Homily on the Presentation of the Lord
Homilia in occursum domini
Homily on the Meeting of the Lord§1
1A discourse of our holy father Cyril, Archbishop of Jerusalem, regarding the meeting of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and Simeon the God-receiver. Rejoice greatly, daughter Zion. Proclaim joy, daughter Jerusalem. Dance, O people of the city of God. Lift up the gates and the walls, O Zion and all the earth. Cry out, O mountains, and let the great hills lift up. Clap your hands, O rivers, and embrace, O crowds of Zion, seeing the presence of God in her. Let the heavenly things harmonize today with the earthly, and let the upper world hymn with the lower Jerusalem, through Christ who is in her, being both heavenly and earthly. You, heavenly intelligent powers, dance around; you, those on earth, hymn with the angels.
For today the God of gods has appeared in Zion. Today, glorious things have been spoken concerning you, O city of God, Jerusalem, the city of the great King. Open the gates to the one opening all the heavenly gates, and to the one opening all the gates of Paradise, and to the one opening the gates of the tombs upon the cross, and to the one crushing the gates of Hades from eternity, and to the one paradoxically shutting the gates of the Virgin. Today, he who formerly served Moses on Mount Sinai in a God-befitting manner, becoming a fulfiller of the law by law in a slavish manner, today the God comes from Thaman in Zion. Today the heavenly Bridegroom arrives in the temple with the God-bearer's bridal chamber. Daughters of Jerusalem, go forth to meet him. Brightly kindle your torches for the true Light, and prepare the tunics of your souls for the Bridegroom Christ.
Let us meet him, along with Zion, the peoples of the nations bearing torches. Let us enter into the temple, with the temple and with God and with Christ. I will cry out the hymn of the angels with the angels: Holy, holy, holy, Lord of Sabaoth, full is the heaven and the earth of your glory.
The ends of the world are full of his goodness. All creation is full of his pleasure. All humanity is full of his condescension. The heavenly, the earthly, and the underworld are full of his compassion, full of his mercy, full of his pity, full of his gifts, and full of his benefits.
Therefore, all nations, clap your hands. All the ends of the earth, come and see the works of God. Let every breath praise the Lord. Let every earth worship, let every tongue sing, let every tongue psalm, and let every tongue glorify God: the forty-day-old and the eternal, a small child and the ancient of days, a child nursing and the maker of the ages. I see an infant and I know my God; an infant nursing and nourishing the world, an infant weeping and granting life and joy to the world, an infant being threshed and being ransomed from the sheaves of sin, an infant truly and unceasingly in the arms of a mother upon the earth, and him truly and unceasingly in the bosoms of the Father in the heavens.
I see an infant entering from Bethlehem into Jerusalem and not at all being separated from the upper Jerusalem. I see an infant legally offering a sacrifice to the temple upon the earth, but he himself receiving the pious sacrifices of all in the heavens; him in the arms of the Elder economically, and him in the cherubic thrones divinely; him being offered and being made holy, and him making and cleansing all things. He himself is the gift and he himself is the temple. He himself is the high priest and he himself is the altar, he himself is the mercy seat [and he himself is the one interceding].
And he himself is the one offering and he himself is the sacrifice offered for the world; he himself is the wood of life and of knowledge, he himself is the lamb and he himself is the fire existing. He himself is the burnt offering and he himself is the sword of the spirit. He himself is the shepherd and he himself is the lamb. He himself is the slayer and he himself is the...
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The Uniqueness of Christ's Sanctification§2
2He is the one being offered, and he is the one receiving the sacrifice. He is the law, and he is the one now becoming under law.
But let us hear the rest concerning the day from the holy gospels. For the wonderful Luke says concerning Christ, that when the days of their purification were fulfilled according to the law of Moses (Luke 2:22), he led Jesus into Jerusalem, to present him to the Lord, just as it has been written in the law of the Lord, that every male opening a womb shall be called holy to the Lord (Luke 2:23). Samuel and Isaac and Jacob and Joseph and others who were born from barrenness by hope and by opening the unfruitful wombs of mothers were called holy to the Lord; but Christ alone from a virgin, the only, the only-begotten, having been born and not having opened virgin gates, is not merely holy to the Lord, but holy of the holies and lord of lords and god of gods and firstborn of firstborns, ruler of rulers and king of kings; and he shall be called and believed and worshiped, and now in the temple shall be proclaimed by Simeon.
For there was, he says, a man in Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon (Luke 2:25). And this man was righteous, and the Holy Spirit was in him. And it had been promised to him by the Holy Spirit not to see death before he saw the Christ of the Lord (Luke 2:26). And he came in the Spirit into the temple (Luke 2:27).
And when the parents brought the child Jesus in, to perform for them according to the custom of the law concerning him, Simeon himself received him into his arms and blessed God, saying: 'Now you release your servant, Lord, according to your word in peace (Luke 2:29-30), for my eyes have seen your salvation, which you prepared in the presence of all the peoples, a light for the revelation of the nations and a glory for your people Israel (Luke 2:32).' Who shall speak the powers of the Lord, making all his praises heard? He who holds the whole earth is contained within the arms of an old man, and he who carries all things is borne by the word of his power.
Let Adam rejoice through Simeon toward Christ, saying: 'Now you release your servant, Lord, according to your word in peace (Luke 2:30). Now you release me from eternal bonds; now you release me from corruption; now you release me from death; now you release me from sorrow, my son and God.' Him, being embraced in the temple by Simeon and announcing to all the nations and to the Jews the strange mystery of the dispensation, shouts and rejoices, and with a bright and resounding voice has cried out concerning him, saying: 'This is the one who is and who is coming and who is always co-existing with the Father: consubstantial, co-throned, co-glorious, co-powerful, equal-in-power, almighty, without beginning, uncreated, unchangeable, uncircumscribable, invisible, ineffable, incomprehensible, untouchable, unthinkable, immeasurable.'
This is the radiance of the paternal glory. This is the character of the whole composition. This is the light of lights, rising from the depths of the fathers. This is the God of gods, and known from God as God. This is the fountain of life, proceeding from the fountain of the life of the Father. This is the river of God, proceeding out of the divine abyss, but not [...]
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The Attributes of the Logos§3
3Separating himself, this is the treasure of the paternal goodness and everlasting blessedness. This is the water of life and the life being granted to the world. This is the uncreated ray, being born from the fore-light of the sun, but not being cut.
This is the God-Logos, having composed all things into being by word alone from non-being into being. This is the Phosphoros, having arranged the incorporeal powers of the heavenly, incorporeal, invisible hosts and ranks before the Phosphoros. This is the one who stretched out the heaven alone and walks upon the sea as if upon dry land. This is the one who shrouded the abyss with mist. This is the one who made the earth firm upon the waters. This is the one who enclosed the sea with sand. This is the one who distinguished the light from the darkness. This is the one who arranged the circular ornamentation of the stars. This is the one who composed the whole visible and intelligible cosmos in wisdom.
This is the one who, with unhandy hands, fashioned and shaped man from clay. This is the one who created us according to the image of God, and now himself, according to the image, having become man. Man, but indeed also the same God.
Man is the visible, entirely as I myself am with them, so that having cleansed me he might save me; God is the intelligible, possessing the essence from a perfect and perfect Father. He, existing in the form of God, has now taken my form in a masterly way as a slave, not diminishing the dignity of divinity, but sanctifying the essence of my nature.
Wholly above and wholly below, the same being known, having been born above without time and below without seed; a maker of the things above as God and a creature of the things below as man. Listen to these things, all you nations; listen, O Israel. The Lord your God, this is He, whom I, your priest Simeon, bearing in my arms, proclaim with a great voice, testifying to the people in the temple. Therefore pay attention, my people, to my word; incline the ear of you to the words of my mouth.
This child is the one about whom Isaiah proclaimed, saying, 'A child is born to us, a son is given to us, and his name is called, of great counsel (of the Father), Angel, Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Ruler, O Israel, Prince of Peace, Father of the age to come' (Isaiah 9:6). If then this child is a Mighty God, it is evident concerning Him that David said, 'The God of gods shall be seen in Zion' (Psalm 84:7). Concerning this child Jeremiah cries out: 'That God appeared upon the earth and with men walked' (Baruch 3:37).
This child is the one who of old for Israel split the sea and sank Pharaoh, and gave the law to the Israelites and rained down manna, and led the race of the Hebrews by a pillar of fire, and guarded the bush of the burning flame that was unconsumed by throwing rock. This child made Moses a slayer of the Egyptian people for forty years, and raised up a shepherd of sheep for forty years, and established a leader for Israel for forty years, and was able to fast for forty days, just as this child himself, after the baptism, fasted for forty days, and after the forty days of the resurrection from the dead, has ascended into the upper Jerusalem and after [...]
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The Arrival of the Child§4
4Forty days have passed since the birth from the virgin, and the Child has now come into earthly Jerusalem. Concerning this child, Habakkuk proclaimed, saying: 'God will come from Teman,' that is, from the south (Habakkuk 3:3). For from the south of Jerusalem, from Bethlehem, He has now come into Zion. Because of this, the child was testified to you by Moses, saying that the Lord God will raise up for you a prophet from among your brothers, and every one not listening to him, his soul shall be destroyed (Deuteronomy 18:15, 19; cf. Acts 3:23).
Concerning this child, the prophet David prayed, saying: 'He who sits upon the cherubim, appear; stir up your power and come to save us' (Psalm 80:1; 79:3). And again: 'Let your mercies hasten to us, O Lord' (Psalm 79:8; LXX 78:8). And again: 'Lord, bend your heavens and come down' (Psalm 144:5; LXX 143:5). And in another way: 'You, Lord God of powers, attend to visit all the nations. Therefore know, O nations, and be humbled' (Isaiah 8:9).
Behold, Jews, and be persuaded: this child angels hymn, archangels worship, powers tremble at, powers glorify, cherubim serve, and seraphim theologize about. To him the sun serves, to him the moon ministers, to him the elements obey, and to him the springs are subject.
Seeing this child, the gates of Hades were crushed, and the heavenly gates were opened, and Hades, seeing, was terrified.
This child abolished death, shamed the devil, loosed the curse, stopped sorrow, crushed the serpent, cut the middle partition, tore through the evil handwriting of sins, trampled sin, destroyed error, and raised creation. This child saved Adam, remade Eve, called the nations, and enlightened the world.
Therefore, come you also, lovers of Christ and lovers of God. Let us all meet the Lord and Master brightly and purely, not legally, but spiritually; not feasting with the stomach, but leaping with the spirit; not drinking wine, but burning with the Spirit. In this way, let us today brightly adorn the lamps.
In this way, as children of light, let us bring the candles to the true Light, Christ, because he shone as a light unto revelation of the nations to the world. Therefore, as lights from light, let us rise up above the snow, having been hardened above milk, having been polished above sapphire stone, and having flown like white doves into the heavens, so let us emerge into the meeting with God in the clouds.
Let us all today and forever shout the things of the feast. Let us dance with angels. Let us shine with shepherds. Let us worship with the magi. Let us celebrate with Bethlehem. Let us meet with Zion. Let us be sanctified with the temple. Let us rejoice, magnifying the Virgin. Let us present ourselves with Joseph, like two fruits, the soul and the body. Let us embrace Christ with Simeon, and let us confess with Anna. So that we may be found within the eternal good things by the grace and mercies and philanthropy of the Lord and God and Savior of us, Jesus Christ, to whom belongs the glory and the power with the Father and the Holy Spirit unto the ages of ages. Amen.
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