"I will move all nations," said the Prophet Aggeus, "and the Desired of all nations shall come: and I will fill this house with glory: saith the Lord of Hosts." "Great shall be the glory of this last house more than that of the first, saith the Lord of Hosts: and in this place I will give peace, saith the Lord of Hosts." *) The Temple to be honored for the first time by the presence of the Messiah was not the costly edifice of Solomon; it was the second Temple built by Zorobabel, plundered and almost destroyed by Crassus, profaned by Antiochus, but purified and reconsecrated by Judas Macchabeus. It had just been ornamented with royal munificence by Herod the Great and thus was ready to receive the "King of Israel" and the "Expected of the Nations." There the Messiah is to be presented to the Lord. Jerusalem rejoice, thy King approaches on the arms of His mother. "Lift up your gates, O ye princes, and be ye lifted up, O eternal gates: and the King of Glory shall enter in. Who is this King of Glory? The Lord of Hosts, He is the King of Glory." **) *) Agg. II. 8-10. Mary waited at the gate of Nicanor, on the eastern side of the Temple, to be received with the sprinkling of blood by the priest, according to the Law of Moses. The altar is prepared for the redemption of the firstborn. As prescribed by the Law, the divine Mother deposits her gifts of the poor: fruits, two pigeons, and five shekels (about 25c). The infant is placed on the altar of the presentation. Clouds of incense and prayers ascend to Heaven, while one of the priests, taking up the new-born, lifts it toward the four sides of the Temple. Mary, at the same time, offers to God her divine Son and the entire human race redeemed by Him. To woman was reserved this privilege of rendering to God, through God Himself, this first act of worship, alone worthy of Him. "I saw the Temple filled with glory, the brightness of which cannot be described," says Catherine of Emmerich in her Life of the Blessed Virgin. "I saw that God was present there; and above the Child I saw the Heavens open unto the throne of the most holy Trinity." Apparently there is nothing to reveal these wonders, nothing that differs from other pre sentations, nothing that attracts the curiosity of the multitude. Silence reigns within the Temple, and in the city is the usual noise and din of vehicles and occupations. Greed of riches, pleasure or sorrow fill its inhabitants. Nothing unusual interrupts the ordinary run of men or affairs; yet an oblation of greatest importance to all mankind is to be made this very moment. However, there are always scattered here and there some choice souls who share the secrets of Heaven and perceive what no one else does notice. Ordinarily living in solitude and recollection, they avoid the very shadow of evil and are ever attentive to the inspirations of the Holy Ghost. "O Father... Thou hast hid those things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them to little ones." *) Now, there was in Jerusalem a man named Simeon, and this man was just and devout. And he came by the Spirit into the Temple. Recognizing in the child of the poor woman the promised Messiah, he takes Him on his arms and intones the ever beautiful canticle: "Now Thou dost dismiss Thy servant, O Lord, *) Matt. XI. 25. in peace, because my eyes have seen Thy salvation;" and, filled with the visions of the future, he predicts that this child will be "the light of the gentiles and the glory of His people Israel." And as if to confirm this prophecy and to complete it, as if to announce the good news to both sexes, to all minds and hearts, a prophetess arrives there likewise. Like Simeon, Anna is led to the Temple by the Holy Ghost. To her, too, the Incarnate Word makes Himself known as a weak and helpless child. With rapture Anna contemplates Him, takes Him in her arms, and puts her lips to His forehead, the seat of Divinity. Bliss and gratitude of these two old people, you enrapture mankind at its first contact with the Word Incarnate! Now that he has seen the God Whom he has loved so much, Simeon has no other wish but to die. To die? . . . Anna, is that your wish also? No, you have to live, to "speak of Him to all who are waiting for the redemption of Israel." In you, womankind, oppressed and trodden under foot by the civilization of antiquity, is to raise its voice and announce its redemption. Joel had foretold it: "And it shall come to pass after this, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy." *) Anna was not the first woman on which the Spirit of the Lord had descended. Mary, the sister of Moses, Anna, the mother of Samuel, Judith and Deborah, Jahel and Esther, Elisabeth and, lastly, Mary, had spoken and acted in the name of the Lord. As a precursor to the Precursor, as an apostle to the Apostles, Anna had a mission of her own, that deserves to be studied by Christian women she personifies their social and religious action. The decadence of the Jewish people, predicted "for the last days" by the prophets Aggeus and Micheas, had arrived. Love for heathen festivals, ambition and jealousy, corruption in the priesthood, divisions and uproar among the citizens, present the spectacle of a nation that is dying in the pursuit of material pleasures. Misery reached its climax when Pompey, called to the aid of the sons of Janneus, reduced the land of the Jews to a Roman province. Herod the Idumean is appointed king of the Jews by the Roman *) Joel II. 28. |