The Meeting of the Lord in the Temple

On 2 February, the fortieth day after the Nativity of Christ, the Church keeps the Meeting (Hypapantē) — the presentation of the infant Christ in the Temple, where the aged Symeon receives him in his arms and sings the Nunc Dimittis, and the prophetess Anna gives thanks. Resting squarely on Luke 2, it is classed among the feasts of the Lord though rich in Marian coloring, and it is one of the oldest feasts to be described for us by an eyewitness.

Tradition: Pan-Orthodox

The Gospel event

Unlike the two Protoevangelium feasts of the Temple, the Meeting rests on canonical Scripture. St Luke records that, in fulfillment of the Mosaic Law, the parents brought the child Jesus to the Temple at Jerusalem forty days after his birth — for the mother’s purification after childbirth (Leviticus 12) and for the presentation of the firstborn son to the Lord (Exodus 13:2) — offering the poor family’s sacrifice of “a pair of turtledoves, or two young pigeons” (Luke 2:22–24). There they were met by Symeon, a righteous and devout man to whom it had been revealed that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Christ; taking the child in his arms, he blessed God and sang the words the Church repeats at every Vespers: “Lord, now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace, according to Thy word; for mine eyes have seen Thy salvation” (the Nunc Dimittis, Luke 2:29–32). Symeon then spoke to Mary the dark prophecy that binds the feast to the Passion: “this child is set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel… yea, a sword shall pierce through thy own soul also” (Luke 2:34–35). The prophetess Anna, a widow of great age who “departed not from the temple,” gave thanks and spoke of the child to all who awaited the redemption of Jerusalem (Luke 2:36–38).

A feast of the Lord, Marian in character

The Meeting occupies an instructive borderline in the classification of the Twelve. Because its central figure is Christ — presented in the Temple as the firstborn belonging to God — the Byzantine tradition ranks it among the feasts of the Lord (Despotikai heortai), not among the feasts of the Theotokos (ODB = The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium, ed. Kazhdan, Oxford, 1991, s.v. “Hypapante”). Yet its imagery is heavily Marian: the Virgin carries the child, receives Symeon’s prophecy of the sword, and the feast was long known in the Latin West as the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Candlemas), emphasizing Mary’s obedience to the Law of purification (ODB, s.v. “Hypapante”; and see The Great Marian Feasts). The Greek name Hypapantē, “the Meeting,” fixes the true center: it is the meeting of Christ, brought to his Temple, with the representatives of the covenant that has awaited him — a mutual encounter of the Old and the New (Ware, in The Festal Menaion, trans. Mother Mary and Ware, Faber, 1969, propers of the feast, pp. 405–437).

One of the oldest attested feasts

The Meeting is among the earliest of the fixed feasts for which we have a datable description, and — remarkably — that description is an eyewitness’s. The pilgrim Egeria, at Jerusalem c. 381–384, describes the feast kept there with great solemnity, calling it simply “the fortieth day after Epiphany” and reporting a procession, sermons on Luke 2, and a festal Eucharist (Egeria, Itinerarium [Travels] 26; trans. John Wilkinson, Egeria’s Travels, 3rd ed., Warminster: Aris & Phillips, 1999). Her phrase is itself a window onto liturgical history: because Jerusalem at that date still kept the Nativity and Baptism together as one feast on 6 January (Epiphany), the “fortieth day” fell on 14 February, not 2 February. Only later, once the Nativity of Christ was fixed on 25 December in the East, did the fortieth day settle onto 2 February, where it has remained (Talley, The Origins of the Liturgical Year, 2nd ed., Collegeville: Liturgical Press, 1991, pp. 129–134, on the fortieth-day reckoning; ODB, s.v. “Hypapante”). The feast was given imperial prominence when the Emperor Justinian extended and dignified its observance at Constantinople in 542, according to the Byzantine chroniclers (ODB, s.v. “Hypapante”). Its history is thus unusually well anchored: a Gospel event, an eyewitness fourth-century Jerusalem observance, and a sixth-century imperial promotion.

The theology: the Meeting of the Ages

The dominant theme is encounter across the covenants. Symeon, the aged and expectant representative of the Old Testament, holds in his arms the fulfillment of everything the Law and the Prophets awaited, and is thereby released — “now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace” — because the promise is kept (Luke 2:29; The Festal Menaion, pp. 405–437). The feast presents the very hinge of salvation history: the covenant of expectation meets the covenant of fulfillment, and the old, having received the new, can pass away in peace. The troparion gathers Virgin, Elder, and Christ into one greeting: “Rejoice, O Virgin Theotokos full of grace, for from you has shone forth the Sun of Righteousness, Christ our God… Rejoice also, O righteous Elder, as you receive in your arms the Redeemer of our souls” (troparion, Tone 1; The Festal Menaion, p. 414). Symeon’s prophecy of the sword, meanwhile, binds the feast to the Cross: at the very moment the infant is presented in the Temple, his Mother is told of the suffering that this salvation will cost, so that the feast of the fortieth day already looks toward Golgotha (Luke 2:34–35; the feast’s stichera, The Festal Menaion, pp. 405–437).

In Byzantine and later Orthodox practice the feast is marked by the blessing of candles (a practice the West made central as “Candlemas”), taking up Symeon’s naming of Christ as “a light to lighten the Gentiles” (Luke 2:32) — the light carried in procession as the true Light is carried into his Temple (ODB, s.v. “Hypapante”; Bulgakov, Nastolnaya Kniga, 1900, on the blessing of candles).

The icon

The icon of the feast is a study in reverent exchange. The Theotokos, on one side, holds out or has just surrendered the child; the elder Symeon, bending forward, receives the infant Christ with hands veiled by his garment — the gesture of reverence used for holding what is holy — while Christ, though a babe, is often shown blessing. Behind Mary stands Joseph carrying the two turtledoves of the offering, and the prophetess Anna stands with a scroll or with hand raised in witness; the setting is the Temple, marked by a canopy or altar (Ouspensky and Lossky, The Meaning of Icons, SVS Press, 1982, on the feast icons; and see The Icon of the Feast). The veiled hands of Symeon say what the feast means: the old covenant may touch its fulfillment only with reverence, and only to hand it on.

See Also

• The Entrance of the Theotokos — the other Temple feast, resting on apocryphal tradition
• The Nativity of Christ — the feast forty days before, from which the Meeting is reckoned
• Theophany: The Baptism of Christ — the ancient Epiphany from which Jerusalem once counted the fortieth day
• The Great Marian Feasts — the Meeting’s Marian coloring and Despotic classification

References

• The Festal Menaion. Trans. Mother Mary and Kallistos Ware. London: Faber & Faber, 1969. (The propers of the Meeting, pp. 405–437.)
• Egeria. Itinerarium (Travels) 26. Trans. John Wilkinson, Egeria’s Travels, 3rd ed. Warminster: Aris & Phillips, 1999.
• Thomas J. Talley. The Origins of the Liturgical Year. 2nd ed. Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 1991.
• The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium. Ed. A. Kazhdan et al. Oxford, 1991 (s.v. “Hypapante”).
• Ouspensky, Leonid, and Vladimir Lossky. The Meaning of Icons. Rev. ed. Crestwood, NY: SVS Press, 1982.
• Bulgakov, Sergei V. Nastolnaya Kniga (Handbook for Church Servers). 2nd ed., 1900.
• Scripture: Luke 2:22–38; Leviticus 12; Exodus 13:2.