“MARVEL, FOR THE + SIGN HAS RISEN”
Saint Luke 2: 33-40
Sunday after Christmas: 29 December Anno Domini 2019
Father Jay Watson SSP
Marvel! Now that is a word we don’t hear very often. That’s a verb you rarely use; a noun you hardly ever feel. All of your regularly used English Bible translations have “marvel” for the Greek word originally penned. To marvel, to wonder, to speculate, to regard with amazement—at what though? This text begins right at the end of Saint Simeon’s chanted prayer to the Christ child: “Lord, now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in Peace…” You will all again likewise sing this Gospel Canticle, later in the service, after reception of the same Christ.
The Holy Virgin and her husband were transfixed with awe at this statement of the young child’s Person and Work.
Are you? Do The Lord’s people this day, this year, this decade, century, era, New Testament, likewise properly believe, AND ACT, as if The Christ was actually: a) in their midst; in this very presence, like Simeon did; b) that the gift of Jesus, right here, right now, is for your actual salvation—not metaphorically; and c) that This Light for you Gentiles is actually Light, and that This Messias, This Jesus, is truly The Glory of God?
Do we even understand God’s Glory anymore, or have we become so secularized and Protestantized that all this God stuff is merely facts, memorized information, and socially constrained good-behavior?
Do your eyes see Salvation? No, it’s here, you are told it’s here and shown it and hear it and receive it, but do your “eyes,” your eyes of The Soul see it? If your faith only looks to itself you are in big trouble. Your faith is like a new stomach that Jesus the Good-Physician has transplanted into your dying body because your rotted-out husk of the old stomach, the “old Adam” could no longer receive nutrients from food and you were dying and dying quickly. But now by His Grace, He has given you that gut that can gratefully and eagerly receive all the food of heaven which He daily supplies. So, when you’re famished or low on energy do you look to your stomach and say: “boy, I am saved by my belly’s digestive organ! Praise my stomach?” I pray it may never be so. Rather, you say, pray, chant with Saint Simeon, “Praise my Lord and Savior Christ Jesus Who comes to me with the food of His forgiving Words and Forgiving Supper! Jesus saves!”
Yes, Simeon held God. He looked into the face and eyes of God. He was saved by The God Who had come to him and Who had had The Holy Ghost bring Simeon to WHERE God was: “for him!”
This Child, this 12-year old Boy in The Temple, This Nazarene Rabbi baptized by John, This Christ of God is the sign and the content of God’s Love and Mercy to you. This Jesus and His Cross is that which is set—set firmly in the blood-soaked, skull-carpeted, dirt of Calvary—set for the fall and rising of many in Israel.
El is God. The great and good and awesome Elohim is the Blessed Holy Trinity: Three in One and One in Three—Father, Son + and Holy Ghost. The Son of The Godhead, The Son of The Father, He and He alone is The God/Man. He is your Savior and Redeemer. He is the sign Himself; the very sign of + Holy Cross. He fills the Crucifix with His Body given and His Blood shed. God dies so that man may live IN HIM by the gifts He gives. Feeding the hungry is not spoken against. Healing ill people and giving shelter and safety to the sick and homeless is not spoken against. Working hard and then giving others the fruit of that work is never spoken against. It is The Cross—foolishness Greeks and the “Greeks” of our day, those seeking man’s “wisdom.”
The blood of the Cross—The Blood of God is a stumbling block to Jews, who never have understood Isaiah’s suffering servant, the “man of sorrows,” Emmanuel in the true flesh and blood from a Virgin. Those Jews and all “Jews” who seek a God that is a Kingly, conquering, imperial David, will always stumble at the meek and silent Lamb of Galilee.
But This Holy Infant in Simeon’s hands, in Simeon’s vision—a pair of old-eyes now made eagle-sharp, He is the power and wisdom of God [1 Cor. 1.24].
To speak against This God/Man, to ignore Him, or to turn Him into less than I AM, the giver of The perfect and inflexible “DO THIS” Ten Commandments, is to “fall,” fall all the way to Hades. To speak against This God/Man, to think lightly or irreverently of His merciful forgiveness in His Sacraments, in His Body and Blood is to fall!
To speak against His chosen vessels of communicating His Grace—be they the Holy and Blessed Virgin, the impulsive and hypocritical (at times) Petros, or any of His other fallible servants, is likewise to fall—to reject them is to reject Him, and the Father Who sent Him.
The Sword is The Holy Spirit. The Holy Ghost is never in the limelight by Himself, but always holds forth The Word. That Word in the “hands” of The Spirit, i.e. on the lips and in the hands of God’s messengers, does indeed pierce all hearts, and reveals all truth. Mary saw and received the ultimate revelation as her precious soul was pierced in devastating pain and sorrow at Calvary. Her Lord and God was dead; her Son, her Boy, her infant babe, was dead. There, was The most precious and sacred and life-giving Sign: The + Sign of The Cross. This is the sign that crushes Satan’s head, drives away tempting demons, banishes death and seals the gates of hell. Now you know why you are encouraged and exhorted to make this physical gesture of The God/Man Who has received you as His! May it ever be.
In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of The Holy Ghost
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