Fourth Joyful Mystery ~ Presentation of Christ in the Temple
[25] And
behold there was a man in Jerusalem named Simeon, and this man was just and
devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel; and the Holy Ghost was in him.
[26] And he
had received an answer from the Holy Ghost, that he should not see death,
before he had seen the Christ of the Lord. [27] And he came by the Spirit into
the temple. And when his parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for him
according to the custom of the law, [28] He also took him into his arms, and
blessed God, and said: [29] Now thou dost dismiss thy servant, O Lord,
according to thy word in peace; [30] Because my eyes have seen thy salvation,
[31] Which
thou hast prepared before the face of all peoples: [32] A light to the
revelation of the Gentiles, and the glory of thy people Israel. (Luke ii)
Mary made
her offerings, and “performed all things according to the law of the Lord.” For
the spirit of Jesus was a spirit of obedience and, although the brightness of
angelic innocence was dull beside the whiteness of her purity, she obeyed the
law of God in the ceremony of her purification, the more readily as it was in
fact a concealment of her graces. But she bore also in her arms her true
turtle— dove, to do for Him likewise “according to the custom of the law.” She
placed Him in the arms of the aged priest Simeon, as she has done since in
vision to so many of the Saints; and the full light broke on Simeon's soul.
Weak with age, he threw his arms around His God. He bore the whole weight of
his Creator, and yet stood upright. The sight of that infant Face was nothing
less than the glory of Heaven. The Holy Ghost had kept His promise. Simeon had
seen— nay, was at that moment handling—“the Lord's Christ.”
Blessed
priest! Worn down with age, wearied with thy long years of waiting for the
“consolation of Israel,” kept alive in days which were out of harmony with thy
spirit, even as St. John the Evangelist was after thee—surely He Who made thee,
He Who is so soon to judge thee, He Whom thou art folding so fondly in thine
arms, must have sent the strength of His omnipotence into thy heart, else thou
wouldst never have been able to bear the flood of strong gladness which at that
moment broke in upon thy spirit! … It is hard for him to part with that sweet
burden from his arms. In that extreme old age, the vents of song have been
opened in his soul, and in the silence of the temple he sings his Nunc
dimittis, even as Zachary sang his Benedictus, and Mary her Magnificat. Age
after age shall take up the strain. All the poetry of Christian weariness is in
it. It gives a voice to the heavenly detachment and unworldliness of countless
Saints. It is the heart’s evening light, after the working hours of the day, to
millions and millions of believers. It is the very last Compline that the
Church shall sing before the midnight when the doom begins and the Lord breaks
out upon the darkness from the refulgent east, shall overflow with the
melodious sweetness of Simeon's pathetic song. Joseph was wrapt even then in an
ecstasy of holy admiration.
Even Mary
“wondered” at the words, so deep, so beautiful, and so true; for she knew, as
no others knew, how marvelously her Babe was in truth the Light of the entire
world. And when, in her humility, she knelt for the blessing of the aged
priest, had he Jesus in his arms still when he blessed her, and did he wave the
Child above her in the Sign of the Cross, like a Christian Benediction, or had
she Jesus in her arms, holding Him at His Own creature's feet to get a
blessing? Either way, how wonderful the mystery!
Faber, Fr.
Frederick William (2015-02-14). The Foot of the Cross with Mary: or The Sorrows
of Mary (Kindle Locations 1244-1273). KIC. Kindle Edition.
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