Lord, now let your servant depart in peace, according to your word:
All Commentaries on Luke 2:29 Go To Luke 2
Cornelius a Lapide
AD 1637
Lord, now lettest thou Thy servant depart in peace, according to Thy word. Lettest thou—in Greek α̉πολÏεις, loosen, as it were, from the prison-chains of this body, that I may go to the liberty, peace, and rest which the fathers in limbo enjoy. In peace, so Tobias, ; and Abraham, Genesis 15:15, desired to die in peace. Euthymius here understands by peace—
1. The calming of his feelings, which had fluctuated between hope and fear with reference to his seeing Christ.
2. The peace of an intrepid soul that did not fear death.
3. His joy.
4. Peace may be taken to mean that security from the dangers of the world which death brings. S. Cyprian (Tract. de Moralitate, c. i) says, "joyful at his approaching death, sure that it must soon come, he took the Child in his hands, and, blessing the Lord, lifted up his voice and said, Now Thou dost dismiss, &c, . . . thus proving and bearing witness that then is there peace for the servants of God, then an easy and tranquil mind when, delivered from out the whirlpools of the world, we make for the haven of our eternal habitation and our peace."
Thy word. Thy promise, says Theophylact, when Thou didst promise to prolong my life until I should see Christ; now have I seen Him, therefore let me depart and die.
Symbolically, S. Augustine (Serm20 de Tempore) says, "Now, Lord, let me depart in peace, because I see thy peace—Christ, Who shall make peace between heaven and earth—between God and angels and men—between men and themselves."
And Simeon obtained his wish from God, for soon after he went to his rest. S. Epiphanius (De Prophetarum vita, c. xxiv.) puts S. Simeon among the prophets. "Simon," he says, "departed this life full of years and utterly worn out; yet did he not obtain at the hands of the priests the last honours of burial." He gives no reason, however, why this should have been Song of Solomon , but it is thought that, in openly announcing the advent of Christ, he brought upon himself the envy and hatred of the other priests.
Tropologically, the Church sings this hymn of Simeon every evening in the Office of Compline, for two reasons—First, to admonish the faithful, and especially ecclesiastics, to think upon death, and so live as though they were to die in the evening; and, again, that they may acquire that yearning which Simeon felt to pass away from the vanities and troubles of this life to the true and blessed life in heaven, begging of God to be permitted to depart, and saying with Paul, "I desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ." "Behold how the just Prayer of Manasseh ," says S. Ambrose, "as though shut in within the gross prison-house of the body, wishes to be loosed, that he may begin to be with Christ. But he that will be set free, let him come to the Temple, let him come to Jerusalem, let him wait for the Lord, let him embrace Him with good work as with the arms of faith. Then shall he be set free, that he may not see death, because he has looked upon life."
