The Feast of the Presentation of the Lord
The Feast of the Presentation of the Lord - the feast of Love that gives itself to the end, that offers God who is firstborn, what is first in the heart, what is most dear, what is most beloved - it is a holiday that already announces the highest Sacrifice of Love, the fest of Crucified Love. But have you not been struck by the fact that the first verses of today's Gospel of St. Luke, strongly and repeatedly pays attention to fidelity to the provisions of the law? This is strange, because Luke, brought up in Greek culture, did not have much knowledge of the Law of the Old Testament. But what he was most interested in was not the letter of the Law, but the theology of the Law, the spiritual meaning of the Law. St. Luke emphasizes that Mary and Joseph were faithful to the Lord's Law. They did what was required after the birth of their firstborn son with attentiveness, out of love for God. These were two old laws. One was for the mother and the other was for the newborn baby.
The first law is explained to us by Leviticus. After giving birth to a boy, a woman is to remain unclean for seven days, i.e., excluded from liturgical activities. On the eighth day the child was circumcised, but then the woman remained at home for thirty-three days to cleanse the blood. After forty days, she offered a double sacrifice: a lamb for a burnt offering, and a young pigeon or turtledove for sin. But if the woman was poor, she could sacrifice two turtledoves or two young pigeons. St. Luke explains that Mary and Joseph made a sacrifice of the poor to show that Jesus was born into a family of simple, humble people. He came to us through the poor.
Second law. For the firstborn son, who was God's property under the Mosaic Law, a gift of five shekels was required, to be paid to the priest anywhere. And it was in eternal remembrance of the fact that God saved the firstborn of the Jewish people when he left Egypt. It should be noted that for these two acts, the cleansing of the mother and the redemption of the son, it was not necessary to go to the temple, while Mary and Joseph wanted to do everything in Jerusalem. We know how Luke in his Gospel emphasizes this theological place of Jerusalem.
It is amazing this obeying to the Law. Mary did not need purification after giving birth to Jesus. From our perspective, the one of God, the conception and birth of Jesus were absolutely the work of the Holy Spirit. The Nativity of Jesus cleanses the world! He does not need redemption either. He is not returned to His parents. He is personally dedicated to God in the temple, which is his sole property. That is why Luke does not say anything about Jesus' act of redemption but will write that He has been "presented", offered (can be translated) to God.
Yet Mary and Joseph obey the Law. And thanks to their obedience, God's promises begin to come true. The Law is not at the center. At the center is the Person of Jesus. Every letter of the law leads to him. If the letter of the Law did not lead to Him, no one would need such letter. Such letter kills. A letter that would not lead to a living encounter with God does not have any sense in it. He is the filler of every letter in God's law. Therefore St. Luke, even though talks so much about the law at the beginning, he points us - if we listen to the Gospel properly - on the person of Jesus. He is the center! It is He who enters the temple! So humble that he lets himself be carried by poor, simple people. He is fragile, tiny, and yet the Savior of the world! Clean, poor, obedient - Mary and Joseph - obey the Law, but it is precisely through the prescriptions of the Law that the event that takes place becomes another event. God gives it a new meaning. They obey the Law, and God makes that obedience a place of blessing and reveals a deeper meaning to what they obey. They presented Jesus in the temple of God. Or rather, it is he, the Son, who presents himself to the Father through the hands of the poor; he offers himself to the Father, to whom he belongs completely, who sent him.
There is a hidden motive in this act of the already announced sacrifice of the One Priest. The little Jesus, carried on the hands of Mary and Joseph, is immediately presented in the temple, he is the same Jesus who, when he grows up, will cleanse the temple, and he himself will become the Victim and High Priest of the New Covenant. He cleanses our temple. We allowed Him to consecrate us and from then on, He cleanses this place day after day, which is to be His temple, which is our heart. The one who formed Mary's virgin heart, consecrated her to himself, allowed her to be born and brought to the world through a consecrated heart. St. Augustine wrote: "Christ the Truth is in Mary's heart. Christ the Body is in her womb. To be in the heart means more than being in the womb”.
This is the very essence of our life, the consecrated life, (today the Catholic Church celebrates the World Day of Consecrated Life, established by Pope John Paul II in 1997), the life of every priest who has received the sacrament of Holy Orders. But all of us need to show Jesus to the world, more with our heart than with our body, whatever that means; more internally than externally, more spiritually than materially. To make Him present through a clean, poor and obedient life, like Mary and Joseph. Obedience to the law, faithfulness to the regulations, did not make them closed in the letter of the law, but open to God and the world. For their obedience was not based on the letter of law but on love. In this way, through obedience, God's love can be revealed in the world.
St. Luke reminds us that the love that occupies and penetrates Mary's heart is the Crucified Love. Simeon prophesied about the Child and his mother: " Behold, this child is destined for the fall and rise of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be contradicted -and you yourself a sword will pierce- so that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed” (Lk 2: 34-35). The salvation that Jesus brings to his people, which he personifies, passes through the Cross, through violent death, through the total sacrifice of himself. And so, he overcomes the world. He transforms the world with the sacrifice of his life. We are no different if we are to be truly with Jesus. Otherwise, we will not change this world, just the way He showed. This offering is announced in the act of the presentation in the temple. We too were presented to God in the temple.
The Spirit we read about in today's Gospel hovered over us, as he hovered over the whole event of Jesus' sacrifice, as he hovered over Simeon and over Anna. It is floating above us and now in this moment. We believe it. He is in us and among us. It is the Paraclete, the Spirit that protects, defends us; The Paraclete who comforts and moves our hearts, as he moved the hearts of Simeon and Anna. The Spirit who prompted Simeon and Anna to say prophetic words, words of blessing, of praise to God. That Spirit that put them in their place when God came. This Spirit prompts us to take Jesus into our arms once more, to embrace Him with our heart and our lives, because He is our salvation.
Until Tomorrow
fr. george