THE feast focuses on the meeting between Mary and an old man named Simeon, a resident of Jerusalem, to whom it had been revealed that he would not die before seeing Israel’s saviour. On an impulse Simeon went up to the Temple, and seeing Mary, who had brought Jesus there forty days after his birth to fulfil various obligations under Jewish law,* he took her baby into his arms and recited a psalm of his own making:
Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word: For mine eyes have seen thy salvation, Which thou hast prepared before the face of all people; A light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of thy people Israel.
Foreseeing bitter opposition, and that Jesus would be the catalyst for upheaval throughout Israel, Simeon warned Mary that she would be pierced by grief, a reference to her vigil at the foot of the cross. Simeon’s song is still sung at Vespers daily throughout the year.
A first-born male child had to be ‘redeemed’ (i.e. bought back from the Government). The poor could offer two turtle doves or two young pigeons instead of the much more expensive lamb. St Luke stresses that Joseph and Mary came into that category.