Feast of the Presentation of the Lord Luke 2, 22-40 Today we celebrate a feast which what we usually hear when praying the rosary. More specifically the Fourth Joyful Mystery. The Presentation of the Lord. This feast occurs forty days after the birth of Jesus, which makes this feast still very much part of Christmas. In some other church traditions, today is also known as the feast of the Purification of Mary. For the Jews, any activity that leads one’s blood to come out of one’s body, she is considered for that time “impure” so for women after birth, one must ritually purify themselves before they can resume regular activities in the society and one of it is going inside the temple to offer sacrifice. For today’s gospel, let me give you two points. First is the act of presenting Jesus in the temple and its significance to our daily lives and second is about two holy people Simeon and Anna waiting for the coming of the Lord and how they were not disappointed of waiting for that day. In the Jewish religion, every first born is supposed to be offered to God. So the parents, if they want to claim back their child, they are supposed to offer an animal sacrifice to God to be able to claim back their child. In this case because Mary and Joseph are not that rich, they can only manage to offer two pigeons to be able to get back Jesus. The presentation of Jesus to the temple is very significant for us for two reasons. First is that even if Jesus is the Son of God, he is not exempted from the Law of Moses. He still has to undergo everything that the Law provides, from his circumcision eight days after Jesus’ birth and his presentation forty days after Jesus’ birth. Second is that his role in our salvation is like the Presentation. While we knew that Jesus sacrificed his life for our salvation, we must also make a “presentation” in order to fully gain our salvation. Although, our offering would always be incomplete because of our sinful nature, but it will be completed by Jesus himself. But for this to happen, we have to make this offering nonetheless. The second point of today’s gospel is about two holy persons Simeon and Anna. Just imagine that you are Simeon or Anna, who have been promised by the Holy Spirit that you would not die until the day that you have seen the Christ with your own eyes. I guess that you would be very excited and can’t wait for that day. So everyday, you would go to the temple in anticipation of this day that you would finally see the Christ. The trouble is that this happened about forty years ago. And until now you are still waiting for that day. Simeon and Anna throughout their lives never got tired of waiting and anticipating. Everyday, they would go to the temple, to pray and worship the Lord and most probably to remind the Holy Spirit of his promise. And finally that day arrived most probably on a day that they least expected. They have finally seen the Lord after so many years. The promise of the Holy Spirit came true. God has never abandoned them and has rewarded them of their perseverance. For us in our lives, are we excited for the coming of the Lord? We know that the Lord will come one day. Do we continue to persevere in maintaining holy lives so that when the Lord arrives he would find us worthy of his kingdom? The feast of the Lord’s Presentation is another manifestation of God’s love. He loved us so much that he is willing to do everything to fulfil the Law even if he doesn’t have to. The Holy Spirit also manifested himself through Simeon and Anna by fulfilling his promise to them. And with this the Holy Spirit is also promising to us that if we’re faithful and persevering in our faith, our time will come when we can also see Jesus face to face. Hopefully, we are like Simeon and Anna, persevering and faithful to the end. Fr. Elmer I. Ibarra, SVD Wellington, New Zealand
Posted on: Sat, 01 Feb 2014 04:17:43 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015