Summary of the Morrow’s Meditation
After having considered Jesus and Mary in the temple, it remains for us to consider a third personage, the holy old man Simeon. We shall see, 1st, how he prepared himself for his happy meeting with Jesus; 2d, what were his joys and his sorrows during his waiting. We will then make the resolution: 1st, to prepare ourselves more carefully for our communions by holiness of life and ardent desires; 2d, to be guided in everything by the Spirit of God, and not by the spirit of the world. Our spiritual nosegay shall be the canticle of Simeon: “Now Thou dost dismiss Thy servant, O Lord, according to Thy word, in peace” (Luke ii. 29).
Meditation for the Morning
Let us adore the Infant Jesus reposing in the arms of the holy old man Simeon, enlightening his mind with living lights and filling his heart with the sweetest consolations. Let us ask Him to let us have a share in the graces bestowed upon this holy old man.
First Point
How Simeon prepared himself to meet Jesus in the Temple.
The Gospel tells us this in the following words: “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” (Luke ii. 25). Let us study all the features of this beautiful portrait. 1st, Simeon was just and feared God that is to say, he possessed every virtue; he very carefully avoided all sin, and he spent his whole life in the love and service of God; 2d, he lived in the expectation of the consolation of Israel that is to say, that, detached from everything else, he desired nothing in the world but to see Jesus Christ, and die; 3d, the Holy Ghost was in him that is to say, that, filled with the Holy Ghost, he was in all things led by the light and the movements of this Divine Spirit; he consulted it, and the Holy Ghost answered him, directing all his thoughts, all his sentiments, all his acts, and in these pious interviews the Holy Ghost had told him that he should not see death until he had seen the Messias, the Expected of the nations. Such was the holy life which prepared Simeon for his happy meeting with Jesus in the temple. We, also, are called to amiable meetings with Jesus in our churches, in our visits to the Blessed Sacrament, in communion, at holy Mass. Do we appreciate this favor as Simeon appreciated it? Do we desire it as he did? Do we prepare ourselves like him, by a pure life, by flying from sin, by the practice of virtue, by union with the Spirit of God, and our docility to His holy inspirations?
Second Point
Joys and Sorrows of Simeon in the Temple.
Warned by the Holy Ghost of the day and hour when Jesus would arrive in the temple, the holy old man betakes himself joyfully there. The Spirit of God reveals to him the Messias for whom he had waited in the Divine Child, to which neither priests nor people paid any attention. He approaches and lovingly contemplates Him. At the sight of Him his heart overflows with happiness. Mary, happy to meet so worthy an adorer of her dear Son, places Him in Simeon’s arms, and who could express with what ecstatic joy he receives this precious treasure, how he pressed Him to his breast, watered Him with his tears, covered Him with his kisses! In these holy embraces, his heart, inundated with the delights of Paradise, could say nothing else but what is contained in his magnificent canticle: “Lord, Thou hast until now detained my soul in the prison of my body, to allow me to behold the Saviour of Israel and the Light of the nations. Now that this happiness has been given to me, I have nothing more to desire here below. Let death come; it is my one desire.” Such is, in souls well prepared, the fruit of a good communion. By it we possess Jesus, not in our arms, but, what is much better, in our hearts; and this intimate alliance of the creature with his Creator detaches the heart from all which is not God. We love God, we enjoy Him; all the world is as nothing to him who possesses so great a treasure, and we desire nothing else but to die, to love Him more perfectly and always. At the same time, however, with these ineffable joys of the holy old man were mingled also ineffable sorrows. God, enlightening him in regard to the future, showed him in the course of years: 1st, the Divine Infant a sign of contradiction; 2d, the heart of Mary pierced with a sword of suffering; 3d, the Saviour of Israel becoming the ruin of a great number of people, and the secret thoughts of many brought to light on the last day. How greatly did these revelations afflict his loving soul! What! Jesus, so amiable, a sign of contradiction? What! He shall have as opponents those who will not accept the austere doctrine of the Gospel respecting suffering, renunciation, the violence which alone can conquer the kingdom of heaven? What! Mary shall be the Queen of martyrs? Yes; through the part that she will take in the sorrows of Calvary, and in the loss of so many souls. What! The Saviour of men shall be the ruin of many, and will reveal their most secret thoughts? Yes; He will be the ruin of those who will not save themselves, and He will reveal, on the great day of His justice, their most hidden thoughts. Oh, how terrible it is not to love Jesus, and not to profit by the redemption He offers us!
Resolutions and spiritual nosegay as above.