still a sign of contradiction for many, and our attitude to Him reveals our heart. This is arguably true of anything but our attitude to Hm brings forth our answer to the ultimate questions of life.
Another lesson for us, and one which is harder to grasp because we do not naturally think this way: although Our Lord was born to perfect and so supersede the Jewish faith, yet He was obedient to its dictates until the time of His Epiphany and His entry into public ministry. Just as with His obedience to His parents, while He was subject to authority He was obedient and dutiful. But once His time had come, He had to assert His mission and His role.
