« NUNC DIMITTIS ». - SIMONE (v.) on the occasion of the presentation of Jesus in the Temple (Lk. 2:29-32). The aged prophet, who had received from the Spirit the promise
of surviving until the coming of the Messiah, moved by the Spirit entered the Temple, took the Child in his arms, and praised God, expressing his joy (ibid. 2:29-30) and foretelling the glories of the Saviour (ibid. 2:31-32).
Recalling an expression of the aged Jacob (Gen. 46:30), he says, with humble gratitude: “Now (that the promise has been fulfilled) you may dismiss your servant, Master (Βίστατα), according to your word, in peace (you may let me die peacefully, like a servant or a soldier who has fulfilled his duty), for my eyes have seen your salvation (or: your Saviour), which you have appointed for the benefit of all peoples.” The universality of Messianic salvation had already been foretold by Isaiah (Is. 2:1 ff.), to be accomplished especially through the illuminating work of the servant of Jahweh (ibid. 42:6; 49:6). Simeone, taking up this image, praises God, who gave us the Saviour as “a light to enlighten the Gentiles,” to whom he will make known true religious and moral doctrine, and as “the glory of your people Israel,” because Christ according to the flesh was born of the Jews (Rom. 9:5), and from Judaea his Apostles set out to teach and baptize all nations (Mt. 28:19-20).
The “N. d.,” a nostalgic song of farewell to earthly life, extinguished in longing for a supreme light, was very early adopted by the liturgy in the evening prayers (Const. apost., VII, 48). Compline (v.).
Pietro De Ambrogio