Read Reflect Respond

Sundays | Feast Days |  Videos | Latest 

2nd February 

Solemnity of Presentation of the Lord

READ:  (Mal 3: 1-4; Heb 2: 14-18 Lk 2: 22-40)

REFLECT: Present your life, make it a present and consecrate it for God’s service and God’s people…

Dear friends, today we celebrate the feast of the Presentation of the Lord. The feast reminds us of Mary and Joseph bringing Jesus to the temple as a custom to offer Jesus to God and Mother Mary’s Purification. The feast signifies the appearance of Jesus for the first time in the temple more than the purification of Mother Mary. We observe this feast honouring Jesus Christ’s presentation in the temple as a child. The feast occurs forty days after the birth of Jesus. The feast of the Presentation of the Lord is also called Candlemas. On this day the candles are blessed and with a lighted candle the consecrated men and women move in procession to the church as a sign of reflecting the light of Christ. The lighted candles symbolize Christ, the true Light who came to light up all peoples.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church (no. 529) teaches the significance of the presentation of Jesus in the following manner; “The presentation of Jesus in the temple shows him to be the firstborn Son who belongs to the Lord. With Simeon and Anna, all Israel awaits its encounter with the Savior-the name given to this event in the Byzantine tradition. Jesus is recognized as the long-expected Messiah, the “light to the nations” and the “glory of Israel,” but also “a sign that is spoken against.” The sword of sorrow predicted for Mary announces Christ’s perfect and unique oblation on the cross that will impart the salvation God had “prepared in the presence of all peoples.”

Further, the feast of presentation of the Lord is as well observed as the world Day of Consecrated life. It was Pope Saint John Paul II, who instituted a day for women and men in consecrated life in 1997. This global celebration is attached to the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord on 2nd of February every year. Pope Francis while speaking about the vision of religious life opens up that the vision of Religious life is seeing what really matters in life.  It means welcoming the Lord’s gift with open arms, as Simeon did.  This is what the eyes of consecrated men and women behold: the grace of God poured into their hands.  The consecrated person every day looks at himself or herself and says: “Everything is gift, all is grace”.  So Pope Francis says very gently that we did not deserve religious life; it is a gift of love that we have received. So we shall offer special prayers for consecrated men and women to set apart themselves for God and his people.

So based on the feast day of the presentation of the Lord, the observation of the World Day of Consecrated Life and the liturgy of the word, I would like to share with you three points of reflection;

1. Present your life to God:

Presenting one’s life to God would mean that we give our life into the hands of God as we are created and as we supposed to live. By presenting oneself or one’s life to God as we are and as given, we accept life as it is given and as it flows with weaknesses and strengths, defeats and victories, good and bad alike. We all of us Christians present ourselves to the Lord at the time of Baptism by becoming the children of God and members of the Holy Catholic Church. We are also given every opportunity during the Holy Eucharist to present ourselves as we are so that God could make us what we can be and how we supposed to be as God’s children.

Today’s feast day recalls the act of Mary and Joseph, Jesus, who presented their life as it was given to them. They didn’t boast that they were chosen by God to be parents of Jesus, the Son of God; they didn’t to use name of Jesus to seek the attention of people in the temple or to bypass the laws of purification as per the custom of the Jewish society. They just presented themselves as ordinary people with ordinary human life without any expectation and exaggeration. Moreover, though the words of Simeon might have caused pain to Joseph and Mary when he said, “the child is destined to be the cause of fall and rise of many in Israel and behold a sword will pierce your own soul too,” yet they presented their life as it flows without any hustle and bustle, because they presented life as given by God.

Perhaps it was indeed a marvel and wonder to the Blessed Virgin and St. Joseph not because they did not know who Christ was or his mission and destiny but rather they were wonderstruck in ways and means that God was disclosing himself in the events that occurred in the life of Joseph, Mary and Jesus. Most of us try to live an artificial or superficial life, forgetting that we are created as human beings, who have our own unique and special identity, weakness and strengths. When we try to be artificial in words and deeds, the flow of life become unnatural, it does not correspond to the life that we live.  On the presentation of the feast of the Lord, we need to present ourselves as we are created and called by God to be his children in life. The feast reminds us that we need to go on a pilgrimage of thanksgiving, to give thanks to God for all the blessings we received rather than cursing life or finding fault with one’s own life or others life. So let us present our life as it flows and become the children of God by his grace and providence.  

2. Make your life as a present to God:

Here, we don’t just offer life as it is given but we make it a gift to God and to one another. Most of us are bogged down by anxieties and worries of self and situations that happen in and around us. We consider life as a burden rather than a bed so soft and smooth. As someone very beautifully said, our life is a gift from God and what we give to God from our life is a gift to God. Yes, we need to make life as a present and gift to God. Just as we share presents and gifts to people on various occasions, we need to present or gift our lives to God as gift. Because, there is nothing as precious as the life we received and nothing more special and precious can be given as a gift to God more than the life we received.

Just as we care so much about the gift we give to the other or the gift that we receive from other, so also we need to value life as a gift with good values and virtues that can make life presentable to God and as a present to God. 

In today’s gospel we see that parents of Jesus offer him to God as a precious gift. Indeed Jesus was a precious gift to the Holy Family and to entire human race, because Jesus came down from heaven to make us all precious and special in the sight of God. Jesus was precious and holy child of God, because Simeon and Anna gave thanks to God, blessed and said “for my eyes have seen your salvation that you have prepared for all peoples, a light for the revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel.”

Yes, Jesus the precious, holy and blessed child has come as a light for all to see, believe and follow, so that we all become part of God’s salvific event that God has inaugurated in Jesus Christ. Just as Jesus was offered as a gift to God, so also we need to offer our lives as a gift to God. So let us not consider life as a burden rather consider life as gift, protect it and proceed with the plan of God to make it beautiful and pleasant for one another.

3. Make your life Consecrated for God:

Making life consecrated for God would mean that we set apart everything for God’s work. We are made holy by God’s grace and the grace of God in us gives the rise to make others as well holy. It is a life of purity, purifying oneself to be holy and blameless before God and before one another. The entire reading of the day gives us a glimpse of purification or consecration that we are called to make. The first reading from prophet Malachi gives us a message that the Lord would enter the temple, purify the sons of Levi just as gold and silver is refined, and make their offering in righteousness. The reasons for such purification at the time of Prophet Malachi were because people began to doubt God’s love (1:2-5); priests offered blemished sacrifices and set bad examples (1:6-2:4); Israelites engaged in marriage to foreigners (2:14-16), Social injustice was widespread (3:5); they neglected their support of the Temple (3:6-12). So purification from all these were required, so that they can offer worthy sacrifices and live lives in holiness and righteousness.

The second reading from St. Paul’s letter to Hebrews that Jesus as the priest forever purified or consecrated the entire humanity by the pure sacrifice and fuller sacrifice he made for our salvation, a sacrifice ever pleasing to God. Moreover, the Gospel reading of the day presents to us that Joseph, Mary and Jesus entered the temple of God for the purification of Mother Mary and the redemption of child Jesus. However, we know that Mother Mary needed no purification because she was enveloped by God’s grace to bring forth the savior to humankind. Jesus needed no purification or redemption because he was, is and will be pure for all times as Son of God and Jesus came to redeem us all. Yet, this offering of Jesus and purification of Mary was done in order to fulfil the Jewish custom of the society.

In the book of Leviticus 12:2-8, we hear that a woman who gave birth to a child was unclean for forty days for the birth of a male child or eighty days for the birth of a female child. When the days of purification are completed, she will bring the child to the priest in the temple and do the necessary offering prescribed like offering a lamb or tow turtledoves or tow young pigeons. But although it was not needed yet Mother Mary submits herself to the Law and fulfils the law and obeys norms as prescribed in the Old Testament.

In the book of Exodus 13:2, 12-13, we see that every first-born male belongs to God and is set apart for the Lord. So they take child Jesus to the temple to consecrate Jesus and offer him to God’s service, as he belongs to God.  It is also mentioned in the book of Numbers 18: 15-16 that since every Jewish firstborn male child belonged to Yahweh, the parents had to redeem the child by offering a lamb or turtle doves as a sacrifice in the Temple. The price to buy back the child is five pieces of silver.

But we know that Jesus never needed any redeeming because he totally belonged to the Lord, he came to redeem us but every custom and laws were fulfilled by Joseph, Mary and Jesus as an act of obedience to God.  This is the total consecration, offering everything into God’s hands to be holy and dedicated in serving God. We also see in the gospel, both Simeon and Anna, who were advanced in age, devout, inspired by the Holy Spirit, waiting eagerly for the coming of messiah. They both praised and blessed God for Child Jesus and gave thanks to God. Their blessing and thanksgiving, their joy on seeing the child take place by the presence, revelation and inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Both of them were blessed and consecrated to bless and pronounce the words of blessings to Jesus by the power and presence of the Holy Spirit. Similarly, to bless and pronounce words of blessings to others we need to allow the Holy Spirit to work in us, take control of us and be prepared to listen to the promptings of the Holy Spirit.

That’s why Pope Francis very beautifully shares the three actions of Simeon at the presentation of Jesus in the temple. Simeon moved by the spirit, sees the child and takes Jesus in his arms. The movement of the spirit in us is the power of discernment and interior movement of the Spirit; seeing Jesus is recognizing that in Jesus we have our salvation; taking Jesus in arms imply that we embrace Jesus the essential and the very heart of faith.” 

Yes, today we the consecrated people need to realize and remind that we are set apart for God’s work and his glory and not our own works and glory. We the consecrated people need to remind ourselves that if we had no power from above within us we would have no power, no privilege here below on earth. Today we consecrated people face many hurdles, suffering, temptations in various form in the communities, societies and the world, but we need to realize our consecration is in God, draw help and nourishment from God for a consecrated and blessed way of life.

Today, as we celebrate as well the day of consecrated life of religious in the world, let us once again consecrate our religious vision and mission, identity and dignity, demands and duties, privileges and priorities to be consecrated for God and for his work. So let us allow the movement of the spirit for our discernment; let us recognize that in Jesus we have our salvation; let us embrace Jesus more than the world and its desires. Let us pray that we commit and dedicate ourselves for the gift of consecrated life that we have received from God.

RESPOND:

Do we present our life as we are with weaknesses and strengths, accepting ourselves as God’s children?

Do we present our life as a gift to God and a gift to one another in service of love?

Do we consecrate our life wholly for the glory of God and for the spread of his kingdom?

Let us present ourselves as children of God, make life a present to God and consecrate our lives in holiness and goodness for the glory of God and for the spread of His Kingdom. Amen.

Wish you all a very Happy Feast of the Presentation of the Lord. 

God bless us all. Live Jesus! 

Fr. Ramesh George MSFS