—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 the sight of all the peoples:
a light for revelation to the Gentiles,
and glory for your people Israel.—

The Holy Church prays the Canticle of Simeon every night, a prayer before we sleep.

Simeon was ready to rest in the Lord. After all, he had lived a long life in hope and expectation.

This man was righteous and devout, awaiting the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him. 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.

Simeon experienced firsthand what had been promised for ages upon ages. He came to the Temple and met his Messiah, the Christ, Jesus.

Ages before Simeon, Malachi was excited. He was eager with anticipation:

And suddenly there will come to the temple
the LORD whom you seek,
And the messenger of the covenant whom you desire.

We are at the opposite end of the spectrum. We are fully aware that Jesus has come as man, that He suffered, died, and rose again. We are aware of His promise —“ eternal life in Him. A promise He gave and a commitment He delivered.

How do we make sense of that difference, the difference between anticipation and fulfillment? The difference between Simeon and St. Paul for example. How do we maintain perspective over the fact that we are living in the age of fulfillment? Paul speaks to the Galatians about the age of fulfillment:

But when the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law,
to ransom those under the law, so that we might receive adoption.
As proof that you are children, God sent the spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying out, “Abba, Father!”
So you are no longer a slave but a child, and if a child then also an heir, through God.

Today we receive candles to take home with us. We are surrounded by candles to remind us that Jesus Christ is the light. That He is the revelation of God, not just to us, but among us. We, gentiles each one of us, have been made co-heirs and have been adopted into God’s promise. We cry out to God as Father. As heirs we are now the bearers of the light. We are the different ones. As the Jewish people were set apart in the old covenant, we are set apart in the new.

What we have right in our hands and in our hearts is God’s promise fulfilled, God’s light within us. There is no more waiting, excepting for the complete fulfillment of time. We can no longer claim that we are waiting for something to happen. The time is now, the light is among us. It is time for doing.

What do we do with this light?

Have you even encountered one of those relatives or friends who so anticipate receiving a gift that they can’t wait to tell you exactly what they want? Those folks can be annoying. We think of them as presumptive.

That person is a combination of the eagerly anticipating and the knowing. They know that their special day is coming; they know that you will be buying them a gift, they anticipate it and presume it and they want to make sure you get it right. They even assume that they will live until their special day.

That annoying, presumptive person is us. He or she is the ideal Christian.

We all know that our special day is coming, the day when we will be born into eternal life. We also know that God has a gift awaiting us; His Son’s incarnation is proof enough of that. We anticipate heaven and we know we are destined for heaven.

We also know that we will live forever; from our conception in the womb, where God fashions and makes us, to our special day and on into eternity, where every day, every moment will be special.

Malachi and Simeon anticipated the light. Simeon got to see the light. Now we have the light and are to take that light, letting it shine with the full knowledge that we are renewed in Christ Jesus.

Take it home and show it to your grumpy husband or wife, your inpatient friend, your obnoxious co-worker. Show that light knowing what has happened, and use it in the way Jesus asks. Let us live in the light, the light that leads to our new birth into His eternal kingdom.