At the very moment when Joseph and Mary made their way into the second inclosure, with the sicles of silver for the ransom and the doves for sacrifice, a holy old man, named Simeon,* to whom it had been divinely revealed that he should not die till he had seen Christ the Lord, came into the portico by inspiration of the Spirit of God. At the sight of the Holy Family, the eye of the just man became inspired; discovering the King Messias beneath the poor swaddling-clothes of the people, he took him from the arms of his mother, lifted him up to his face, and began to contemplate him with emotion, while tears of joy rolled down his venerable cheeks. "Now," cried out the pious old man, raising up his streaming eyes to heaven, now thou dost dismiss thy servant, O Lord, according to thy word, in peace; because my eyes have seen thy salvation, which thou hast prepared before the face of all people a light to the revelation of the Gentiles, and the glory of thy people Israel." As he finished these words, Simeon solemnly blessed the holy pair; and then addressing himself to Mary, after a mournful and grave silence, he added that this child, born for the ruin and resurrection of many in Israel, would be a sign of contradiction to men, and that sorrow should pierce the soul of his mother like the sharp point of a sword. 66 By this unexpected light, which shed a sombre gleam over the great destiny of Christ, the ignominies, the sufferings, and agonies of the cross, were disclosed at once to the Blessed Virgin. The inauspicious words of Simeon, like a stormy wind, made her bend down her head, and her heart was trunk of the olive-tree was is now occupied by a marble-stone, which is at the bottom of a small niche beneath the high altar, where a lamp burns perpetually. *The Arabs give Simeon the title of Siddik (he who verifies), because he bore witness to the coming of the true Messias, in the person of Jesus, the son of Mary, whom all Mussulmans are obliged to receive as such.-'D'Herb., Biblioth. Orientale, t. iii. p. 266.) |