The Presentation of the Lord

God calls us all to be purified in our hearts, mind, and souls.

JMJ

This past week was a very busy one and unfortunately I did not get to post a reflection on the readings.

This week’s feast is such a key moment for the exploration of the Holy Family. The Presentation of the Lord. Maybe it’s just me, but I didn’t really get the concept of what it means to “present” to the Lord. I looked at the interlinear Greek and it seems that a synonym might be “place in front of” which makes more sense to me. Jesus, and any child of Israel, has to be brought before God in the time after his or her purification.

Why does Jesus need this? Because He is like us in all things but sin as the second reading from today says, “therefore, he 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” (Heb2:17–18). Jesus does not need to be purified, nor does His mother Mary. She is after all sinless. But they both fulfill their role in the tradition of the people of God.

So we have to ask who this is for. The answer has to be varied and complex as are the characters in the story.

Let’s start with those in the temple. It affects Simeon who can finally be at peace. It also affects the prophetess who has been praying in the temple for years for the redemption of Israel. In a different way it affects Joseph. As wonderful and righteous as a man as he is, Joseph is still a sinner. He needs to present his son to God, and acknowledge before the one true Father, his failings. God uses this liturgical opportunity to strengthen and bless the child and his parents. Joseph, in humbly coming before the Lord with his family, is made stronger. Just as metal is strengthened by refining it, we are made unbreakable in the crucible of our God’s refining love.

Another way in which Mary and Joseph are affected is in their reaction to Simeon’s message. The Greek word used by St. Luke is thaumazō. This means to wonder or marvel at with admiration. Looking at the word study, Luke often uses this is the temple context in connection with the congregation’s reaction. First it occur’s when Zachariah is in the temple and the crowd wonders why he’s in the the Holy of Holies for so long. Then, they thaumazō again at his naming of St. John the Baptist. Later on, the crowds wonder about Jesus when he proclaims the Gospel and says, “This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears.” (Luke 4:22). They marvel because they know his father, the same Joseph who is “marvelling“ now with Mary in the temple.

I wonder what message this wondering yields for us. We see how the family is strengthened and how Jesus grows in age and wisdom in God’s favor. Mary often “wonders in her heart” and this passage shows how that can be beneficial for us. Mary, because of her Son’s sufferings, also suffers. Her soul is pierced by a sword so that the thoughts of many may be revealed. The Greek (I know, it’s a ton of Greek today but it’s interesting to look at the passage in this way) for Mary’s soul or heart is “psyche” and the word for thoughts is “dialogismos” which can mean reason, imagination or man’s inner dialogue with himself. This word seems, in my brief word study, to also always be associated with negatives. The first way it’s used in the New Testament is Matthew 15:19, “For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts [dialogismos] murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies”. So, given the rest of the list, not a good type of thought.

But we are not stuck in our heads. We don’t have to have this internal strife and struggle. We no longer have to subject ourselves to a reasoning that is against us in perpetual struggle. For, as the first reading says, Jesus “shared in [flesh and blood]… and free[d] those who through fear of death had been subject to slavery all their life.” (Heb 2:14–15). Jesus our brother comes to the temple, the firstborn of the New Covenant, to purify our family and reinstate the worship of God rather than the worship of ourselves in our thoughts. Mary, his Mother, is given a role in this new covenant to be pierced to reveal these dark thoughts. She, the New Eve, fulfills what the old Eve could not and makes sure that man is not alone knowing that “It is not good for man to be alone.” (Gen 2:18). Man alone falls into sin, distress, and these struggling inner thoughts.

And we also see in this scene Joseph, who abandons his own thoughts to do as the Lord commands him in his dreams. Who does not trust his own righteousness, but always stays close to Mary and Jesus his whole life.

I started by saying that this presentation of the Lord in the temple was for all the figures in the story. Extending the family tree further, we see this biblical story goes well beyond the present temple of Jerusalem build by Herod. It extends back to the beginning of the temple, and even further to the creation of the law.

We might be able, in further study, to trace it back to the Fall of Man himself and the beginning of the darkened hearts of man due to this inner strife, “And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew H3045 that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons.” (Gen 3:7). The Hebrew word yada is the word for “to know”. Interestingly, Adam before this does not “know” but “proclaims” or “calls”. God gives Adam the authority to name all the creatures, even his wife Eve. This is the same word, qara, that is used by God to name the Day and Night and Heaven and Earth. It is the power of God’s “call” to create everything. That same “call” of God is made in each one of us in our baptism.

God’s call is more mighty than our knowledge.

May Jesus, Mary, and Joseph pray for us and present us to the Father that we may be strong, wise, and full of God’s favor.