If we want to be blunt about it, Simeon and Anna are essentially two old geezers who hang around the temple all the time. Simeon has visions now and then, and Anna is always prophesying. We can only imagine what the nice polite temple-goers think about all that. My bet is, because they’re old and a tad odd, they are not always taken seriously
Have you ever had a moment where your mind was a bit muddled or you were trying hard to actually come up with something nebulous that has been teasing your brain for a while?
In the straw of our mean-spirited self-aggrandizement and -justification, in the shadowy barn of our hunger for power and esteem is this precious bit of God.
So here we have two elders of the faith coming together to welcome the baby Jesus and his parents. Simeon, expressing a private joy and a dire prediction, and Anna calling out to all who would hear about this child and the redemption of Jerusalem.