December
19

“And the Holy Spirit Was Upon Him”

And when the days of her purification were accomplished, according to the Law of Moses, they brought Him up to Jerusalem, to present Him to the Lord. And behold, there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon; and this man was just and circumspect, waiting for the consolation of Israel; and the Holy Spirit was upon him. And it was revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he should not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Christ. And he came in the Spirit into the temple, and when the parents were bringing in the little Child Jesus, to do for Him after the custom of the law, and he took Him up in his arms, and blessed God, and said, Now Thou sendest Thy servant away in peace, O Lord, according to Thy saying; for mine eyes have seen Thy salvation, which Thou hast prepared before the face of all peoples; Light for revelation of the nations, and the Glory of Thy people Israel. (Luke 2:22,25‒32)

He who knows not the interior things of the Word may believe that the Lord desires and loves glory like a man in the world; and also for the reason that it is due to Him in preference to all in the universe; but the Lord does not desire glory for the sake of Himself, but for the sake of the man who glorifies Him. The man who glorifies Him does it from a holy reverence for Him in that He is the Supreme One, and from a humbling of himself as being relatively nothing; … the man is then in a state to receive the influx of good from the Lord, thus also to receive love to Him. It is from this that the Lord desires man to glorify Him. (Arcana Coelestia 8263)

“Salvation unto Him,” signifies that salvation is from the Lord, since He is salvation; for everything of salvation and of eternal life is from the Lord and is with man and angel; for all the good of love and all the truth of faith with man are the Lord’s with him, and not the man’s; for it is the Divine proceeding, …. and from the good of love and the truth of faith come salvation and eternal life … Again, this is why the Lord was called “Jesus,” for Jesus means salvation. (Apocalypse Explained 460.2)

previous		next