A light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of your people Israel.
All Commentaries on Luke 2:32 Go To Luke 2
Cornelius a Lapide
AD 1637
A light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of Thy people Israel. Thou hast given Christ the Saviour that He may be a light for the enlightenment of the Gentiles, enlightening with His faith and worship the Gentiles who know not the true God, and also to be the glory and honour of the Jewish people. TheArabic has, "the light that hath appeared to the nations." In the same way we have in Psalm 119:18, "Open Thou" (that Isaiah , illumine) "mine eyes." The allusion here is to the prophecy of Isaiah , made seven hundred years before, in Isaiah 42:6, "I will give thee for a covenant of the people, for a light of the Gentiles, to open the blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners from the prison, and them that sit in darkness out of the prison-house;" and in Isaiah 44:6, "I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation unto the end of the earth." In the Mass, and particularly on the Feast of the Purification, we bless candles, light them, and carry them about, thereby (1) symbolising our belief in Christ as the light of the nations, and (2) praying that He will grant us in this life the light of His grace, and in the other life the light of His gladness and His glory. And it is for this reason that these lighted candles are put into the hands of the dying. See Amalarius, Durandus, and others, who have written on the Offices of the Church.
And the glory of Thy people Israel1. Because Christ, promised to their forefathers by God, took upon Himself the flesh of their race, and was a Jew.
2. Because He lived and died in Juda, His life being made glorious by His teaching, His holiness, and His miracles.
3. Because He first founded His Church in Juda, the first believers having been Jews, who afterwards gathered the Gentiles to themselves.
4. It was in Juda that He rose from the dead and gloriously ascended into heaven, sending down thence the Holy Ghost with the gift of tongues.
The allusion is to Isaiah 46:13, "I will place salvation in Zion for Israel, my glory;" and lx. I, "The glory of the Lord is risen upon thee;" and ibid2 , "His glory shall be seen upon thee."
