“Simeon took the child Jesus in his arms
and blessed God, saying: ‘Now, Master, you may let your servant go in peace,
according to your word, for my eyes have seen your salvation.’” With these
words Simeon is telling us the story of his life - his life of waiting,
yearning, longing. But what about us? What about the story of our lives? What
good is it if Simeon receives the child Jesus in his arms, if we do not? What
good is it if Simeon’s eyes see salvation if our eyes do not? How do we let the
truth of this charming story transcend its particular history? There clearly is
an historical truth to this story, but there is also a cosmic truth, a truth
that is not limited by any one specific time and place. A truth that touches,
invades, embraces every time and place. This story is as much ours as it is Simeon’s.
Simeon lived the many days, years, decades
of his life waiting, hoping, trusting, expecting. How many times he must have
come to the Temple wondering: “Is this the day I will see salvation? Is this
the day I will experience the fulfillment of the promise?” We all know what it is
like to wait - for a change in our life circumstances, for a grief to diminish,
for a prayer to be answered, for joy to return, for forgiveness, for meaning
and purpose, for new life. We wait and hope for all sorts of things. Showing
up is the key, the miracle of Simeon’s life, just as it is the key, the miracle
of our lives. We show up here trusting, hoping that God is really present and
working in our lives even if we can’t see or clearly understand how. We show up
and we wait as Simeon did.
Sometimes showing up is the most difficult
work we do, and it takes all that we have just to show up, to remain awake and
vigilant, to hope and trust. Somehow, showing up is the means through which God
fulfills the promise to us just as he did with Simeon. The real miracle is not
Simeon’s age. The real miracle is that he never walked away from the promise.
He never stopped showing up. At every moment God is waiting for us to show up -
to be here and now, to let go of regrets of the past and fears of the future.
Simeon thought he was waiting for the child to show up. But what if it was
really Jesus waiting for Simeon to show up? Simeon thought he was presenting
the child to God. But what if it was really the Child presenting the old man to
God? Every day that Simeon showed up, the Child Jesus was seeing and upholding
Simeon. Just as he sees and upholds us.
My brothers and sisters, the presentation
of Jesus does not happen only in the Temple of Jerusalem but in the temple of
our lives, every moment of every day, day after day, month after month, year
after year, decade after decade. And it always happens in the midst of our
waiting. It happens every time we show up to the reality of our lives.
