The meeting. What picture of those two words conjure up in our minds? Perhaps one of those meetings that drag on and seem to have no intention of ever coming to an end. On the other hand, they may suggest and altogether different kind of get-together, like the gathering of family and friends. Or again they may suggest a reunion: a son, for example, who has spent many years working abroad, at last comes with his wife and with the children whom the rest of the family have never seen before; it’s a meeting that is also the fulfilment of a long-cherished hope. It is the long-awaited, long desired meeting of the Messiah with His people in the persons of two pious elderly Jews, Simeon and Anna.
We can imagine the old man tirelessly rehearsing the words of the ancient prophecy of Malachi: “The Lord you are seeking will suddenly enter His Temple.” But the months and years go by, death is drawing ever nearer – yet still no sign of the Messiah. One day among the crowds pouring onto the esplanade of the Temple, he catches sight of a young couple. The girl has a baby in her arms, her husband walking beside her carries the Temple offering made by poor people, doves, towards them. The couple explain that they have come to “redeem” their little son. The Law’s original demand that a first male child was to be consecrated to the Lord had been mitigated to the payment of a small “ransom”. For poor people the ransom would be a pair of turtledoves or a couple of young pigeons. “And the name of the child?” Simeon requires. “Jesus,” they say. “Jesus? That means ‘God saves’; what a wonderful name. With tears of joy the old man takes the child into his arms. “Now , Master,” he cries, “you can let Your servant go in peace…because my eyes have seen the salvation, which You have prepared for all the nations to see.” But there is drama as well as overflowing joy in this meeting. Simeon announces that, while some will receive Jesus, others will reject Him, and that Mary’s own soul will be pierced as with a sword. Anna too recognizes in Jesus the fulfilment of the ancient promises. For her, the meeting means not that she is ready to die, as it did for Simeon, but rather that she is ready to spread abroad the good news of the Messiah for as long as she lives.
It’s been said that today’s Gospel is in its way a reflection of our Christian experience. A Christian is one who has had the privilege of meeting Christ in the sacrament of baptism; who over the course of the years has come to recognize Him as the key to life; who has surrendered to His call, has made His values their own. Very shortly we shall meet Jesus in the Eucharist; and our prayer can be that by that meeting we will be inflamed anew with the desire to become bearers of light to our brothers and sisters, to make our lives, like those of Simeon and Anna, a proclamation of Christ, the light of the world.