Homily February 2, 2020: Feast of the Encounter

As preached by Sister Rebecca
Holy Wisdom Chapel

In today’s Gospel, we heard about a supremely important event when Jesus was 40 days old. Mary and Joseph, obedient to the Jewish Law, journey to the Temple in Jerusalem.  The focus of this event is on the encounter of the Child Jesus with an Elder, Simeon, and the Prophetess Anna.  The latter, Anna, never left the Temple but worshipped there with fasting and prayer, night and day. The former, Simeon, is described as righteous and devout, waiting upon the consolation of God.  Both Simeon and Anna, beyond the legalities, were LONGING to see the Messiah, and the consolation for Israel.

            Simeon, in his immense desire, portrays the psalmist (Ps 131): “I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in his word do I hope.  My soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen for the dawn, more than watchmen wait for the dawn. O Israel, hope in the Lord; for with the Lord there is mercy, and with the Lord is fullness of redemption.”

            His desire was more than just piety; it was holy longing, and in this yearning the Holy Spirit leads Simeon to the Temple.  Taking the Child Jesus into his arms, Simeon exclaims: “Master, now you are dismissing your servant in peace according to your word; for my eyes have seen your salvation,...a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for the glory to your people Israel.”

            Simeon sees in this Child not just a passive baby, but the very embodiment of God’s longing for humanity. He has been waiting, anticipating, and preparing a long time for the fulfillment of that prophesy and promise.  After decades of waiting, he exclaims: “My eyes have seen your salvation.” 

            There is a tension here:  It says something about our understanding and experience of God, in life and in the world.  For most of us, the world is often limited to the physical, the tangible, and the sensory. What Simeon sees is beyond the physical reality of THIS child.  It is an enlightenment experience for him.  His seeing is not an issue to be resolved; it is the entry into another realm.  It is about another way of being, another way of seeing, and another way of knowing.  That day in the Temple, Simeon and Anna saw more than what the physical eyes could perceive.  It was a Divine Encounter, a peering into the Eternal.  

            What does this Encounter say to us this morning?  It is not simply an event in history.  This very Encounter is happening all the time.  The invisible is seen, the intangible is touched, the unspoken is heard.  The Feast of the Encounter, at its core, is a feast of longing, of deep desire.  This feast reveals the longing between humanity and divinity.  Aren’t our deepest longings about desiring to know and to be known? Not a kind of knowing about this or that, even learning about God.  Our longing is for relationship, connection in and through the God within us, and seeing, experiencing God in all things.  For this to happen we must live with, and offer, the fragility, vulnerability, and joy of an open and longing heart.  That heart is the Temple, the inner space of Encounter with God.

            This feast has a huge message for us today:  A challenge!  This perception of the awesome mystery of God includes an experience of the sword.  As predicted, Mary’s heart will be pierced by a sword. And so will ours.  This sword cuts through the veil of our shadow’s hidden unhealed parts.  As Simeon prophesies, “the inner thoughts of many will be revealed.” They emerge out of the dark into the light. But the Temple experience, when pondered and meditated on in our hearts as Mary did, assures us that the darkness will not overcome the Light.

            Today is also Zacchaeus Sunday.  Because the liturgical calendar this year conflates this Sunday with the Encounter Feast, we anticipated Zacchaeus last Sunday.  Br Stavros, in his homily then, offered us insights that we might want to recall today.  Zacchaeus is also a person of desire.  Without desire, what are we left with?  A hollow, foreboding emptiness, sometimes bordering on pessimism, looking out at life through dark lenses.  Despair is not an option when we grow more deeply aware of our personal and global encounter with God.  This Sunday of Zacchaeus invites us to open our eyes to the next doorway leading in to Lent. These two feasts are meant to ignite in us a desire like that of Zacchaeus, who was passionate about seeing Jesus. It changed his life: a 180-degree turnabout.  Desire does things to us that seem unbelievable to our natural inclinations.  This desire forces Christ’s attention.  So too, this same desire brought within Simeon’s and Anna’s souls an Encounter with our living God.

            How do we move forward and at the same time be realistic and take account of all the unique pressures of our times? What Light, vision, and disciplines do we need to creatively channel the Spirit Fire inside us, so that its end result is creative days and restful nights and enduring peace in our encountering God, within ourselves and in connection with others?  

Resources:

Rev. Michael Marsh: a homily Feb. 4th, 2017

Fr. Ronald Rolheiser: from Holy Longing