Our gospel today describes two people that we should aspire to be like. Simeon and Anna were wise old people who had lived prayerful lives of faith and in particular lives of hope and expectation. They longed to see the salvation God had promised to the world and in fact Simeon had been told that he would not die until he had seen the messiah. As Mary and Joseph brought the child Jesus to the temple to do all that the law had prescribed, so Simeon and Anna were drawn to the temple by the Holy Spirit and,being wise and people of discernment, when they arrived they recognised Mary’s child, Jesus, as the messiah.
Simeon takes the child up in his arms and makes a prayer of thanksgiving:
‘Now, master, you can let your servant go in peace just as you promised; because my eyes have seen the salvation which you have prepared for all the nations to see, a light to enlighten the pagans and the glory of your people Israel’.
Would it not be wonderful to be like them in our old age, prayerful and full of hope and expectation? Well the secret is to be like them now. If we wish to be serene, wise, discerning, then now is the time to develop in prayer and grow in faith, then like Simeon we will be ready to meet God and receive what was promised to us with the birth of a child.