.
.The Showing Forth
of Christ
Lord, now lettest thou thy
servant depart in peace,
according to thy word: for my eyes have seen
thy salvation.
Luke 2:29–30
..
by John Donne (1572-1631)
The whole life of Christ was a
continual Passion; others die martyrs but
Christ was born a martyr. He found a Golgotha,
where he was crucified, even in Bethlehem,
where he was born; for to his tenderness then
the straws were almost as sharp as the thorns
after, and the manger as uneasy at first as
the cross at last. His birth and his death
were but one continual act, and his Christmas
day and his Good Friday are but the evening
and morning of the same day. And as even his
birth is his death, so every action and
passage that manifests Christ to us is his
birth, for Epiphany is manifestation. Every
manifestation of Christ to the world, to the
Church, to a particular soul is an Epiphany, a
Christmas day.
Now there is nowhere a more evident
manifestation of Christ than in that which
induced this text, "Lord now lettest thy
servant depart in peace..." It had been
revealed to Simeon, whose words these are,
that he should see Christ before he died. And
actually, and really, substantially,
essentially, bodily, presentially, personally
he does see him. So it is Simeon’s Epiphany,
Simeon’s Christmas day. So also this day, in
which we commemorate and celebrate the general
Epiphany, the manifestation of Christ to the
whole world in his birth, all we, we who
besides our interest in the universal Epiphany
and manifestation implied in the very day,
have this day received the Body and Blood of
Christ in his holy and blessed Sacrament, have
had another Epiphany, another Christmas day,
another manifestation and application of
Christ to ourselves. The Church prepares our
devotion before Christmas day with four
Sundays in Advent, which bring Christ nearer
and nearer to us and remind us that he is
coming to enable us by a further examination
of ourselves to depart in peace, because our
eyes have seen his salvation…
To be able to conclude that you have
had a Christmas day, a manifestation of Christ
in your souls, you shall have a whole Good
Friday, a crucifying and an "it is finished,"
a measure of corrections, and joy in those
corrections. You shall have temptations, and a
Resurrection and an Ascension, an inchoation
and an unremovable possession of heaven itself
in this world. Make good your Christmas day,
that Christ be born in you, and he who died
for you will live with you all the year, and
all the years of your lives, and inspire into
you, and receive from you at the last gasp,
this blessed acclamation, "Lord now lettest
thou thy servant depart in peace…"
Simeon waited, says the story, and he
waited for the consolation of Israel. And all
that God had said should be done was done, for
as it is said, "It was revealed unto him, by
the Holy Ghost, that he should not see death
before he had seen the Lord’s Christ," and now
he had seen that salvation. Abraham saw this
before, but with the eye of faith, and yet
rejoiced to see it so, he was glad even of
that. Simeon saw it, too…but he saw it with
the eye of hope. Of such hope Abraham had no
such ground; no particular hope, no promise
that he should see the Messiah in his time.
Simeon had, and yet he waited, he attended
God’s leisure. But hope deferred maketh the
heart sick (says Solomon). But when that which
is desired comes, it is a tree of life. His
desire was come; he saw his salvation.
This
excerpt is from the Sermons of John Donne.
John Donne was
born in 1572 in London, England. In 1621
he became dean of Saint Paul's Cathedral.
Best known for his vivacious, compelling
style and thorough examination of mortal
paradox, John Donne died in London in
1631.
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