At that time Joseph and Mary, the Mother of Jesus, were wondering at those things, which were spoken concerning Him. And Simeon blessed them, and said to Mary, His mother: Behold, this child is set for the fall, and for the resurrection of many in Israel, and for a sign which shall be contradicted. And thy own soul a sword shall pierce, that out of many hearts thoughts may be revealed. And there was one Anna, a prophetess, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Aser: she was far advanced in years, and had lived with her husband seven years from her virginity. And she was a widow until fourscore and four years; who departed not from the Temple, by fastings and prayers serving night and day. Now she at the same. hour coming in, confessed to the Lord; and spoke of Him to all that looked for the redemption of Israel. And after they had performed all things according to the law of the Lord, they returned into Galilee, to their city Nazareth. And the child grew, and waxed strong, full of wisdom: and the grace of God was in Him. - Luke 2:33-40
This Gospel reading treats wholly of the child Jesus; it speaks of His presentation in the Temple, of how He was made known through Simeon and Anna, and of His going back to Nazareth; it is, in fact, a supplement to the mystery of the Nativity. As the text is somewhat lengthy I shall at once begin the explanation of it.
"Joseph and Mary, the Mother of Jesus, were wondering at the things which were spoken concerning Him." To rightly understand these words it will be necessary to go back a little to where Simeon, enlightened from on high, recognized in the child whom His Mother carried in her arms the expected Saviour of the world, apd uttered those noble words of the canticle, which is called by his name. In this canticle the holy old man foretold the conversion of the Gentiles and the glory that would come to the heavenly child. Hearing this Joseph and Mary marveled, not that Mary was ignorant of the future glory of Jesus, but she was amazed to hear it so clearly foretold by the old man and in that place. Still neither Joseph nor Mary said anything; they were silent, and amazed and thanked God in their hearts.
It is important, my friends, to note these words of the Evangelist: "Joseph and Mary, the Mother of Jesus." Here you will notice that the Evangelist, as regards the origin of Jesus, carefully distinguishes between Joseph and Mary, and while he only names Joseph, as if he were a stranger, he expressly says: "Mary, the Mother of Jesus." In these words he clearly expresses the Catholic dogma, according to which we believe that Jesus Christ had not an earthly father, that the Virgin alone gave Him His human life, and that she is His true Mother.
Mary the Mother of Jesus, and Mary the Mother of God, are one and the same, because, since in Jesus there is only one Person, the Son of God, and since Mary is the Mother of Jesus, it is clear that she is truly the Mother of God, though Jesus as the Son of God did not derive His being from her. Our mother did not give us our soul, which God alone created, but only our body, and since each of us is one sole person, made up of two substances, soul and body united together, our mother is said to be and truly is our mother. Similarly, Mary is the true mother of Jesus, the God-Man, because she truly generated Him in His human nature, which He derived from her.
Simeon, having given thanks to God for having granted him the favor of recognizing in the child the Messias, blessed Joseph and Mary, reciting over them the sacred benediction prescribed by the law, and then turning to Mary, said: "Behold, this child is set for the fall and for the resurrection of many in Israel His meaning was that this child was come for the salvation of all, because He wished to save all; but contrary to His will, He would be to some a rock of scandal, and the occasion of their fall and eternal ruin. Those among the children of Israel who saw Him, heard His teaching, and in a spirit of humble obedience believed, were saved; those who saw Him with proud disdain, who contemned Him and spurned His teaching, were in their turn thrust away and lost. Jesus Christ was for Israel, and will ever be for all men, the cause of their salvation or the occasion of their ruin. He is like light that is a joy to a healthy eye and a torment to a sore one; though light of its very nature should only rejoice and not torment the eye; if the light does torment it, it is not the fault of the light, but of the soreness of the eye itself.
Our condition, my friends, is such that if we are not saved by Him, we shall be eternally condemned by Him. From him who has received more, more is expected; from him who has received less, less is expected. Now we have known Jesus Christ, we have received from Him all manner of blessings; woe to us if we do not show a responsive spirit. A fall from a great height is fatal, and such will be our fall, if, raised to so great an eminence by Jesus Christ, we should lose our hold upon Him.
"Jesus," Simeon goes on, "is set for a sign that shall he contradicted by many." This prophecy was fulfilled and is daily being fulfilled under our very eyes. Is not Jesus Christ Himself and is not the Church, His mouthpiece and organ, a sign and a mark for contradiction? Some believe in Him, some do not; some obey Him, some refuse to obey Him; some bless Him, some blaspheme Him; some love Him, some care nothing for Him and even hate Him ferociously. As Jesus Christ was treated during the days of His mortal life, so has He been treated in every age since, down to our own; and so also with His Church, which by some is obeyed, respected, and loved as a mother, and by others disobeyed, despised, and hated as an enemy.
"And thy own soul a sword shall pierce, that out of many hearts thoughts shall he revealed." Mary can not be separated from Jesus any more than can the flower be separated from the stem, or the rivulet from the spring, and hence the joys and the sorrows of the Son were the joys and the sorrows of the Mother. Jesus will be a mark for the wrath and the rage of the Synagogue, which will one day nail Him to the cross. He will be the Man of sorrows and the Prince of martyrs; and so also will Mary suffer an agony with Him and for Him, and she will be the Woman of sorrows and the Queen of martyrs. Jesus will be tortured in body and soul, Mary will suffer only in soul indeed, but her martyrdom will be such that Simeon, to express it, used these words: And thy own soul a sword shall pierce and this sword was driven into her heart at the very instant that she became a mother, because from that instant she had, if not a vivid apprehension, certainly a clear and certain knowledge of all that Jesus Christ must suffer, and hence the martyrdom was continuous throughout her whole life. It is a law from which no follower of Christ is or can be exempt, that suffering is the measure of exalted virtue and perfection of life, and they are more like to Jesus Christ in holiness who walk nearest to Him in the way of the cross.
When Jesus ended His life on the cross, a mark for the hatred of His enemies, and Mary stood in an agony at His feet, then "out of many hearts' thoughts were revealed," then appeared the horrid impiety and the ferocious cruelty of the Synagogue.
Joseph and Mary were still in the Temple, possibly sorrowfully thinking over the prophecy of Simeon, when a woman, whose name was Anna, that is, grace, stood before them. She belonged to the tribe of Aser, and must have been well known in Jerusalem as one endowed with the prophetic spirit, since Saint Luke calls her a prophetess. After seven years of married life Anna became and remained a widow and was now eighty-four years of age. After her husband's death "she departed not from the Temple, by fastings and prayers, serving God night and day." We know that certain pious women, dwelling nearby, served the Temple and lived after the manner of Religious. Anna was likely one of these women and gave her life to the service of the Temple and to prayer; but what most astonishes us is that a woman of that advanced age should have added fastings to her prayers. This woman is certainly worthy of our admiration, hut on the other bund what a rebuke she is to us. After a long life of innocence at the age of eighty-four, she voluntarily subjects her body to fastings and mortifications! And we, still young and in the full tide of life, are so indulgent to our passions; and if we do not wholly ignore the laws of fast and abstinence, we find it irksome to observe them.
"Anna, at the same hour coming in, confessed the Lord, and spoke of Him to all that looked for the redemption of Israel."
Anna, enlightened from on high, as Simeon had been a little while before, recognized the babe as the Messias and the Saviour of the world, and as such she spoke of Him to those who were in the Temple. It pleased God to make known the mystery of the Incarnation and the expected Saviour to two persons, Simeon and Anna, the one a man, the other a woman, because these two were prepared by a religious and saintly life to recognize Him, and because both, being venerable by age and still more by virtue, could serve as apostles in announcing Him to the people and in stirring up their faith. Thus God in His goodness never fails to make known the truth to those who are rightly disposed. The shepherds and the magi, Simeon and Anna, Zachary and Elizabeth, were all serviceable and powerful instruments in the hands of God to make Jesus known while He was still an infant. And yet how many of the Hebrews took advantage of this most special grace? Very few, indeed, as the Gospel bears witness.
"And after they had performed all things according to the law of the Lord, they returned into Galilee, to their own city Nazareth."
After hearing the wonderful things that Simeon and Anna spoke concerning Jesus, Joseph and Mary went hack to the little village of Nazareth and to their humble home, leaving it to Providence to bring to maturity His own hidden purposes.
And now we are at the last verse of this Gospel reading. "And the child grew and waxed strong, full of wisdom; and the grace of God was in Him." To some these words may seem difficult to understand, and contrary to what we should hold concerning the perfection of Jesus Christ; and yet, if properly explained, there is not a shadow of a difficulty in them.
It is of faith, and therefore we must believe it, that Jesus Christ from the first instant of His conception in the womb of His Mother, was filled with all knowledge, and virtue, and holiness, so that it was impossible for His blessed soul to increase in these by one iota. This is a necessary consequence of the nature of the immediate and personal union of the divine Word with the humanity which the Word assumed, and in assuming filled it with all the knowledge, and holiness, and perfection of which it was capable. Jesus Christ, then, as man, in the first instant of His conception, was as perfect, neither more nor less, as He was at the last moment of His mortal life. Why, then, does the Gospel say that He increased in wisdom and grace? He did not increase in wisdom and grace really and in the strict sense of these words, but only in the sense that as He gradually grew in years, He showed externally an increase of wisdom and grace; that is, He measured the manifestation of these excellences so as to make it correspond with His age. Just as in the physical order He was first a babe, then a child, next a youth, and finally a man, with all His virile force fully developed; so in the spiritual and supernatural order He willed that the outward manifestation of His grace and holiness should be progressive and correspond to His years.
My friends, the sun never changes; it is ever the same and ever equally sends forth its rays and diffuses its heat; but we see both its light and its heat go on increasing in intensity from dawn until midday. So also with Jesus Christ; His holiness and wisdom were ever the same and what seemed an increase in them was only their fuller manifestation.
Grace and wisdom and virtue in Jesus Christ could not have any real increase; the increase was only apparent and seemed such to the eyes of men; but with us it is different; they can and ought to gain a real increase day by day until we shall have attained perfection by copying our pattern, Jesus Christ, into our lives. Now when we examine our life and conduct can we say that we have gone on increasing in virtue from year to year? Alas, it may be we shall be obliged to own that we were more pious and virtuous in youth than in manhood and old age. This would be a shameful avowal. My dear friends, let us after the manner of Jesus, go on increasing in wisdom and in the grace of God, as we grow in years.
- Bishop Geremia Bonomelli, D.D., Diocese of Cremona, Italy