There will be many meetings in your life, and you will not always be able to pay attention to them. However, there will be at least one meeting that you will not brush aside. Perhaps you will understand that behind it are all the answers to your questions.
We once again celebrate the feast of the Meeting of the Lord. The Old Testament humanity in the person of Simeon the God-bearer and the prophetess Anna met God in the person of Jesus Christ. This important event in gospel history is also an important reminder that at the end of life we will definitely meet God. However, before this meeting there will be many more. We can also remember the first time we truly felt the Lord in our hearts. One way or another, the Feast of the Presentation is about a meeting, whether evangelical or personal, past or still planned.
An important point is that the events of the Meeting unfold in the temple. The Nativity of Christ may also have been called “the Meeting”, since Christ was then met by the Holy Family, the shepherds and the Magi. Then the Infant God visited the relatives of Joseph and Mary, was circumcised according to the Law of Moses and met a considerable number of people during the 40 days before the events of the Presentation. However, the meeting with Simeon, symbolizing God’s faithful (because the elder was a righteous man), as well as all of humanity, takes place in the temple. The temple is not a palace, a ballroom or an industrial building. It is a place where a material person deals with the non-material. There is no production or profit making here; everything is dedicated to God and fellowship with Him. The temple is a place that people themselves endowed with a sacred meaning, voluntarily making it the place of God’s residence. Consequently, it was here that the universal Meeting was to take place.
Let us remember ourselves. Whether baptized in a church or at home, one day you made that self-conscious visit to church. It may have been a church service, or, perhaps, you simply stepped in for a minute to light a candle and pray before an icon about something very personal. With a heavy heart and a cloud of gloomy thoughts in your head, you asked in a whisper for God’s help. Suddenly a glimmer of bright hope illuminated your heart, making everything better (at least better than it was a second ago). Yes, you have had a fruitful meeting with God, and you need to continue.
We meet God in confession, communion, home prayer, helping those in need and even supporting our neighbor with a kind word. By the way, we meet with Him every time we meet with any person, because everyone has the image of our Creator. Our meeting with the Lord depends on how we behave, as well as what we say and do. It depends on whether or not we are kind and sympathetic. If not, then, alas, we simply did not understand that the opportunity to respond to the misfortune of our neighbor and simply treat him with respect is also a way to give glory to God. We open ourselves to God through our neighbor, which means that a meeting with Him takes place in our hearts.
This meeting is of the highest importance. The Feast of the Meeting is not just a memory of the gospel event. It is a reminder of our meeting with God. May there be as many of them in our lives as possible.
Translated by The Catalogue of Good Deeds
Source: https://pravlife.org/ru/content/glavnaya-vstrecha-v-tvoey-zhizni
