The Holy Spirit Was Upon Simeon

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In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit!

Today the Holy Church is celebrating the feast of the Meeting of the Lord, the bringing of the Lord Jesus Christ into the Temple. The Gospel of Luke relates this in chapter 2 from verse 22 onwards: And when the days of her purification according to the law of Moses were accomplished, they brought Him to Jerusalem, to present Him to the Lord; As it is written in the law of the Lord, Every male that openeth the womb shall be called holy to the Lord (Lk. 2:22-23). Purification according to the law of Moses assumed that forty days were enough for a male baby and sixty days for a female baby. The tradition was observed especially strictly when it came to the firstborn—that is, the first child who, according to the Law of God, was dedicated to God. It was an ancient tradition: just as the first fruits of the harvest, the first fruits of business and income were sacrificed to God, so firstborn children were dedicated to the service of the Creator.

The family of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Most Holy Virgin Mary and the named father Joseph the toiler, were people who thoroughly observed the Law of God. Now we can hardly even imagine how scrupulously the prescriptions of the Law of God were fulfilled in those days. The scribes and the pharisees were especially zealous in this, trying to fulfill every letter of the Scripture, so Christ cited the scribes and the Pharisees as an example to us Christians when in the Sermon on the Mount He says: Except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the Kingdom of Heaven (Matt. 5:20).

To exceed means to reach and rise to a higher level. Because for a Christian the goal is not just to refrain from sin, but also to do good actively. If in the Old Testament when a person refrained from defilement, performed purification, and did not commit sins, he was considered righteous, then in the New Testament the situation changes drastically. Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin (Jm. 4:17). If in the Old Testament not doing evil was regarded as righteousness, then in the New Testament if you can do good and don’t do it, it’s already a sin. That’s how our righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and the Pharisees.

In those days—a little earlier—there lived a Jewish wise man named Hillel Gamaliel, who said: “Do not do to others what you do not wish for yourself—this is the law and the prophets.” Christ paraphrased this saying and formulated it differently: All things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets (Matt. 7:12). Therefore, Old Testament righteousness is more passive—“don’t do that”—whereas the New Testament righteousness is active: “do that”.

So on the fortieth day Mary and Joseph brought the Infant to the Temple, to sacrifice, in accordance with the Law of the Lord, a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons. If we look at icons of the Meeting of the Lord, sometimes they depict how two turtledoves are sacrificed in a cage in the Jerusalem Temple for purification. And then we read: And, behold, there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon; and the same man was just and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel: and the Holy Ghost was upon him (Luke. 2:25). Simeon is still venerated by the Jewish people. He is called Simeon the Great or the Righteous Simeon. His sayings are even included in various parts of the Jewish Talmud. This man was considered so righteous and pious that Jewish children still memorize his sayings in order to have in their hearts the wisdom that Simeon possessed.

In the Christian tradition St. Simeon was one of the translators of the Bible from Hebrew into Greek. That is, he lived and worked actively more than 200 years before the Birth of Christ. Then, by order of the famous Library of Alexandria, Pharaoh Ptolemy demanded from the Jews that they translate the Holy Scriptures from Hebrew into Greek. The Jews refused for a very long time, but then they agreed. Ptolemy did not really trust the Jews, so he invited seventy-two translators, and that is why this translation is called the “translation of the seventy”, or the Septuagint in Greek. And Pharaoh said: “Let each translate separately from the others, and then we will compare.” And, according to tradition, each one was placed in a separate cell, and then the Greeks would come and see if they were translating texts the same way.

So, Simeon was one of those translators, and Christian tradition has it that when he was translating the Book of the Prophet Isaiah, there were the following words: Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel (Is. 7:14). When Simeon read this Hebrew text in a leather scroll, he thought: “It must be a mistake. If she gives birth, she is no longer a virgin. It reads, ‘A virgin shall conceive.’ If she conceives, she is already not a virgin.” So, he took a knife to cut off the word “alma” (“virgin” in Hebrew) from the leather scroll, but when he was about to do it and replace with the word “Isha” (“wife”), suddenly a snow-white angel appeared in his cell. The angel stopped his hand with the knife and said, “O Righteous Simeon, you will live until you see with your own eyes a Virgin Who will give birth to a Son. Do not damage the text of the prophet.” And Simeon lived an extremely long life—over 200 years. He came to the Temple in Jerusalem every day, because babies were brought there daily, and he would have a good look at the mothers and at their babies to understand when he would see the Virgin Who had given birth to the Infant.

We read that the Holy Spirit was on him, meaning he could recognize with the help of the Holy Spirit Who was on him the Virgin, who had given birth. A very interesting detail: the Holy Spirit was on him, since he was an Old Testament man. Christians differ from the Old Testament people in that the Holy Spirit is not on us, but in us. As the Apostle Paul writes: The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us (Rom. 5:5). Because the day of Pentecost had not yet come, and all the ancient prophets had the Holy Spirit Who rested on them, but was not in them. In order for the Spirit to enter into us we must purify our inner world, as it is said: For into a malicious soul wisdom shall not enter (Wis. 1:4). And purification took place only on Golgotha when the Son of God shed His precious Blood, and this became the foundation of Pentecost, so that the Holy Spirit could enter into hearts cleansed by the Blood of Jesus Christ.

And we read: And it was revealed unto him by the Holy Ghost, that he should not see death, before he had seen the Lord’s Christ (Luke 2:26). That is, an angel in the Spirit testified to him that he would not die until he saw the Virgin Who would give birth to a Baby born of the Most Pure One. And he tried to come to the Temple every day driven by inspiration. It says: And he came by the Spirit into the temple (Lk. 2:27)—that is, not because it was required of him, not observing some rite, but by inspiration he went to the Temple every day, blessing and glorifying God. It is very important for us, too, to always feel inspired to go to church, as the Psalmist David exclaims: I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the Lord (Ps. 121:1).

By that time, all of Righteous Simeon’s relatives and friends were dead, generation after generation had passed, and he felt like an ancient man who had outlived all his peers. And he could hardly recognize the new generation—it was a new culture with new behavior. He had aged so much that he was tired of his extraordinarily long life (as we will see below), he was burdened by these many years of life because he was surfeited with them. And he came by the Spirit into the temple: and when the parents brought in the Child Jesus, to do for Him after the custom of the law… (Luke 2:27). If circumcision was performed on the eighth day, then bringing a child into the Temple on the fortieth day was a rite prescribed by law—to sacrifice two turtledoves, or two chicks, and bring the baby into the Temple to have him blessed by the priests. And when the Infant was brought into the Temple, Simeon took Him into his arms; and it suddenly dawned on this man, on whom the Holy Spirit rested: Here is the Virgin Who has given birth, the Most Holy Mary, and here is the Immaculate Infant Who was born of a Virgin. Then took he Him up in his arms, and blessed God, and said, Lord, now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace [in these words we see the tragedy of a man who is tired of life]. He says it as if God had been forcibly keeping him alive… He seems to be saying: “I am tired, I am surfeited with my life, nothing keeps me here anymore, except this happiness of seeing the Infant God.”

Lord, now lettest Thou thy servant depart in peace, according to Thy word: For mine eyes have seen Thy salvation, Which Thou hast prepared before the face of all people; A light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of Thy people Israel (Lk. 2:29-32).

Here we see that the Holy Spirit revealed to him that it was not just a baby, but Salvation, the Savior. “Mine eyes have seen Thy salvation.” That is, his eyes had seen the Baby Jesus and he confesses Him to be the Savior. And further we read that it was revealed to him that Christ had come to enlighten the Gentiles. It is with the Gospel that the preaching to the Gentiles began; before the New Testament the preaching of the Word of God was only addressed to the Jews. But before His Ascension, Christ would say to His disciples: Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved (Mk. 16:15-16). And it was revealed to Simeon and was not hidden from his keen spiritual eyes. And he concluded his prayer with the words that Christ is the glory of His people of Israel.

The Holy Fathers explain that the true Israel means those Jews who accepted Jesus Christ as the Son of God. First of all, these are the Most Holy Theotokos, the Righteous Joseph the Betrothed, the Twelve Apostles of Jesus Christ, then the Seventy Apostles, Simeon the God-Receiver and the Righteous Anna the Prophetess who also came on that day to the Temple by inspiration to rejoice in the Meeting of the Lord, Who had been brought into His own Temple. The Psalmist David exclaims: The hills melted like wax at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the Lord of all the earth (Ps. 96:5). As Solomon prayed at the consecration of the Temple of Jerusalem, he proclaimed, Heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain Thee; how much less this house which I have built! (2 Chron. 6:18). But here an amazing miracle occurs: the Infant Jesus, Who is also the eternal God, is brought into His own Temple. The Lord Who is brought into the Temple is what we experience during the Eucharist. When we see that the chalice with Holy Communion of the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ is being carried out, it means that the Meeting of the Lord has taken place again in the Eucharistic Canon, the Lord has come down onto the bread and wine, and they have become the true Body and the true Blood of the Son of God. And with the fear of God and faith we approach and receive Communion of the Body and Blood of the Son of God.

His Holiness Patriarch Kirill gives a very interesting interpretation: this day was recognized as Orthodox Youth Day. That’s why I greet all our youth, our teenagers, and our children. His Holiness says, “In the person of Simeon, the Old Testament met with the Infant Jesus—that is, with the New Testament.” As if the elderly generation and the One Who was born in Bethlehem meet for the happiness of all people, and the Patriarch made such an interesting conclusion. That’s why we declared this day Orthodox Youth Day, because young people truly mature when they are in the tradition of their fathers, grandfathers, great-grandfathers, and adhere to their faith.

And Joseph and His Mother marvelled at those things which were spoken of Him. And Simeon blessed them, and said unto Mary His Mother, Behold, this Child is set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel; and for a sign which shall be spoken against (Lk. 2:33-34). Indeed, the Lord came to the fall and rising of many in Israel. For the rising when people rose from the dead to life in Christ and with Christ and followed Him. And the fall is the tragedy of those who did not believe in Christ and those who shouted: “Crucify Him, crucify Him! Let His blood be on us and our children!” This fall was so dreadful that by these words they cursed themselves and their children. And for almost 2000 years now the history of the Jewish people has been an incessant holocaust and persecution by various nations: the Romans, the Persians, the Babylonians, the Greeks, the Germans and others. Therefore, Christ is indeed the subject of contention, the stumbling-block; He Himself said: I came not to send peace, but a sword (Mt. 10:34). That is, the faith of Christ separates the righteous from the unrighteous, and this is an obvious truth. And Simeon prophesied and said, addressing Mary: …A sword shall pierce through thy own soul also, that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed (Lk. 2:35).

When did a sword pierce through the soul of the Mother of God? When She saw Her Son being crucified on Golgotha; every nail driven into the Savior’s wrists, into the Savior’s feet, and the spear that pierced His ribs—this sword pierced through the heart of the Theotokos, as the Righteous Simeon predicted to her in the Holy Spirit.

And then we read: And there was one Anna, a prophetess, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Aser: she was of a great age, and had lived with an husband seven years from her virginity; And she was a widow of about fourscore and four years, which departed not from the temple, but served God with fastings and prayers night and day (Luke 2:36–37). We see that this eldress lived with her husband for only seven years, became a widow. She remained faithful to her husband until a ripe old age and went to the Temple, staying there day and night. And she coming in that instant gave thanks likewise unto the Lord, and spake of him to all them that looked for redemption in Jerusalem (Lk. 2:38).

So, we see two prophets of God—the Righteous Simeon, or Simeon the Great, and Anna the Prophetess, who testified to the Infant Christ that He was the true Messiah, the long-awaited Messiah, the Savior of the world. The feast of the Meeting of the Lord poses a question to each one of us, addressed to our conscience: Did we experience a Meeting with the Lord? Was there a Meeting in our lives when we felt the presence of Christ in our lives? As I have already said, Orthodox Christians experience a liturgical Meeting with the Lord in Holy Communion when Communion enters the temple of the human body, as the Scriptures say: Know ye not that ye are the temple of God (1 Cor. 3:16). When Holy Communion enters into us, as one of the prayers before Communion reads: through the gates that the Lord created—that is, through our mouth; and we receive the Godhead inside ourselves—the Meeting that sanctifies us, scorches the thorns of our transgressions, and deifies us, that is, restores the likeness of God in us.

The feast of the Meeting of the Lord is also a meeting of generations, as His Holiness Patriarch Kirill says. Therefore, we, the older generation, must be more attentive to the younger generations in order to pass on our faith to them. Elderly women—grandmothers and great-grandmothers—should be especially zealous in this, like this elderly widow Anna who remained faithful to her husband and went to the Temple of God, and was present where babies were blessed, waiting for the moment she would see Christ the Messiah.

The Meeting with the Lord also occurs when a person confesses for the first time in his life and reads the Holy Scriptures for the first time in his life.

May God keep you!