So that the thoughts of many may be laid bare

Luke 2: 35... the presentation when Joseph and Mary brought baby Jesus to the temple....Simeon prophesied that Mary's soul would be pierced so that the thoughts of many would be revealed. I welcome members' thoughts on this verse. I think it is a prophecy for our times, the Immaculate heart of Mary has been wounded endlessly by the sins of our generation, but that is leading to the revelation of consciences aka the warning or illumination of consciences, laying bare the secret thoughts we have in the light of God and consequently realizing what He thinks of our thoughts/actions.

 

I never thought of this interpretation but it is certainly possible.

 

I was searching the internet for other people's thoughts about this bible verse and came across a blog post from 2010 https://fiat-themysticalrose.blogspot.com/2010/05/so-that-thoughts-of-many-made-be-laid.html

I will cut and paste the post
I have always been intrigued by Simeon's prophetic word to Mary at Jesus' Presentation in the Temple. Not many people even acknowledge or pay attention to this part of Scripture and yet we know that the Bible is inspired by God. Some of the newer Bibles quote it this way:
"...and you yourself a sword will pierce so that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed." Lk. 2:35
I prefer the older version- "And a sword will pierce your own heart so the thoughts of many may be laid bare." Interesting statement made by Simeon, it never fails to fascinate me. The first part is easy to understand for Mary's heart was pierced by many sorrows. To watch your son being crucified is the ultimate sorrow a mother could bear. Mary lived in the Divine Will and once again, just as she gave her "Fiat" at The Annunciation so we see her do this once again beneath the Cross as she again accepts the will of the Father. The Hearts of Jesus and Mary were united in the Divine Will. It's the second part of the prophecy that I often find myself pondering on - "so that the thoughts of many may be laid bare." In this prophetic word we see the power that God bestows on Mother Mary. Through her sorrow hearts will be laid bare. What powerful words! What an amazing mother and intercessor we have in Mary! She helps lay our hearts bare before the Lord! No wonder so many people have a devotion to her. Me included. She has helped me bare my heart before the Lord through her intercession and continues to do so. Gently and lovingly my spiritual mother is raising me just as she brought up Jesus. I am her child. Jesus gave her to us on the Cross, "Behold your mother." Everything in Scripture is divinely inspired and certainly every word spoken by Jesus on the Cross echoed into eternity. Who could doubt this?
I happen to believe that this prophetic word spoken by Simeon has an even greater significance. Over the years many saints and prophets have spoken about an "enlightenment of conscience" or a "mini-judgment". I believe that this will happen and is a grace obtained by Mary. A fulfillment of the prophetic word, "...so that the thoughts of many may be laid bare."

Just a thought

Posted by Mary N. at 9:20 AM

 

other thoughts about Luke 2: 35
https://catholicism.org/the-sword-revealeth-the-heart.html
The Sword Revealeth the Heart
DEC 22, 2018 BRIAN KELLY



And thy own soul a sword shall pierce, that, out of many hearts, thoughts may be revealed (Luke 2:35).

The four Gospels are not without passages that need explanation. That is why we have an ecclesia docens (a Church teaching). And that is why the Church has given us in the earliest Christian centuries holy doctors to enlighten theirs and all generations to come. Of course the Church has many saints that have been given the title doctor over the centuries (thirty six as of today) but the fourth, fifth, and sixth centuries have been blessed with the most illustrious. Four in the West and four in the East stand out. They are Saints Jerome, Ambrose, Augustine, and Pope Gregory in the West and Saints Athanasius, Gregory Nazianzen, John Chrysostom, and Basil in the East.

If I find a verse, primarily in the Gospels, to be troublesome or too enigmatic for my literal reading, I know where to go to get an answer. First, I go to Cornelius a Lapide, who has the best of all commentaries on the Gospels, and, if I am not satisfied there I go to another scholar’s commentary, Reverend George Leo Haydock’s, whose Douay English translation of the Vulgate is the best in our language.

A Lapide has a good collection of patristic exegesis for the enigmatic verse I introduced above. The actual name of our trusty Jesuit from Flanders was Cornelis van den Steen. (In his time, saddling the sixteenth and seventeenth century, it was not uncommon for scholars to Latinize their names.) As is always the case with a Lapide he begins with commentators whose opinions, although pious, are somewhat stretched and ends with the more acceptable and easily understood interpretations.

And thy own soul a sword shall pierce . . .
Right away we learn that “sword,” in the Arabic text and the Greek can mean lance as well as sword. Hence, when Our Savior was already dead on the Cross, the centurion came and pierced His side with a lance. Who felt the pain of this lance thrust into the Heart of the Son of God but His holy mother Mary? Her soul, which was continually being pierced on Calvary by the mocking blasphemies of the Jews and the pagan executioners, was now, after Jesus had expired, pierced unto death. Only by the Will of God did she not expire then and there. “The sons of men, whose teeth are spears and arrows, and their tongue a sharp sword” (Psalm 56:5).

What is this sword?

A Lapide tells us that Saint Eucherius of Lyons (Hom. in Dominicam), understands the sword of the Spirit to be the word of God, i.e., the spirit of prophecy, To Mary, he says, was revealed the secrets of Holy Scripture and the hidden thoughts of men. Even the hidden thoughts of her divine Son as we see at the wedding of Cana when the Mother with authority told the waiters: “Whatsoever He telleth you, do it.” Perhaps, too, we can apply this to the message of Saint Paul to the Hebrews: “The word of the Lord is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart” (4:12).

A more literal interpretation of “sword” here is with reference to the sufferings inflicted on Christ, that is the sign of contradiction spoken of above; for the contradiction of the tongue is a kind of sword, as in Psalm 56:5, “The sons of men, whose teeth are spears and arrows, and their tongue a sharp sword”; and Psalm 63:4, “Who whetted their tongues like a sword.” This sword, a Lapide notes, is twofold. (1) The sword of the tongue. For the Blessed Virgin, hearing the insults, calumnies, and blasphemies with which Christ was assailed by the Jews, even when He was crucified, suffered intense tortures, just as though a sword had been struck through her soul. (2) The sword of iron – the nails and other torments which not only pierced the body and soul of Christ, but also pierced the soul of the Virgin. ”They humbled his feet in fetters: the iron pierced his soul” (Psalm 104:18). Such is the interpretation of Saint Augustine (Ep. 59, ad Paulinum).

How great was the torture inflicted by this sword we may gather, with Franciscus Toletus, S.J., from the fact that it was her Son who suffered, whom the Mother of God loved more than herself, so that she would far rather have suffered and been crucified herself. For, though the Blessed Virgin stood by Him and suffered with Him, yet did the Mother’s anguish but add a new pang to the Son’s torments, and this grief again had its echo in the Mother’s soul. Knowing His Heart perfectly this too was a sword piercing her Immaculate Heart.
In this vein, a Lapide cites Saint John of Damascus, “The pains she had escaped in childbirth she bore at the time of His Passion, so that she felt her bosom torn asunder by reason of the depth of her maternal love” (de Fide, lib. iv. cap. xv).

And, too, Saint Bernard: “The chosen arrow,” he says, “is the love of Christ, which not only pierced, but pierced through and through, the soul of Mary, so that it left in her virginal breast not the smallest part void of love, but with all her heart, and all her soul, and all her strength, she loved. And truly, again, it penetrated through her to come to us, that of that fullness we might all receive, and she might be the Mother of that Love whose father is the Love of God. . . . And in her whole self did she receive the vast sweet wound of love. Happy shall I think myself if sometimes I may feel pricked with but the very tip of that sword’s point, that my soul too may say, ‘I am wounded with love’.”

end part 1

 

begin part 2
That the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.

This passage is surely difficult to interpret.

A Lapide prefers the explanation of the sixteenth century Jesuit, Toletus: “The sword that shall pierce thy soul, O Virgin, shall be the occasion of revealing the thoughts of many hearts that before lay hidden. For, long before Christ was slain, the leaders of the Jews had the intention of slaying Him, but dared make no attempt against Him, for fear of the people. But then the Jews had already before the Passion made manifest their thoughts about Christ, by caviling at His words and works, although they concealed their desire to slay Him.”

The “that” that begins the passage is expressive both of the purpose and its attainment. It refers back to the preceding verse, “This child is set for the fall and rise of many in Israel and for a sign that shall be contradicted.” Thus, we see it exhibited manifestly in the scribes and pharisees who, like heretics of all times, appeared to be the upholders of justice and truth. Their “thoughts would be revealed” in their murderous designs against the Messiah and His justice, and all the Jews were about to see this antagonism. For, before the advent of Christ, their leaders were in hopes that He would come with pomp, might, and splendor, even as Solomon, and certainly deliver them from the Romans. Too, they hoped to be exalted with Him as His champions. Therefore, when they saw Him in His humility and poverty opposing Himself to their ambition and avarice, and publicly rebuking them for it, they schemed how they might have Him put to death. Let us see with what detail their hateful scheme was prophesied:

He boasteth that he hath the knowledge of God, and calleth himself the son of God. He is become a censurer of our thoughts. He is grievous unto us, even to behold: for his life is not like other men’s, and his ways are very different.We are esteemed by him as triflers, and he abstaineth from our ways as from filthiness, and he preferreth the latter end of the just, and glorieth that he hath God for his father. Let us see then if his words be true, and let us prove what shall happen to him, and we shall know what his end shall be. For if he be the true son of God, he will defend him, and will deliver him from the hands of his enemies. Let us examine him by outrages and tortures, that we may know his meekness and try his patience. Let us condemn him to a most shameful death: for there shall be respect had unto him by his words. These things they thought, and were deceived: for their own malice blinded them. And they knew not the secrets of God, nor hoped for the wages of justice (Wisdom 2: 13-22).

Thus, the thoughts of men were revealed in Israel manifesting who were the just who loved Christ and who were the unjust who hated Him.

But, you may still be wondering, why is the piercing of Our Lady’s soul with this sword or lance the cause of the revelation of the thoughts of men’s hearts?

Perhaps we may think here of Dismas. He was first moved by hearing the King of the Jews forgive His enemies. Prior to that it seems that he also was blaspheming along with his companion in crime: “Let Christ the king of Israel come down now from the cross, that we may see and believe. And they that were crucified with him reviled him” (Mark 15:32).

My own belief is that Dismas was moved also by seeing the grief of Jesus’ mother. There is a tradition that on their flight into Egypt the Holy Family was accosted by robbers and that one of the robbers, seeing Mary, took pity on them and caused the others to leave the Family alone. Tradition is that this was Dismas. (See Abbe Gaume’s book, The Life of the Good Thief, available from our bookstore.) If this be true, he merited the prayers of the Mother of God who remembered him as she stood beneath the Cross. The thoughts of Saint Dismas were then opened to grace and, after his conversion, they were revealed. So it is through the centuries. The thoughts of those who love Mary and those who scorn her or snub her will always be revealed.

What dark thoughts the heretics have in their disregard for the Mother of God! They see her soul pierced with that lance on Calvary and they are unmoved. They will not call her “Blessed.” They will not proclaim her perpetual virginity, her Immaculate Conception, and sinlessness. Their protests of “Lord, Lord” will be of no avail before the Judge. Love of Mary is the sign of contradiction for all who claim to be Christian. He who will not have Mary for his mother cannot have God for his Father.

What did Saint Elizabeth say when she saw Mary at her door for the Visitation? “Blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb. And whence is this to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me?” She first praises the mother and then her Son.

This is the way of God: To Jesus through Mary. It is the way God came to us.

 

HEBREWS 4:12

12 For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.

Mary is not the word of God, but she is the mother of Jesus, who is the Holy Word, and is the wife of the Holy Spirit, who enables us to understand and interpret the holy gospels. She also intercedes day and night for the salvation of her children, who are redeemed through the merits of Christ's sacrifice on Calvary.

 

I think the power of the Holy Spirit is a bit like an echo chamber in all our hearts in differing ways, especially perhaps most of all the most obscure ones.

During the Ukraine Famine between for to seven million people were starved to death by Joe Stalin who basically stole all their food.

At that time many of the intelligentsia and the mass media were Marxists. Stalin arranged a tour of the famine region to prove that the famine was a lie and was not happening. This in much the same was of the massacre of the Armenians or the Jews by the Germans had a huge cover up. But the truth came out and evil of these devils was exposed.

I always took this to be similar to the sufferings of Mary. That the suffering of the innocent is never in vain; that it exposed evil for what it is.

 

I think after Mass today I will pray about this passage. So interesting. Scripture is a treasure trove.

 

The sorrows of her Immaculate Heart have been detailed in modern history. Our Lady told Sr. Lucia,
"Look, my daughter, at my Heart, surrounded with thorns with which ungrateful men pierce me every moment by their blasphemies and ingratitude. You at least try to console me and say that I promise to assist at the hour of death, with the graces necessary for salvation, all those who, on the first Saturday of five consecutive months, shall confess, receive Holy Communion, recite five decades of the Rosary, and keep me company for fifteen minutes while meditating on the fifteen mysteries of the Rosary, with the intention of making reparation to me." Our Lord appeared to Sr. Lucia May 29, 1930. He explained that it was because of five kinds of offenses and blasphemies against the Immaculate Heart of Mary, namely: blasphemies against her Immaculate Conception, against her perpetual virginity, against the divine and spiritual maternity of Mary, blasphemies involving the rejection and dishonoring of her images, and the neglect of implanting in the hearts of children a knowledge and love of this Immaculate Mother. The five offenses against His mother are the reason for the significance of five first Saturdays. This first part of Luke 2: 35 is pretty clear, but I think we have yet to know what the last part means, but it seems like it ties into the triumph of the Immaculate heart of Mary.

 

Everyday, to greater and lesser degrees (and with varying degrees of 'success') I have meditated upon this the first sorrow of Mary; The Prophecy of Simeon.
Like all the sorrows, it is far reaching and encompassing and has messages pertaining modern day life and faith.
Firstly, it speaks of the need / the requirement to adhere to the tenets of the faith. For Mary did not say to herself, 'Well, I have Jesus here, and God knows he's here, so what need do I have to present him in the temple..'. Therefore we too are to follow her in this adherence to the longstanding rituals of the faith.
In addition, it speaks of the family. For Mary faced this the first trial within the family unit. And the subsequent 2nd and 3rd sorrows speak of how the challenges were met within the family unit too.
This first sorrow also speaks of how we are to follow the example of The Virgin in humbly accepting the Will of God.
It speaks of patience. Of humility. Of absolute trust in the wisdom of God and of how he is in control of things, despite appearances.
I could go on but I do not wish to hog the conversation...

 

A wonderful thread, Jesus loves it when we contemplate His Mother's sorrows. There is so much in that prophecy of Simeon not the least of which is that the priests who took the child Jesus in their hands as part of the ritual were oblivious to His nature, but that poor Simeon is the only one with Anne who understood in the Spirit. That in itself must have been part of the sword for Our Lady, that She knew that those who served God in the Temple did not truly love Him. She must have seen this during Her time in the Temple too. Sometimes I think that placing Mary in the Temple was God's last ditch attempt to save it, which makes me contemplate Her big role today in the Church and how many don't pay any attention to Her.

 

Brilliant!
Brilliant!!
Wonderful insight....
I adore hearing fresh takes and new angles on the sorrows of Mary.

 

Please, motherofgod forum members, keep this wonderful thread going!!

 

Your insights are profound. Thank you for sharing. Much food for prayer and meditation.

 

Fr. Ripperger talks about how meditating on Mary's sorrows is the remedy for finding our hidden faults and uprooting them. That Mary has a special ability, through the merits of her sorrows, to reveal to us things about our own hearts--in particular, what the obstacles are that are holding us back from conversion or getting closer to God.

We are told that Mary "pondered all these things in her heart." I know that in my most painful experiences in life, such as multiple miscarriages, the depth of prayer and introspection reached while trying to submit my will to God's was much deeper than at any other times in my life. But of course, Mary's suffering was far worse than any of ours, because she was so pure and innocent, and so perfectly united to Christ. It was His suffering that she felt, in a human heart so sensitive in its innocence that I'm sure God had to sustain her or else she couldn't have borne it. So, if you measure the depths she must have reached in her pondering--in her heart that was united to Christ's in such a way that she was pondering Christ's heart simultaneously--you will see that no one but Christ Himself would have the capability she has of seeing to the depths of a person's heart. No one will ever understand you the way Mary does. So once you put yourself in her hands, she knows exactly what you need and can reveal to you everything you need to know about yourself to obtain holiness. She merited this specifically through her sorrows.

 

Very profound
Good reason to consecrate ourselves to Her
Immaculate Heart, if we haven’t done so already.

 

Great post, Purple Flower! The Blessed Mother really does lead us to knowledge of ourselves and what to change about ourselves. There is that whole section in the Saint Louis de Monfort consecration to Jesus through Mary where our prayers are directed to knowledge about ourselves to be able to grow in holiness and root out sin. If the warning does happen, I think it will be especially important for us to be able to articulate with scripture the passages that support Mary's perpetual Virginity, her spiritual motherhood, and her essential role in crushing the serpent head. I may post some of Dr. Mark Miravalle's videos regarding those topics. Also, about a month ago, I felt like I should sort out all the Catholic prayer cards and devotion pamphlets that I have saved over the years. I literally have 3-4 paper grocery bags full of Catholic devotional prayers, medals, prayer cards, etc. I have saved them to give out during the great evangelization. Does anyone else feel a similar prompting?

 

Yes I have been collecting as well.

 

It is wonderful how the Holy Spirit has given such varied and deep understanding of Scripture in this through the Holy Rosary. I must admit at some of the Mysteries I feel a little like a shopper looking through the window of a department store with no money to go in. Just to stand looking and never to get to buy into anything. THis would be one of those mysteries.

But it at least it informs me of the possiblities of buying in at some future date, perhaps.

I suppose that, maybe, those who stand and stare with their mouths wide open might also be folks who serve.

 

I feel that way as well.