Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit descended on the Church in
tongues of fire. And the probability is that Simon had, in a similar
way, come from his distant home to the Passover.[4]

He had come on pilgrimage. Perhaps he was a devout soul, waiting for
the consolation of Israel. In far Cyrene he may have been praying for
the coming of the Messiah and, before setting out on this journey,
pleading for a season of unusual blessing. God had heard and was going
to answer his prayers, but in a way totally different from his
expectations.

For apparently this _rencontre_ issued in his salvation and in the
salvation of his house. The Evangelist calls him familiarly "the
father of Alexander and Rufus." Evidently the two sons were well known
to those for whom St. Mark was writing; that is, they were members of
the Christian circle. And there can be little doubt that the
connection of his family with the Church was the result of this
incident in the father's life. St. Mark wrote his Gospel for the
Christians of Rome; and in the Epistle to the Romans one Rufus is
mentioned as resident there along with his mother. This may be one of
the sons of Simon. And in Acts xiii. 1 one Simeon--the same name as
Simon--is mentioned along with a Lucius of Cyrene as a conspicuous
Christian at Antioch: he is called Niger, or Black, a name not
surprising for one who had been tanned by the hot sun of Africa. There
are Alexanders mentioned elsewhere in the New Testament; but the name
was common, and there is not much probability that any of them is to be
identified with Simon's son. Still putting the details aside, we have
sufficiently clear indications that in consequence of this incident
Simon became a Christian.

Is it not a significant fact, proving that nothing happens by chance?
Had Simon entered the city one hour sooner, or one hour later, his
after history might have been entirely different. On the smallest
circumstances the greatest results may hinge. A chance meeting may
determine the weal or woe of a life. Doubtless to Simon this encounter
seemed at the moment the most unfortunate incident that could have
befallen him--an interruption, an annoyance and a humiliation; yet it
turned out to be the gateway of life. Thus do blessings sometimes come
in disguise, and out of an apparition, at the sight of which we cry out
for fear, may suddenly issue the form of the Son of Man. But it was
not Simon's own salvation only that was in