THE PRESENTATION OF OUR LORD JESUS IN THE TEMPLE

2^nd February, Feast

I Reading: Malachi 3: 1-4: Look, I am going to send my messenger to prepare a way before me. The Lord you are seeking will suddenly enter his Temple.

II Reading: Hebrew 2:14-18: It was essential that he should in this way become completely like his brothers.

Gospel: Luke 2:22-40: My eyes have seen your salvation.

 We are celebrating today an important event in the life of Jesus: his presentation to God in the Temple of Jerusalem by his parents, forty days after his birth. This is a very ancient feast, one of the oldest in the church that it was celebrated in Jerusalem less than four hundred years after the birth of Jesus Christ that we celebrate today. This feast contains a special message for all Christians. Let us try to discuss this message in the readings of today.

1.    A prophecy of Malachi: Yahweh made a solemn announcement through the prophet Malachi:

i.                He would send a messenger to prepare his way; he planned to come personally to the Temple. He would do so in the person of the Messiah.

ii.                He would cleanse priests and people of their sins so as to enable them to offer a sacrifice worthy of Yahweh. But his offering would not made in Jerusalem alone; it would be carried out “from the farthest East to the farthest West”, that is, by all nations throughout the world. (Mal 1:11)

That is to say: the Messiah would come; He would indeed be the Messenger of Yahweh to all mankind; he would cleanse them of their sins, and lead them to worship God in a worthy manner. This is the content of today’s first reading.

2.      The prophecy of Malachi was fulfilled as Jesus was presented in the Temple: it took nearly 500 years for God to fulfil what he had announced through his prophet. After the birth of the first child, presentation to the Lord, for forty days for the male child and for eighty days for the female child, the mother was permitted to attend in the public service. (Lev 12:1-8; Ex 13:12-14).

3.    What did really take place at the presentation of Jesus to God in the Temple?

·       The surrender to the Will of His Father which he had carried out at the very moment of his conception in the womb of Mary (Heb 10: 5-7).

4.    Simeon and Anne: only the Spirit of God can lead a person to discover who Jesus is and to accept him as one’s own Savior.

5.    Mary and Joseph were led to accept God’s plans to save the world (Lk 2:33-35; 1:38; Mt 1:20; Heb 2:18)

Thought: Jesus is our light of everyone (Jn 1:9). His presentation in the Temple teaches and leads us to a complete surrender to God’s plans in our lives as Mary and Jesus did the Will of God in their lives.

Today’s feast conveys a particular message to parents, namely that, their children belong to God more than to them; they must therefore lead them not only to the Temple or Church, but to God.

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