In this picture that we contemplate, the Old Testament (the priest Simeon, who receives Jesus from Mary's arms and blesses God) and the New Testament (the new people of the new alliance, represented by Mary and Joseph, the daughter of Zion and the right par excellence): element of union and encounter is the person of Jesus, the true and new consecrated person, who replaces the ancient consecration of the firstborn, and makes all of us the true firstborn, children of God by adoption, like Jesus it is by nature. 

Simeon and Anna are defined as "just", which is the highest praise that the Old Testament can give: however they are sterile, just as the observance of the law (the Mosaic one, but also that of the Church) can be, when it is not born from love and when it does not generate love. They represent the Law, which, as Saint Paul would say, indicates what we must do, but does not give us the strength to do it and thus locks us into our injustice. Jesus represents, and it is He Himself, the grace, the love that is offered to us by the Father not because we "deserve" it, that is, precisely for merits acquired for the observance of the law, but because we need it, because without Him we could not become righteous. In fact we are "made righteous", or, again in the words of Saint Paul, "justified", not by works, but by faith, since we have believed in Him. This is why in this mystery we too learn, like the old Simeon, to take the child in our arms, that is, to receive Jesus from Mary, and to bless God, because we are no longer under the law, which nailed us to our guilt, to our inability to observe it, but we have been made "family members of God and fellow citizens of the saints", no longer simple servants or strangers, that is, close to God on condition that we deserve it, but loved children, just as we are, where we are: in fact "we do not it was we who loved God, but it was He who loved us first”, as the evangelist John says. And this makes us fruitful, it brings us out of our sterility, that is, our inability to love God: "perfect love conquers fear", continues John, and so "we love because He loved us first". And the fulfillment of the law is love: in this way, the law is not abolished, but overcome, in a greater logic, liberating and capable of transforming us.

We can also pray, when we contemplate this mystery, to receive the Holy Spirit and have the light to correctly interpret and understand the Word of God that is given to us; just as Simeon saw the tremendous glory of the God of Israel in that little child that a mother placed in his arms, so we must not forget that all the expressions of Scripture find their true explanation and implementation in Jesus, in his life, death and resurrection. We can, every time we read the psalms, for example, ask Mary to give us her son, to give us the gift of understanding the words we read as they have been clarified and explained by the life of her son: the glory, the power, the majesty in fact, God's smallness, his hiddenness, his closeness to sinners and the poor, tried in body and spirit, are God's. Jesus reveals the Father not only in what he said or did, but also in his divine Person: especially in his Passion. 

Let us pray for Israel, that it may discover in Jesus the fulfillment of its expectations; let us pray for the Church, so that we can all have a living and profound experience of the Word that has been given to us. And for Israel as for the Church, this experience does not come from the law, but from something that does not depend on us, that is, from the Holy Spirit, who opens the heart and mind, moves hearts, changes lives. Thus it is through the Holy Spirit that the Word becomes like a sword, like the one Simeon prophesied to the Mother of God, which pierces the soul: it pierces to heal, shakes to renew, breathes to vivify. Without the Spirit, the Word of God, in fact, is just an old book, the liturgy is just rites, the Church is an organization, charity is simple good manners, prayer is empty murmuring, morality is a simple mess of human uses.