Homily: Presentation of the Lord – Cycle A
My
friends, it is true that the Mass we celebrate, while remaining a work that we
do here on earth and in time, is nonetheless something that transcends
time. When we come together to celebrate
the Mass, we are truly experiencing the fullness of the Communion of Saints:
that is, the Saints in heaven, the faithful in purgatory, and us here on
earth. Because of this we know that,
when we celebrate the Mass, the past, the present, and the future all merge
into one. In a way, this is why the Mass
is celebrated the same basic way every day and everywhere, because what we’re
doing is something eternal, something unchanging.
Our
Liturgical Calendar is meant to accentuate that. While the Mass is indeed eternal, it doesn’t
change the fact that we live in time and so at different parts of the year we
take time to emphasize different seasons; which highlight different aspects of
salvation history and our journey as disciples of Jesus Christ here on
earth. Thus, when we are following the
Liturgical Year, we are really entering into “God’s Time” in the midst of
worldly time.
A
“happy coincidence” this year is throwing a bit of a wrench into all of that,
however. This weekend, we celebrate the
Feast of the Presentation of the Lord.
It is the feast in which we celebrate the consecration of Jesus in the
Temple as the first-born son of Joseph and Mary. Traditionally, it was the feast that marked
the close of the Christmas Season; falling, as it does, 40 days after
Christmas. Since the revision of the
Liturgical Calendar after the Second Vatican Council, however, it no longer
serves that purpose (the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord now marks its
close). Nonetheless, we still celebrate
this feast. But, unless you come to
daily Mass throughout the year, you probably wouldn’t know much about it as we
only celebrate it on Sunday when February 2nd actually falls on Sunday (like
this year; thus, the “happy coincidence”).
So
here we are, three weeks into Ordinary Time and reflection on Jesus’ public
ministry as an adult, and the calendar throws us a curve ball hurtling us back
into a reflection on Jesus’ infancy, on which we placed so much focus in Christmas
time. I think that even the most
“die-hard” fans of Christmas would be hard-pressed not to feel a little
off-kilter by this jump. Nonetheless, I
think that this feast does still have some important things to say to us here
today.
First
is a reminder that Jesus took on the “full-experience” of humanity. Mary and Joseph were observant Jews. This meant that they were careful to follow
the precepts that the Law of Moses had laid out for them. Thus, they observed the prescribed time of
purification after the birth of Jesus (for coming into contact with blood and
other bodily fluids made them ritually impure).
Then they brought the infant Jesus to the Temple to be consecrated to
the Lord.
Now,
with all of the work that angels were doing up to and immediately after the
birth of Jesus, it seems to me that it would have been just as easy for one to
send a message to Mary or Joseph (in a dream, perhaps) that it wasn’t necessary
for them to fulfill the precepts of the Law for Jesus because he was the Son of
God and thus was exempt from them. That
didn’t happen, however; which I think is another example that shows us that
Jesus didn’t come to help us escape from all of the trappings of our humanity,
but rather to redeem it all: that is, to make all that we do and experience in
this world profitable for our salvation.
This is why the author of the Letter to the Hebrews can say: “Therefore,
[Jesus] had to become like his brothers and sisters in every way, that he might
be a merciful and faithful high priest before God to expiate the sins of the
people.”
Jesus
was showing us that it is exactly through our humanity that we will come to our
salvation! In other words, following the
way that God has marked out for us is the path to purification and
holiness—and, thus, readiness to receive God’s gift of grace—and so we should
not be too quick to cast off the rules and guidelines that the Church gives
us. They are the roadmap to our
salvation!
The
second thing of which this feast reminds us today is that Jesus reveals himself
to those who are lowly. Notice that in
Luke’s account of the Presentation of Jesus in the Temple it wasn’t the High
Priest who recognized Jesus for who he was, but rather an unknown man and a
poor widow. Simeon, we are told, was a
righteous and devout man. “Pious” is
another word we could use for him; and by “pious” we don’t mean someone who
puts on a “religious show”, but rather someone who truly understands his place
and what he was called to do, and who, thus, fulfills that duty
faithfully. As a reward for this, we are
told, the “Holy Spirit was upon him” and thus he was given the grace to
recognize Jesus as the Promised One of the Lord.
Anna,
we are told, was a prophetess who, having been widowed at a young age, spent
the remainder of her years in the Temple, fasting and praying—that is, offering
her life in sacrifice to God. When she
saw the child, she, too, was given the grace of recognizing him; and she went
off to do the thing that prophetesses do best, she went around telling of the
child to “all who were awaiting the redemption of Jerusalem.”
Both
Anna and Simeon were waiting in anticipation for the Holy One of the Lord:
God’s anointed one who would redeem the people of Israel. In other words, they were living Advent! And when they saw him, they rejoiced to
finally have seen the one that they had long waited for. And so, in a way, we celebrate today another
Epiphany! (Is anyone not confused about
what Liturgical Season it is yet?) But
what a great reminder this is that we ought to be living Advent all year
long! Jesus has come and he will come
again, but if we are consumed by our worldly pursuits (even if those pursuits
are religious ones), instead of living in anticipation of his coming, then we
may miss him when he appears again in our midst. To do this, we must be lowly: that is, living
upright and devout lives, in which Jesus is always an integral part, and ready
to greet him when he appears.
And
that brings us to our last reminder: that only the pure will enter the presence
of God. You know, Mary and Joseph needed
to complete the ritual of purification before they entered the Temple. We, too, need to purify ourselves so as to be
ready to stand in God’s presence when he appears. This purification is the work of Ordinary
Time. It is the hard work brought forth
by Christ. Because to pursue the
righteousness brought forth by Jesus is to stand in the refiner’s fire—the fire
of which the prophet Malachi spoke—which purifies precious metals of impurities
and makes them fit for their honored uses.
It is a hard work, but it is the work that purifies us and makes us
ready to receive Jesus when he returns.
And
so, perhaps our celebration of this feast today isn’t such an odd coincidence
after all. Perhaps it is exactly the
reminder that we needed now that the energy of the new year has died down a
bit. Perhaps, then, we can take this
opportunity to give ourselves a fresh perspective on our work of growing in
discipleship during Ordinary Time. If
so, then let us not be sad at the work that lies ahead of us, because, as
Simeon expressed as he held the infant Jesus, “God’s Word has been
fulfilled.” In other words, our success
is guaranteed, for God has said so, as long as we give ourselves to the work.
Let
us, then, give ourselves over to this work so that we, too, can proclaim the
fulfillment of God’s promises to us, like Simeon did, and also proclaim the joy
of having encountered him, like Anna: the encounter we experience in sacrament
here in this Eucharist.
Given at Saint Mary’s Cathedral: Lafayette, IN
– February 1st & 2nd, 2020
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