Origen's homily on Simeon in the Temple (Luke 2:25-35), reading the Nunc Dimittis as a pattern for every soul's release from the body through embracing Christ.
This is the fifteenth in Origen's series of homilies on the Gospel of Luke, preached to his congregation in Caesarea in the third century and preserved only in Jerome's Latin translation. It takes up the episode of Simeon, the old man in the Jerusalem Temple who was promised by the Holy Spirit that he would not die before seeing the Christ, and who, upon taking the infant Jesus into his arms, speaks the words known as the Nunc Dimittis: "Now, Lord, your servant... in peace."
Origen's question is deceptively simple: what good did seeing Christ actually do Simeon? His answer turns the episode into an argument about the whole human condition. He compares Simeon to the woman healed by touching the fringe of Jesus's garment, and reasons that if she was healed by contact with the hem, Simeon -- who held the child bodily in his arms -- must have received something far greater: release from "the knots of the body," the bonds that keep every soul imprisoned until it holds Christ. Origen generalizes the scene past Simeon to every believer: whoever wishes to be released from the prison of the body at death must first, in this life, take Jesus into his hands and arms.
The homily builds toward a meditation on dying "in peace," distinguishing mere dismissal from dismissal with peace, and linking Simeon's peace to the peace promised to Abraham ("you will go to your fathers in peace") and to Paul's "I live, yet no longer I, but Christ lives in me." It closes with congregational prayer, asking to be found worthy of the same release. The piece is a compact example of Origen's allegorical method: a single Gospel verse is mined for its bearing on the soul's present spiritual state and its hope for death, rather than treated as a report of a past event.
“The woman touched the fringe of Jesus's garment and was healed. If she gained so much benefit merely from the outer edge of his garment, what must we think of Simeon, who took the infant into his own arms”
— Homily on Luke 15 · read this chapter →
“as long as I did not hold the Christ, as long as I did not clasp him in my arms, I was shut in”
— Homily on Luke 15 · read this chapter →
“let him take Jesus into his hands and wrap him in his arms, let him hold him wholly in his bosom, and then he will be able to go rejoicing”
— Homily on Luke 15 · read this chapter →
“Who is it that dies "in peace," except the one who has the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding and guards his heart?”
— Homily on Luke 15 · read this chapter →
“I live, yet no longer I, but Christ lives in me.”
— Homily on Luke 15 · read this chapter →
It is a sermon on Luke 2:25-35, the episode where Simeon takes the infant Jesus into his arms in the Temple and speaks the Nunc Dimittis ("Now you dismiss your servant, Lord, in peace"). Origen asks what benefit Simeon actually gained from seeing Christ and answers that Simeon's embrace models the release from bodily bondage that every soul needs.
Simeon is the holy man promised by the Holy Spirit that he would not die before seeing the Christ. Origen treats him not just as a historical figure but as a type for the whole human race, showing what it means to be released from the body's bonds by holding Christ.
Origen distinguishes simple dismissal from death from dismissal "in peace," arguing that true peace at death belongs only to one who possesses the peace of God and has reconciled every hostility, as Abraham was promised he would go to his fathers in peace.
He uses her healing by merely touching the fringe of Jesus's clothing as a lesser case to argue, a fortiori, that Simeon -- who held Jesus fully in his arms -- must have received an even greater benefit: release from the body's bondage.
It is part of Origen's Homilies on the Gospel of Luke, translated by Scriptorium Press and available to read free online.
Commentary on John, Book 1 · Commentary on John, Book 10 · Commentary on John, Book 2 · Commentary on John, Book 4 · Commentary on John, Book 5 · Commentary on John, Book 6 · Commentary on Matthew, Book 10 · Commentary on Matthew, Book 11 · Commentary on Matthew, Book 12 · Commentary on Matthew, Book 13 · Commentary on Matthew, Book 14 · Commentary on Matthew, Book 15