“There are some flowers that open only in the evening, Simeon, the old man, was one of those flowers.  Imagine the ecstasy of this old man when he embraced the Child, and his first words were ‘now I am ready to die.’  He then speaks to the mother and notice how he looks backwards and forwards; he looks backward to the people of God of which he was a priest and says ‘this is the glory of thy people Israel, this Babe.’  Then he looks forward, ‘this is the Light which shall give revelation to the Gentiles.’  In other words, he saw in this Babe, the maker of a new covenant, but he also saw in Him a sign to be contradicted by the very people to whom he came to bring salvation.  So that this Christ who was born was not just someone who came by surprise, He’s related to all of the people of God through the centuries.”  Archbishop Fulton Sheen (The Bishop Sheen Catechism)