The Feast of the Presentation of the Lord
Gospel Reflection for February 2, 2025 - Luke 2:22-40
And after the days of her purification, according to the law of Moses, were accomplished, they carried him to Jerusalem, to present him to the Lord:
As it is written in the law of the Lord: Every male opening the womb shall be called holy to the Lord:
And to offer a sacrifice, according as it is written in the law of the Lord, a pair of turtledoves, or two young pigeons:
And behold there was a man in Jerusalem named Simeon, and this man was just and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel; and the Holy Ghost was in him.
And he had received an answer from the Holy Ghost, that he should not see death, before he had seen the Christ of the Lord.
And he came by the Spirit into the temple. And when his parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for him according to the custom of the law,
He also took him into his arms, and blessed God, and said:
Now thou dost dismiss thy servant, O Lord, according to thy word in peace;
Because my eyes have seen thy salvation,
Which thou hast prepared before the face of all peoples:
A light to the revelation of the Gentiles, and the glory of thy people Israel.
And his father and mother were wondering at those things which were spoken concerning him.
And Simeon blessed them, and said to Mary his mother: Behold this child is set for the fall, and for the resurrection of many in Israel, and for a sign which shall be contradicted;
And thy own soul a sword shall pierce, that, out of many hearts, thoughts may be revealed.
And there was one Anna, a prophetess, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Aser; she was far advanced in years, and had lived with her husband seven years from her virginity.
And she was a widow until fourscore and four years; who departed not from the temple, by fastings and prayers serving night and day.
Now she, at the same hour, coming in, confessed to the Lord; and spoke of him to all that looked for the redemption of Israel.
And after they had performed all things according to the law of the Lord, they returned into Galilee, to their city Nazareth.
And the child grew, and waxed strong, full of wisdom; and the grace of God was in him. (Luke 2:22-40 DRA)
Today is the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord, also called Candlemas and traditionally the last day of the Christmas season. As with His Baptism, Christ had no need to be purified, according to the usual requirements of the Mosaic Law, since He is both utterly sinless and perfectly clean – nor did the Blessed Virgin Mary, who remained immaculate and wholly consecrated to God throughout her life – yet both still fulfilled the requirements expected of them. They did so in order “to fulfill all justice” (Mt 3:15) before the people and in perfect obedience to the Father. They showed that Christ did not come “to destroy the law, or the prophets… but to fulfill.” (Mt 5:17) The Law of God is good, and by Christ’s grace through the gifts of the Holy Ghost, we are enabled to obey it more perfectly, so that now, in the Sacrament of Baptism, we fulfill the law of circumcision, and in the whole sacramental life of the Church the rites of the Jews are raised up to their true meaning as efficacious signs of the mysteries of the Trinity.
But what exactly was the purpose of Christ’s presentation in the Temple? As the prophecy quoted by St. Luke demonstrates, Jesus, as the firstborn male, was “called holy,” i.e. “set apart” or consecrated for service to God. In a word, Candlemas is the revelation of Christ’s divine priesthood, in which God restores the true purpose of man, one that was forfeited by Adam and subsequently reinstated and lost by the patriarchs and the Levitical priests: to be a priest, for every man and woman to offer all of Creation and their very selves to God as a pure sacrifice, an oblation of love expressing man’s nature as incarnate spirit and body and fulfilling his destiny to be divinized as a child of God in Christ.
As St. Paul said in the Epistle, through His Incarnation Christ became our high priest, participating fully in our humanity, and because He is God, He thus makes our humanity into the perfect likeness of God, a likeness lost in original sin but restored in Him. Now, as He offers all things to the Father, through our baptismal priesthood we are enabled to join in His unending sacrifice, both at Mass, where the ministerial priesthood of the apostles trains us in the ways of liturgy and lifts up Creation to meet the descent of God on the Cross upon every altar, and in our daily life, where through the theological virtues of faith, hope and charity we can sanctify all things, purifying them and ourselves of sin and transforming them into sacraments of God.
This is the true mystery of Candlemas, one which may escape us on a cursory reading of this Gospel passage but which is key to unlocking its enduring truth. The Presentation, like the Baptism, is not just one event in Christ’s life forever locked in history: no, like everything else He said and did, it has eternal application for all of us, especially those incorporated into His Body the Church and called to imitate Him as a mirror of God to the world. Christ is the true image of God, not only as the Son of God perfectly reflecting the Father but also in His sacred humanity, elevating the imago Dei given to all men and acting as our Archetype. By conforming ourselves to Him, we can reflect God as He did and thus merit a share in His divine life. This is the supernatural hope of the Gospel and the true meaning of salvation.
As priests of God in Christ, every Mass, and indeed every moment of our life can act as our own Presentation. What do we bring to the altar when we assist at the Divine Liturgy, sharing in the action of the ministerial priest who shepherds us in persona Christi? Do we lift up our own sufferings, our fears and anxieties, our temptations and weaknesses, our aspirations and achievements, as the priest elevates the Host? Like the Blessed Virgin and St. Joseph, we are called to offer a sacrificial gift to God – no longer the substitutes of animals but all things in Creation and our very selves which, in Christ, have become sacraments, channels of grace by which we are divinized, even those times of great pain and loss which pierce our hearts like the affliction of Our Lady who, though preserved from labor pains, shared in the agony of the Cross with her Son. Are we willing to become a “sign of contradiction” to the world, as Christ did, most of all when we “convince the world of sin, and of justice, and of judgment” (Jn 16:8), and offer our persecutions to God as a sharing in the Cross?
We should leave nothing behind when we go to Mass but instead Sursum Corda, as we are commanded, lifting up our hearts with the priest and offering all things back to God. In this way, when we are sent in the great Ite, missa est concluding the liturgy, we will be ready to live every day for Christ, presenting all things to Him in prayer so that, when we finally pass from this life, we will be refined, as Malachi described, into the purest silver through the fire of asceticism, freed from the fool’s gold of sin with all of its false pomp and glamour and finally welcomed into the Church Triumphant with all the angels and saints.