Feast of the Presentation of the Lord, Year A, 2nd February, 2020

May we, through the celebration of the Eucharist today, be irradiated by Christ the Light of the word and thereby, become lights in our families, communities and societies.

Happy Sunday!

PRESENTATION OF THE LORD

Malachi 3,1-4; Hebrew 2, 14-18; Luke 2,22-40; Feast of the Presentation of the Lord, Year A, 2nd February, 2020)

In this Sunday we celebrate the feast of the Presentation of the Lord, a very significant feast. There are three features of this celebration: feast of offering, light and encounter. It is called the feast of offering, because Jesus who is presented at the temple is offered for the service of God. The law of Moses prescribed: Every first-born male will be sacred to the Lord (Exodus 13,2.12), that is, he will be consecrated to God. Therefore, Jesus is brought by Mary and Joseph to the temple in Jerusalem to be offered to the Father, to be put at the service of the Father for our salvation. The gospel also speaks of purification. Reference is made to another law of Moses, that which concerns the purification of the mother a;fter childbirth (cf. Leviticus 12,1-8). In this case, it is not a matter of sin, but of a physical fact: childbirth was considered an event, that in a certain sense, detracted from the integrity of the woman, and, therefore, required a purification. This was also required in other circumstances where blood was shed. Luke's Gospel does not insist on this point of purification, but rather on the observance of the Law of Moses. There is talk about purification according to the Law of Moses; the presentation of the child as written in the Law of Moses; and reference to Mary and Joseph who bring the child to fulfill the Law.

The second reading, taken from the Letter to the Hebrews, states that Jesus had to make himself similar in all things to his brothers, to become a merciful high priest and worthy of faith in things concerning God. In the episode of the Presentation, we see that Jesus submits to the law, in order to be all in all similar to his brothers. Later his resemblance to his brothers will become even more perfect when he accepts all human suffering. By presenting himself to God, Jesus puts himself at the God�s disposal so as to overcome death. The text even holds that by his death he could take away all the power of the devil, which has power over death. 

In the gospel reading we also see the indication that Jesus is the light of the world. Simeon refers to Jesus as the light to illumine the people and the glory of your people Israel. Light and offering are in a very close relationship. Jesus is the light of the world, precisely, because he gave himself and loved with extreme generosity, even to the point of offering himself in sacrifice in death out of genuine love for God the Father as well as for his brothers. In this way he became light to illuminate the people. In the thanksgiving song in the gospel episode, Simeon hints at Jesus' paschal mystery: He is here for the ruin and resurrection of many in Israel, a sign of contradiction so that the thoughts of many hearts to be revealed. And he says to Mary: And to you too a sword will pierce the soul. The feast of the Presentation of the Lord is an advance and an announcement of Jesus paschal mystery. He will be offered in sacrifice for the salvation of the world; he will be offered to face death and evil and overcome them, according to the Father's plan. He will do all this out of pure love. John's Gospel says: Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end (John 13,1). And Jesus declares that he wants to face death on the cross, so that the world may know that he loves the Father (cf. John 10,17). The offer, therefore, is a mystery of love, and, therefore, a luminous mystery. On Calvary this light will be placed on the candelabrum, to illuminate the whole world. Jesus will be raised on the cross, to attract the eyes of all men and illumine the world with the powerful light of his immense love. Light and offer are two realities closely united.

On the other hand, the Presentation is also the feast of meeting. The Greek Church calls it the feast of Hypapanti (= meeting), because this gesture of Mary and Joseph to offer Jesus to the Lord in the temple was the occasion for a very significant double encounter. Two elders - a man, Simeon, and a woman, Anna - have the grace to meet Jesus at this very moment of his offering. They have been awaiting this meeting. Simeon awaited the comfort of Israel. He was a man full of religious sense, full of hope, who waited, with all the strength of his heart, for the decisive event that God had to carry out to free Israel, to give his people salvation. Simeon was a man docile to the Holy Spirit, and had received the prediction that he would not see death without first seeing the Messiah of the Lord. Being docile to the Spirit, Simeon is led by the Spirit to the temple at the right time. Thus he has the joy of taking the Messiah of the Lord, the infant Jesus, in his arms and blessing God, giving him thanks for this wonderful event of his encounter with the Messiah. He says to God: Now, Lord, let your servant go in peace according to your word. Simeon is ready to die, to leave this world, because he has met the Messiah, because, as he himself says, my eyes have seen your salvation, prepared by you before all peoples, light to illuminate people and glory of your people Israel. Even a woman, the prophetess Anna, very advanced in years (she had lived with her husband only seven years and then remained a widow, and was then eighty-four years old), had lived a long wait, in faithfulness to prayer. The Gospel reports that she never left the temple, serving God night and day with fasting and prayers. This long wait now finds its marvelous fulfillment with the encounter with the baby Jesus. The prophetess Anna then speaks of this child to those waiting for the redemption of Jerusalem.

This feast brings us a great desire to meet Jesus. The Lord leads us to ever deeper, more beautiful encounters with him, because our life must be a continuous progress in union with God. We meet the Lord in the liturgy, which makes us relive all the stages of Jesus  life. We meet him in the sacraments. Jesus comes to meet us in baptism, to make us children of God. He comes to meet us in Confession, to purify us and make us worthy of being offered with him. The first reading of today's Mass speaks of a necessary purification so as to be worthy of offering ourselves to God. The prophet Malachi states: The Lord will sit down to melt and purify; he will purify the children of Levi [...], so that they may offer the Lord an oblation according to justice. Jesus comes to meet us, above all, in the Eucharist, in which he comes within us. He says in Jn 6,56: Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood lives in me and I in him. This is an intimate, very beneficial encounter with Jesus. Finally, Jesus also comes to meet us in life, in many circumstances. If we are docile to the Holy Spirit, we go, like Simeon, to the right place at the right time, to meet the Lord. If we are not docile to the Spirit and our lives are not guided by him, we lose the opportunities of meeting the Lord and advancing the fullness and fruitfulness of our lives. Today, we can ask the Lord for the grace of meeting him and be united with him in offering so as to become the light of the world like him.

Paul calls Christians, children of light. He says to the Thessalonians: You are not in darkness  in fact you are all children of light and children of day (1Thess 5,4-5). And Jesus says to the disciples: You are the light of the world (Mt 5,14). To be the light of the world, we must first meet the Lord and be united with his offering of love. Only in this way can we truly become light. All other lights are illusory. The true light is only that of the love of God, which was manifested in Christ who wants to transform the world, also through our faithful cooperation. May we, therefore, obtain the graces of being instruments of light to the world by offering ourselves in sacrifices in union with the great offering of Jesus Christ during this Sunday�s Eucharistic celebration. +John I. Okoye.

(graphics  by charles)