The presentation of Jesus is traditionally the 40th day after Christmas (Luke 2:22-40). It brings back to us some Christmas themes while touching already on some of Lent.
The Messiah at the temple
The Temple is God’s dwelling on Earth; it symbolizes the divine presence among us. God’s advent and return to the Temple was a time of great anticipation and significance. As the First Reading (Malachi 3:1-4) pictures it, the Lord’s messenger of the covenant we desire is surely and suddenly coming to the temple, but who can stand that day when he comes? “He will purify the sons of Levi, refining them like gold and like silver that they may offer due sacrifice to the Lord.” The messenger of the covenant comes with judgment and affliction:—fidelity to the covenant determines who will be rewarded or punished. The metaphors for the purification described is searing—the fire that refines ores and the lye that whitens cloth. This is so before the sacrifice pleasing to the Lord may be offered.
But the coming of the Lord to His people is truly a triumphant event, a joyous procession for which all the gates are opened for the King of glory (Psalm 24:7, 8, 9,10). However, we are not to forget at what cost was the victory of the mighty Lord. The Second Reading (Hebrews 2:14-18) reminds us that our Savior identified Himself with our humanity, so that through the death of His human body he might deliver all human beings from the terror of human death, turning death into the necessary passageway into the new life with God. He became “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.”
The light to the nations
IN the gospel account of the presentation of Jesus in the Temple, it took the eyes of faith of two old persons to recognize our Savior. Simeon and Anna had both been waiting for the promised coming of the Lord. Seized by the Spirit of God, Simeon like the prophets of ancient Israel recognized in the Child Jesus the consolation of Israel, the fulfillment of the messianic expectation, and the light for the rest of the world. And he predicted the opposition that Jesus would encounter, which would break any mother’s heart. The old woman Anna, a prophetess who had also been waiting for the messianic fulfillment seconded what Simeon said, proclaiming the identity of the Child to all who cherished messianic hopes.
It was the piety of Mary and Joseph that brought the Child Jesus to the Temple. Five times the evangelist refers the event to the observance by the parents of Jesus of the ritual prescriptions of the Law—the religious requirement of purification for Mary in giving birth and, therefore, with its contact with blood (Leviticus 12:1-8), and the ritual requirement of reclaiming the firstborn male child who belonged to God (Exodus 13:2, 12). The piety of Mary and Joseph, like those of Simeon and Anna, converged together in the celebration of the coming of the King of Glory to the Temple of God. Evidently, fidelity and genuine devotion lead to religious insight and revelation.
Alálaong bagá, with the presentation of the child Jesus in the Temple the Lord our Savior has indeed come into the temple as expected of old. Ritually, Jesus was to be reclaimed or redeemed, but in fact it would be the world that was to be redeemed by him, the light that shines in the darkness of the world, universally enlightening all people, Jew and Gentile alike (clearly an Epiphany/Christmas theme as well as that of the Third Sunday in Ordinary Time). The Santo Niño, the King of Glory, victoriously opens the gates for the entire universe to enter into the loving presence of God.