all at once every thing was changed. Holy Simeon had seen the Saviour, and was now ready to die joyfully. In fact, he did die very soon after; a pious tradition even goes so far as to say that he died before he left the Temple. He was thus the first to take the joyful news to Limbo that the Saviour was born and the day of salvation at hand.
Humility and obedience of Mary. Mary was without sin, therefore she needed no purification. Nevertheless she remained excluded from the Temple for forty days just as if she were an ordinary, sinful mother, and submitted to the law of purification which in no way applied to the most pure Mother of God. Her humility made her wish to appear in the eyes of the world as an ordinary, sinful woman. She wished, moreover, to give an example of obedience to the precepts of the law, her love of her fellow-creatures making her shrink from being a cause of offence and giving scandal by any neglect of the legal purification.
The Feast of our Lady's Purification, or Candlemas. We keep a feast on the 2nd of February, forty days after Christmas, in memory of our Lord’s Presentation in the Temple. This feast has several names. First, it is known as the Feast of the Presentation of our Lord Jesus. Secondly, it is called the Feast of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary. But the usual and popular name for this Feast is Candlemas-day, because on this day candles are blessed before Mass, and there takes place a procession with lighted candles. Candles are blessed and lighted on this particular feast, because on it Simeon acknowledged and confessed Christ to be “the Light of the world”.
The dolours of Mary. Mary is, as the Holy Ghost foretold by the mouth of Simeon, the Mother of sorrows, feeling in her own heart all the sufferings of her Divine Son. The dolours of Mary are usually enumerated as follows: i. the prophecy of Simeon, 2. the flight into Egypt, 3. the loss of the Child Jesus for three days when He was twelve years old, 4. the meeting with Jesus, carrying His Cross, 5. the Crucifixion and death of Jesus, 6. the taking down from the Cross, 7. the Burial of Jesus. Mary suffered for a longer time and more acutely than any of the holy martyrs, and therefore she is called the Queen of martyrs.
The “Contradiction” of Jesus. In what way has Simeon’s prophecy that our Lord should be a “sign of contradiction” been fulfilled? Even when He was an Infant, He was persecuted by Herod, and had to flee. When He began His public life, He met with the greatest opposition, especially from the Pharisees and Sadducees. The inhabitants of Nazareth thrust Him out of their city (chapter XVII). The Pharisees slandered Him and said He was in league with the devil (chapter XXVII); and, on the Feast of the Dedication of the Temple, the Jews wished to stone Him as a blasphemer (chapter LIII). He was accused before Pilate of being a seducer of the people &c.; and His enemies never rested till He was nailed upon the Cross. Even after His Resurrection the opposition to His doctrine and His Church continued. “Christ crucified,
