THE WORD AND THE FEAST
February 2, 2023: The Feast of the Presentation of the LordMalacchi 3: 1-4; Luke 2: 22-40
The feast today is also traditionally called the Candlemas (like the Christmas), because candles were blessed, lighted and taken in procession, to signify the entry of the Lord into his temple for the first time as a 40 day old child - proclaimed by Simeon as 'the light to enlighten the nations'! The celebration of this feast has three indications to offer for our inspiration - the memory, the meaning, and the mission.
THE MEMORY: The memory that we celebrate today is that of the Lord who comes, who comes into His temple! A beautiful moment so picturesquely presented by Luke. The expectations, the entry, the enchantment and the extravaganza that was witnessed in the Temple, as Mary and Joseph bring the child into the temple premises. We celebrate this memory, the memory of the Lord coming to us, the Lord of the world entering our world.
THE MEANING: The memory has a specific meaning; it is, 'the Lord comes to be like us'! The Lord chose to share this world with us in His incarnation and became like us, like us in everything, except sin, says the letter to the Hebrews (4:15). The Lord chose to suffer, the Lord chose to be tempted, the Lord chose to undergo the same struggle as each of us do - and that was the crux of the meaning that he had for his life, and offers the same to you and to me!
THE MISSION: The meaning of this memory, leads us to a deeper understanding of the Mission, of the Lord who comes. The Lord comes to be like us, that we may become like Him. When John proclaims in his Gospel, "to those who believed in him, he gave the power to become children of God" (Jn 1:12), he underlined this specific mission of the Messiah - to make us like him!
It is of course a fitting day to pray for those who have chosen Consecrated Life as a way of living their call to belong to God (it is the 26th year!), for they are called to be the memories of God's faithfulness, the meaning of our faithfulness to God and the mission of being 'the light to the 'nations'!