SCRIPTURE COMMENTARY #40
"Now thou dost dismiss thy servant, O Lord, according to thy word in peace:
Because my eyes have seen thy salvation . . ." (Luke 2:29-30)
BELIEF IN JESUS CHRIST DRIVES AWAY ALL FEAR OF DEATH: Simeon now rejoiced at the prospect of death. Such a sensation was hitherto unknown in Israel. "Pius Israelites closed their eyes in death, weary of life and submissive to God's will; not altogether hopeless, but full of horror of the future. Death was a thing to be feared, and each new day of life which was granted was looked on as a gain" (Grimm). But all at once every thing was changed. Holy Simeon had seen the Savior, 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 Savior was born and the day of salvation at hand.
[From 'A Practical Commentary on Holy Scripture' by Bishop Knecht, D.D.]
(1899 Douay-Rheims Bible)
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