February 2^nd 2020. The Presentation of Our Lord

GOSPEL: Luke 2, 22-40

Translated from a homily by Don Fabio Rosini broadcast on Vatican Radio

Please check us out of Facebook

Don Fabio’s homily follows the Gospel

GOSPEL: Luke 2, 22-40

When the days were completed for their purification according to the law of Moses,
Mary and Joseph took Jesus up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord,
just as it is written in the law of the Lord,
Every male that opens the womb shall be consecrated to the Lord,
and to offer the sacrifice of a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons,
in accordance with the dictate in the law of the Lord.

Now there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon.
This man was righteous and devout, awaiting the consolation of Israel,
and the Holy Spirit was upon him.
It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he should not see death
before he had seen the Christ of the Lord. He came in the Spirit into the temple;
and when the parents brought in the child Jesus to perform the custom of the law in regard to him, he took him into his arms and blessed God, saying:

“Now, Master, you may let your servant go in peace, according to your word,
for my eyes have seen your salvation, which you prepared in the sight of all the peoples:
a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and glory for your people Israel.”

The child’s father and mother were amazed at what was said about him;
and Simeon blessed them and said to Mary 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.”
There was also a prophetess, Anna, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher.
She was advanced in years, having lived seven years with her husband after her marriage,
and then as a widow until she was eighty-four.
She never left the temple, but worshiped night and day with fasting and prayer.
And coming forward at that very time, she gave thanks to God and spoke about the child
to all who were awaiting the redemption of Jerusalem. When they had fulfilled all the prescriptions of the law of the Lord,
they returned to Galilee, to their own town of Nazareth.
The child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom; and the favour of God was upon him.

The Gospel of the Lord: Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ

Kieran’s summary . . . Why does the Gospel passage for this feast of the Presentation contain joyful elements as well as elements of foreboding, such as the sword that pierces the soul? According to the Jewish custom, the mother had to be “purified” by offering her first-born son to the Lord. But why was this purification needed? Isn’t it good and natural to be a mother? The origin of this purification is to be found in the story of Abraham. He was asked by the Lord to sacrifice his first-born son. This was a way for Abraham to learn to abandon himself in trust to the Lord. Through this trial, Abraham becomes the kind of father than God wants him to be. The “purification” that Mary and Joseph were asked to do was to offer their son to the Lord, to acknowledge that everything we have belongs to the Lord before it belongs to us. All of us need this purification! The term “purify” means to pass through fire and become a simple, undefiled nature. “Pure water” means water and nothing else. All of us are asked to allow the sword to enter our soul so that what is not God is cut away from what is of God. Our intellects, our hearts, our actions must be purified by this sword, so that we become pure and what is not of God within us is eliminated.

The Gospel passage contains joy and foreboding. Why is that? Because the joy of being parents of a firstborn son also carries with it the responsibility of offering that child to God. What we produce belongs to God, not to us! We all need to go through the process of being strengthened by fire.

This Sunday coincides with the feast of the Presentation of the Lord in the Temple. The Gospel passage that tells this event plays on two contrasting emotions: on the one hand the joy of Simeon and Anna who speak of consolation, redemption and glory; on the other hand there is the announcement of a path of contradiction and a sword that will pierce the soul. What is the reason for these different tones in the same story? Maybe, this becomes clearer if we focus on the reason for the "presentation" at the temple. The first verse of the Gospel refers to "purification”. The young couple were required to offer a pair of turtle doves for the "redemption of the firstborn". Jesus is the firstborn and Mary is required to go through a process of “purification” or sacrifice in order to fully embrace the grace of motherhood. Together with Joseph, she must "pay" the ransom of the son; in other words, they must remember that the son is not theirs; before everything else he belongs to God.

The word “purify” comes from the Greek word for “fire”. It is not so much about moral cleansing as about passing something through fire so that it has a single nature without being mixed with other natures. “Pure water” means that there is nothing here only water. “Pure gold” means that there are no foreign substances mixed with the gold.

The purification and offering of the firstborn are part of the process of consecration: it is no coincidence that the Church considers this to be the feast of the celebration of the gift of consecrated life. Such consecration is an objective manifestation of Baptism in which we are all consecrated as a gift of God and to God. But what is more natural than motherhood? Why was a new mother required to complete an act of purification? What could be healthier and more beautiful than becoming fathers and mothers? The term “purify” was not so much an act of moral significance as an act by which something was made into a single undefiled nature, often by passing through fire. For example, pure gold or pure water means only gold or only water, nothing else.

We all need purification if we are to be good parents, good adults, good Christians. Even Abraham had to be purified by a difficult trial so that he would abandon himself even more into the arms of God. We all need the sword to enter our should to distinguish what is of God from what is not of God

Do our hearts need to be purified? What about our intellects? And our attitudes? Is it possible that we might be living our motherhood, our fatherhood, our femininity, our masculinity in an ambiguous way? Yes, it is very possible! Self-referential attitudes (attitudes that focus on me to the detriment of everything else) are all too common for most of us. These attitudes do not respect the real truth regarding my existence, the responsibility of my role, the meaning and value of material objects. Then we begin to understand why the father of faith, Abraham, had to undergo a trial of purification so that he would become a father in the way that God wanted him to be. The Lord challenged him to put the life of his beloved first-born son, Isaac, at the complete disposal of the will of God. In fact, it is precisely that event which is recalled when pious Israelites were required to present their first-born to God in the temple. We all need purification, every one of us, at all times! It is a constant process that involves a sword that pierces us inside and distinguishes what is of God from what is not of him. It is essential that we go through this continuous process of cleaning up our intellects and our actions. Each one of us has various “firstborns” in need of redemption. From what? From the greed and self-absorption in our hearts.