The Presentation of the Lord

The Presentation of the Lord in the Temple

         So how many of you still have your Christmas decorations and trees up? I ask that because like the Season of Easter is celebrated for 40 days after the Resurrection to the Ascension, earlier in Church history, Christmas and the Christmas season was celebrated for 40 days ... from the Birth of our Lord to His Presentation in the Temple ... the Feast of light we celebrate today.

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Entrance Antiphon: Ps 48(47):10-11 — “Your merciful love, O God, we have received in the midst of Your temple. Your praise, O God, like Your name, reaches the ends of the earth; Your right hand is filled with saving justice.”

First Reading:  Mal 3:1-4 — “There will come to the temple the Lord whom you seek.”

Responsorial Psalm: Ps 24:7, 8, 9, 10 — “Who is the king of glory? It is the Lord!”

Second Reading: Heb 2:14-18 — “He had to become like His brothers and sisters in every way.”

Alleluia: Lk 2:32 — “Alleluia, alleluia. A light of revelation to the Gentiles, and glory for your people Israel. Alleluia, alleluia.”

Gospel: Lk 2:22-40— “My eyes have seen Your salvation.”

Communion Antiphon: Lk 2:30-31 — “My eyes have seen Your salvation, which you have prepared in the sight of all the peoples.”

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         In today’s Gospel, Mary and Joseph are submitting to the Law of Moses. It was the Jewish belief that when a woman gave birth, she was unclean and in need of ritual purification.  When giving birth to a son, the Jewish woman would be in seclusion for the first forty days. At the end of that period, the mother would offer her first-born son to the Lord and be purified.

         Even though we believe that Mary did not need such purification, the beauty of the ritual and the words of Simeon reveal that Jesus is the Christ – the Light of the World. As we just heard from Simeon when he was holding the baby Jesus in the Gospel, Jesus is a light for revelation to the Gentiles.

         Light illuminates our dark hours. For millennia, it has symbolized the triumph of good over evil – the light of Christ. This is why candles are so prevalent in Christianity – they remind us that we belong to Christ, the light of the world ... and the reason  that candles are blessed today

         The First Reading from the book of Malachi, the last book of the Old Testament prophets, also speaks to the theme of light. It contains a prophecy about the coming of the Messiah. This prophet uses the words the refiner’s fire and the fuller’s lye. Fire refines and purifies gold as well as silver. Lye, combined with sunlight, bleaches cloth until it is immaculately white. Through Jesus, God is the light seeking to transform us into our very best selves. Through him we can have as much faith as Abraham and Sarah. This light will purify our motives and enable us to act in charity toward others.

         The reading from Hebrews gives more details about the coming of the light of Christ. In sharing our flesh and blood, the Son of God would destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil. As the light of the world, he liberates us by being the priest and victim who takes away the sins of the world.

Today’s readings clearly invite us to open our hearts more fully to Christ’s light and love. When we do this, Jesus can continue to change and transform us so that we can share his light and love more fully with others, and in so doing, we help build up his kingdom of love and peace in the world.