'Christ is manifested to us likewise': the Nunc Dimittis at Evensong

Continuing with extracts from John Shepherd's A Critical and Practical Elucidation of the Morning and Evening Prayer of the Church of England (1796), we turn to the Nunc Dimittis at Evensong, what Shepherd describes as "this beautiful little hymn". It is a description which both captures the deeply resonant nature of the Nunc at Evensong and which points to Cranmer's wisdom in taking the traditional canticle of Compline and placing it in Evening Prayer.

In summarising Saint Luke's account of Simeon, Shepherd ensures that we heed the Evangelist's emphasis on rooting the Nunc in the hopes and prayers of Israel:

The author of this beautiful little hymn, was the aged Simeon, a just and devout man, who waited for the consolation of Israel, and to whom by the spirit of prophecy, it was revealed, that he should not see death, before he had feen the Lord's anointed. Directed by the Spirit, Simeon came into the temple ; and when the parents brought in the child Jesus to present him to the Lord, he took him up in his arms, and expressed his gratitude to God in the words of this hymn.

Mentioning that "we find it adopted by the Greek, Roman, and Reformed churches" (a footnote refers to Canon 69 of the Synod of Dort, which affirmed "the Song of Mary, that of Zacharias, and that of Simon shall be sung"), Shepherd then turns to the distinctive use of the Nunc Dimittis in Prayer Book Evensong:

In our Liturgy it is judiciously placed after the second Lesson at Evening Prayer, which is always taken out of the writings of the apostles. In their epistles Christ is manifested to us likewise. We do not indeed, like Simeon, see him with our bodily eyes, but we behold him with the eye of faith, and therefore adopt the language of Simeon in our thanksgiving for the same salvation.

This is a profoundly rich reflection on the use of the Nunc Dimittis after the second lesson, suggestive of the sacramental nature of our receiving of the scriptures during divine service (itself an echo of both "inwardly digest" in the collect of Advent II and "receive thy holy Word" in the Prayer for the Church Militant). In our reception of the scriptures, we encounter Christ in no less a manner than did Simeon. The Nunc at Evensong, therefore, draws us to recognise the sacramental quality of our receiving and partaking of the holy Scriptures at Morning and Evening Prayer.

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