And He Shall Purify by Anthony Esolen

ILLUMINATIONS

And He Shall Purify

The devoutly Christian and once-popular novelist Taylor Caldwell, in A Pillar of Iron, her historical novel on the life of Cicero, imagined that the great orator's Semitic friend, the famous actor Roscius, left Rome and his riches to return to Palestine, to live an ascetic life and to wait for the long-expected Messiah. He took the name of Simeon, she says. That name echoes the Hebrew word for hearing.

Saint Luke tells us that the old man Simeon was "waiting for the consolation of Israel," and was filled with the Holy Spirit. He prayed that God would not dismiss him from the world until he should see with his own eyes the salvation prepared for all the peoples, a light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of Israel. Did he expect that it would be a grown man, coming to the Temple to worship? Someone who would engage him in conversation? A teacher whose words he could treasure?

THIS ARTICLE ONLY AVAILABLE TO SUBSCRIBERS.
FOR QUICK ACCESS:


Anthony Esolen is Distinguished Professor of Humanities at Thales College and the author of over 30 books, including Real Music: A Guide to the Timeless Hymns of the Church (Tan, with a CD), Out of the Ashes: Rebuilding American Culture (Regnery), and The Hundredfold: Songs for the Lord (Ignatius). He has also translated Dante’s Divine Comedy (Random House) and, with his wife Debra, publishes the web magazine Word and Song (anthonyesolen.substack.com). He is a senior editor of Touchstone.

Print &
Online Subscription

Get six issues (one year) of Touchstone PLUS full online access including pdf downloads for only $39.95. That's only $3.34 per month!

Online
Subscription

Get a one-year full-access subscription to the Touchstone online archives for only $19.95. That's only $1.66 per month!

bulk subscriptions

Order Touchstone subscriptions in bulk and save $10 per sub! Each subscription includes 6 issues of Touchstone plus full online access to touchstonemag.com—including archives, videos, and pdf downloads of recent issues for only $29.95 each! Great for churches or study groups.

Transactions will be processed on a secure server.


more from the online archives

33.2—March/April 2020

How It Happens

Easy Descent on an Unguarded Road by S. M. Hutchens

28.5—Sept/Oct 2015

Cambodia's Anti-Exodus

Remembering Angka & the Idolatry of the Khmer Rouge 40 Years Later by Les Sillars

8.4—Fall 1995

The Demise of Biblical Preaching

Distortions of the Gospel and its Recovery by Donald G. Bloesch

calling all readers

Please Donate

"There are magazines worth reading but few worth saving . . . Touchstone is just such a magazine."
—Alice von Hildebrand

"Here we do not concede one square millimeter of territory to falsehood, folly, contemporary sentimentality, or fashion. We speak the truth, and let God be our judge. . . . Touchstone is the one committedly Christian conservative journal."
—Anthony Esolen, Touchstone senior editor

Support Touchstone

00