Today’s First Reading from the Book of Malachi (3:1-4) helps us get a better understanding of what is known as the Canticle of Simeon found in today’s Gospel (Luke 2:22-40).
The first verse from Malachi sounds familiar: “Now I am sending my messenger—he will prepare the way before me” (Mal. 3:1a). Malachi later goes on to identify this messenger as the prophet Elijah returning to announce the coming of the LORD (Mal. 3:23).
We hear these verses reiterated in the gospels as a reference to John the Baptist who is identified with the return of Elijah to make his prophetic announcement. The writer of Mark’s Gospel combines the prophecy of Malachi with another from Isaiah as the opening to his story of the Baptism of Jesus (Mk. 1:2-3): ““Behold, I am sending my messenger ahead of you; he will prepare your way. A voice of one crying out in the desert: Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths” (Isa. 40:3).
The author of Luke also equates the Old Testament prophet of 1Kings to John the Baptist in the announcement of John’s birth to his father Zechariah as the one who will go before the LORD “in the spirit and power of Elijah” (Lk. 1:17). And Jesus himself directly identifies John the Baptist to his disciples as “Elijah, the one who is to come” (Mt. 11:14).
Now if we read the second verse from Malachi we see what it is the messenger is sent to announce: “The lord whom you seek will come suddenly to his temple; the messenger of the covenant whom you desire—see, he is coming!” (Mal. 3:1b).
For the Israelites living after the time of the Babylonian captivity this was a reference to the long-awaited messiah who would restore them to the grand nation they once were at the time of the reign of David, the king who was the original recipient of the covenant promise of God of an everlasting dynasty.
Moving along now to the story of the Presentation in the Temple (Lk. 2:22-40) we can see how this promise of “the messenger of the covenant” has been fulfilled. In the passage we are introduced to a person named Simeon who is described in this way: “This man was righteous and devout, awaiting the consolation of Israel, and the holy Spirit was upon him” (Lk. 2:25).
We are also told that Simeon has been waiting in the Temple because “It had been revealed to him by the holy Spirit that he should not see death before he had seen the Messiah of the Lord” (Lk. 2:26).
In order to fulfill their Jewish customs, Joseph and Mary bring Jesus to the temple to offer a sacrifice of two turtledoves and present the child as a consecration to the LORD (Lk. 2:23-24). Upon their arrival they encounter Simeon. When he sees Jesus, he knows at once that his period of anticipation has come to an end.
He takes Jesus into his arms and he recites this prayer of praise and rejoicing: ““Now, Master, you may let your servant go in peace, according to your word, for my eyes have seen your salvation, which you prepared in sight of all the peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and glory for your people Israel” (Lk. 2:29-32).
What is Simeon saying here? He is declaring exactly what Malachi had prophesied in his book! He is announcing that the Day of the Lord has arrived with the child Jesus. He is the long-awaited savior who will restore the relationship between Israel and the LORD. Their status as the chosen nation of God will return to the glory of its former days: “Then the sacrifice of Judah and Jerusalem will please the LORD, as in the days of old, as in years gone by” (Mal. 3:4).
They are the ones who are promised: “They shall be mine, says the LORD of hosts, my own special possession, on the day when I take action. And I will have compassion on them, as a man has compassion on his son who serves him” (Mal. 3:17). They are the ones for whom “the sun of justice will arise with healing in its wings” (Mal. 3:2-a).
For those who “fear the name” of the LORD (Mal. 3:20), both Christian and Jews alike, the day has arrived for rejoicing as declared by Simeon in his Canticle.
