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After forty days had passed after the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ and after the completion of the days of legal purification, the Most Pure and Most Blessed Virgin Mother, together with Saint Joseph the betrothed, came from Bethlehem to Jerusalem to the church of God, bringing the forty-day-old infant Christ to fulfill the law of Moses. According to this law, it was necessary, firstly, to be cleansed upon birth through offering a suitable sacrifice to God and through priestly prayer, and secondly, it was necessary to present the firstborn child before the Lord and make a ransom for him at the established price (Lev. 12:7). This was commanded by the Lord in the Old Testament to Moses, in whose books about the law of mother’s purification it is written like this: “If a woman conceives and gives birth to a male child, she will be unclean for seven days; on the eighth day his foreskin will be circumcised: and he must sit for thirty-three days, cleansing himself from his blood; She must not touch anything sacred and must not come to the sanctuary until the days of her purification are completed. At the end of her days of purification, she must offer a one-year-old lamb as a burnt offering and a young dove or turtle dove as a sin offering. But if she is not able to bring a lamb, then let her take two turtle doves or two young doves, one for a burnt offering and the other for a sin offering, and the priest shall atone for her, and she shall be clean” (Lev. 12:7–8, 12:2–4). And about the dedication of the firstborn males to God, the law says this: “Sanctify to Me every firstborn (male) firstborn who opens the womb” (Ex. 13:2) 1110. And another time: “Give Me the firstborn of your sons” (Ex. 22:29). This was required for that great good deed of God in Egypt, when the Lord, having beaten the Egyptian firstborn, spared the Israelites (Ex. 11:5-7). Therefore, the Israelites brought their firstborn babies to the church, dedicating them to God as a due tribute established by the law. And again they redeemed them from God at a set price, which was called “redemption silver” and was given to the Levites who served at the church of the Lord, as it is written about in the fourth book of Moses (Num. 3:49-51). The established ransom price consisted of five sacred shekels of church weight, and each sacred shekel contained twenty pennies 1111. Fulfilling this law of the Lord, the Mother of God now came to the church with the Lawgiver. She came to be cleansed, although she did not require cleansing, as undefiled, unglamorous, incorruptible, most pure. For She who conceived without a husband and lust and gave birth without illness or violation of Her virgin purity, did not have the defilement characteristic of wives who give birth according to the natural law: for who gave birth to the Source of purity, how could impurity touch it? Christ was born from Her, like fruit from a tree; and just as a tree, after the birth of its fruit, is not damaged or desecrated, so the Virgin, after the birth of Christ, the blessed fruit, remained intact and undefiled. Christ came from Her, just as a ray of sunlight passes through glass or crystal. A sunbeam passing through glass or crystal does not break or spoil it, but illuminates it even more. Christ, the Sun of Truth, did not damage the virginity of His Mother. And the door of natural birth, sealed with purity and protected by virginity, was not desecrated by the usual bleeding for women, but, having passed supernaturally, he further aggravated its purity, sanctifying it with his origin, and enlightening it with the Divine light of grace. There was absolutely no need for any purification for the One who gave birth without corruption of God the Word. But in order not to break the law, but to fulfill it, she came to cleanse herself, completely pure and without any blemish. At the same time, filled with humility, She was not proud of Her incorruptible purity, but came, as if unclean, to stand together with unclean women before the doors of the church of the Lord - and demand cleansing, not disdaining the unclean and sinful. She also made a sacrifice, but not like the rich, who brought a blameless one-year-old lamb, but like the poor, who brought two turtle doves or two chicks of pigeons, in everything showing humility and love for poverty and avoiding the pride of the rich. For from the gold brought by the wise men (Matthew 2:11), She took a little and distributed it to the poor and wretched, keeping for Herself only the most necessary things for the road to Egypt. Having bought the two birds mentioned, She offered them, according to the law, for sacrifice, and with them She offered Her firstborn Child. “They brought Him to Jerusalem to present Him before the Lord” (Luke 2:22), says the Evangelist Luke, i.e. return the things of God to God, for it is written in the law of the Lord that every male child who opens the womb must be dedicated to the Lord (Ex. 13:2). Holding the Newborn in Her arms, the Holy Virgin Mary knelt before the Lord and with deep reverence, like a precious gift, lifted up and handed over the Child to God, saying: - Behold, Your Son, the Eternal Father, Whom You sent to be incarnate from me for the salvation of the human race! You gave birth to Him before the ages without a Mother, and by Your good pleasure, when I was full of years, I gave birth to Him without a husband; This is the firstborn fruit of my womb, conceived in me by the Holy Spirit, and ineffable, as You alone know, came from me: He is my Firstborn, before all Yours, co-essential with You and co-originating, the firstborn befitting You alone, for He came down from You, without departing from Your Divinity. Receive the Firstborn, with whom You created the ages (Heb. 1:2) and with Whom you commanded the light to shine: receive Your Word incarnate from Me, by Whom You established the heavens, founded the earth, gathered the waters into a union: receive from Me Your Son, whom I offer to You for this great thing, that you may arrange for Him and for Me as You please, and that You may redeem His human race flesh and blood received from Me. Having uttered these words, She gave Her precious Child into the hands of the bishop, as God’s vicegerent, as if giving Him to God Himself. After this, She redeemed Him, as required by the law, at the established price - five sacred shekels, the number of which seemed to foreshadow the five sacred plagues on the body of Christ, which He accepted on the Cross, by which the whole world was redeemed from the legal oath and from working with the enemy 1112. At the very time when the Mother of God brought the baby Jesus to fulfill the custom prescribed by law over Him, Elder Simeon, a righteous and pious man, came to the church, guided by the Holy Spirit, expecting the joy of Israel that would come with the coming of the Messiah 1113. He knew that the expected Messiah was already approaching, for the scepter passed from Judas to Herod, and the prophecy of the forefather Patriarch Jacob was being fulfilled, who predicted that the prince would not become poor from Judah until the expectation of the nations, Christ the Lord, came (Gen. 49:10). In the same way, the seventy weeks of Daniel ended, after which, according to prophecy, there should be the coming of the Messiah. At the same time, Saint Simeon himself was promised by the Holy Spirit not to see death until he saw Christ the Lord. Simeon, looking at the Most Pure Virgin and the Child who was in Her arms, saw the grace of God surrounding the Mother and Child, and, having learned from the Holy Spirit that this was the expected Messiah, he hastily approached and, receiving Him with indescribable joy and reverent fear, gave great thanks to God. He, gray-haired, like a swan before his death, sang a prophetic song: “Now do You let Your servant go, O Master, according to Your word, in peace.” “I did not have,” as he said, “peace in my thoughts, all the days I waited for You, and all the days I remained in sadness until You came: now, having seen You, I received the Gift, and, freed from sadness, I am leaving here with joyful news to my fathers: I will announce Your coming into the world to the forefathers Adam and Abraham, Moses and David, Isaiah and other holy fathers and to the prophets, I will bring unspeakable joy to them who are hitherto in sorrow; to them and let me go, so that, leaving sorrow, they may rejoice in You, their Savior. Let me Thy servant, after many years of labor, rest in the bosom of Abraham: my eyes have already seen Your Salvation prepared for all people, my eyes have seen the Light prepared for the dispersal of darkness, for the enlightenment of the nations, for the revelation of unknown Divine Mysteries to them - the Light that has shone for the glorification of Your people Israel, which You promised through the prophet Isaiah, saying: “I will give salvation to Zion, To Israel is my glory" (Is. 46:2). Joseph and the Most Pure Virgin, hearing everything that Simeon said about the Child, were surprised; Moreover, they saw that Simeon speaks to the Baby not as a baby, but as the “Ancient of Days” 1114, and, praying, addresses Him not as a person, but as God, who has the power of life and death and can immediately release the old man to another life or keep him in the present. Simeon turned to them with a blessing, praising and magnifying the immaculate Mother, who gave birth to God and man into the world, and pleasing the imaginary father of Saint Joseph, who was honored to be a minister of such a sacrament. Then, turning to Mary, His Mother, and not to Joseph - for he saw in Her with his eyes the husbandless Mother - Simeon said: - This will serve for the fall and uprising of many in Israel: for the fall of those who do not want to believe His words, for the uprising of those who will lovingly accept His holy preaching - for the fall of the scribes and Pharisees, blinded by malice, for the uprising of simple fishermen and unwise people. He will choose the unwise, but he will put to shame the wise of this age - for the fall of the Old Testament Jewish council, and for the rise of the grace-filled Church of God. This will serve as a banner for wrangling 1115, for great discord will occur among people because of Him: some will call Him good, others will say that He is deceiving people, and will lay Him, according to the word of the prophet Jeremiah, “as if a target for arrows” (Lamentations 3:12), hanging Him on the tree of the cross, wounding Him with arrows, nails and a spear. At that time, husbandless Mother,” the elder continued, “the weapon of sadness and heartache will pass through your soul, when you see your Son nailed to the Cross, when you, with great pain in your heart and sobs, will see off from this world the One whom you gave birth to the world without illness. Here in the church was Anna the prophetess, daughter of Phanuel, from the tribe of Assir. She was a widow, already very old - she was eighty-four years old; She only lived with her husband for seven years and, having become a widow, led a godly life, not leaving the church, but serving God day and night in fasting and prayer. Arriving at that hour in the church, Anna prophesied a lot about the Infant brought to the church of the Lord, to all those awaiting deliverance in Jerusalem 1116. Hearing and seeing all this, the scribes and Pharisees became inflamed in their hearts and were indignant at Simeon and Anna for their testimonies about the Youth. They did not keep silent, but they informed King Herod about everything that had happened and said in the church 1117. He immediately sent soldiers with orders to find the Divine Infant Christ the Lord and kill Him; but they no longer found Him: according to the command given to Joseph in a dream, He was found in Egypt. Saint Joseph and the Most Pure Mother of God, having fulfilled everything required by law in the church, did not return to Bethlehem, but went to Galilee, to their city of Nazareth 1118, and from there they quickly disappeared into Egypt (Matthew 2:13–14). The youth grew and became strengthened in spirit, filled with wisdom, and the grace of God abided on Him (Luke 2:40). The celebration of the Presentation of the Lord was established during the reign of Justinian; earlier, although the Presentation of the Lord was remembered in the Church in 1119, it was not solemnly celebrated. The pious king Justinian established the celebration of this holiday as the Lord's and the Theotokos, along with other great holidays. The impetus for the establishment of this holiday were special circumstances. During the reign of Justinian in Byzantium and its environs, for three months, starting from the last days of October, there was a strong pestilence, so that at first five thousand people died a day, and then ten thousand; the bodies of even rich and high-ranking people remained without burial, because the servants and slaves all died out and there was no one to bury the masters themselves. And in Antioch 1120, in addition to the pestilence, for the sins of the people, another execution of God was added - a terrible earthquake, from which all the large houses and tall buildings and churches fell, and many people died under their walls; Among the dead was Euphrasius 1121, Bishop of Antioch, crushed to death during the fall of the church. In this terrible and disastrous time, there was a revelation to one pious man that a solemn celebration of the Presentation of the Lord would be established, as well as other great feasts of the Lord and the Theotokos. And so, at the advent of the Day of the Presentation of the Lord, February the second, when they began to celebrate with an all-night vigil and procession with crosses 1122, the deadly plague, pestilence and earthquake immediately stopped, by the mercy of God and through the prayers of the Most Pure Mother of God. To her and to the God who was born of her, may there be honor, glory, worship and thanksgiving forever. Amen. Rejoice, blessed Virgin Mary, for from You has risen the Sun of Truth, Christ our God, enlighten those who are in darkness. Rejoice also, O righteous elder, being received into the arms of the Liberator of our souls, who gives us resurrection. Having sanctified the womb of the Maiden with Thy Nativity, and blessed Simeon's hand, as befitting, Thou hast foreshadowed and now saved us, O Christ God: but die in battle and strengthen the Emperor, whom Thou hast loved, O One Lover of Mankind 1123. According to the power of this law, in memory of the fact that on the night before the exodus of the Jews from Egypt, the Destroying Angel destroyed all the firstborn of the Egyptians, all the firstborn of the Jews had to be dedicated to special service to God, that is, to serve at the sanctuary. When subsequently only the tribe of Levi was chosen for this purpose, a ransom of five shekels of silver was appointed for the firstborn. The sacred shekel is about 5 kopecks in our money. According to the legend of Saint Demetrius of Rostov, the holy fathers add that the holy prophet Zechariah, the parent of the Forerunner, placed the Most Pure Virgin and Child, who came to the church for purification, not in the place of wives coming for purification, but in the place of maidens, in which wives with husbands were not allowed to stand. And when the scribes and Pharisees, at the sight of this, began to express indignation, Zechariah, standing before them, announced that this Mother was a pure Virgin even after her birth. When they did not believe this, Zechariah said that human nature, like every creature, must serve its Creator, and in His omnipotent hands is the arrangement of His creation, as it pleases His will, as well as the arrangement for the Virgin to give birth, and to remain a Virgin at birth: “For this reason, I did not remove this Mother,” he said, “from the place appointed for maidens, because She is above all maidens." The prophecy of the 70 weeks is found in Daniel (Dan. 9). Under the image of the Ancient of Days, that is, a very old man, the prophet Daniel saw God (Dan. 7:9–13). In St. In Scripture, old age sometimes serves as a symbol of God’s eternity. The subject of controversy, the controversial banner, is an image taken from a military banner during a battle, which one side is trying to recapture and the other to defend. The Lord became a banner of controversy in the same sense that some - unbelievers - tried to destroy Him (which they thought was achieved by the crucifixion of the Son of God), while others - believers - stood and stand under this banner and stand up for it. From this it is clear that in Jerusalem at that time there were quite a few people who lived in hope of the speedy appearance of the Promised Messiah, true Israelis, who, no doubt, rejoiced with great joy when they heard about the fulfillment of their expectations and prayers. Herod, called in history the Great, the son of Antipater, king of the Jews, was first the ruler of Galilee, but under the first Roman emperor Octavius ​​Augustus, in 40 BC, he received the title of king of the Jews and ruled all of Judea, which was then subordinate to the Roman state. Onion. 2:39 . Bethlehem is a small city, not far from Jerusalem, towards the south, and from Nazareth, a city of Galilee, Bethlehem is at a distance of three days' journey or a little more. There are indications for this holiday in the writings of the Church Fathers of the 3rd, 4th and 5th centuries. Here, of course, Antioch is one of the oldest and richest cities in Syria, its capital city; lies at the river Oronte, 10 versts from its confluence with the Mediterranean Sea. For the Christian Church, Antioch is of particular importance as the second great center of Christianity after Jerusalem, and as the mother of pagan Christian churches. Currently, Antioch is a small and poor town with up to 10 thousand inhabitants. Euphrasius was Bishop of Antioch from 523 to 527. In memory of the end of the plague that was in Constantinople, and the terrible earthquake in Antioch, in some places it is customary for the Church to proceed with the litany before the liturgy outside the monasteries and during this procession to chant the stichera of the holiday and the canon, according to custom; and upon returning to the church, perform the Liturgy. In the kontakion for the Presentation of the Lord, the Church remembers deliverance from the troubles that befell the Eastern Church and, by the grace of God, ceased under the Emperor Justinian. You might be interested in: