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In 2014, I am facilitating a 12-week interactive online course in contemplative prayer and action for priests with Saint Luke Institute. Please visit SLIconnect.org to learn more: https://www.sliconnect.org/product/living-god-program-contemplative-life-2/
Feast of the Presentation of the Lord, Cycle A
February 2, 2014
Our Lady of Grace
The Presentation: Of Jesus, Our Babies, and Ourselves
By (Rev. Msgr.) Nicholas P. Amato
The Presentation and Baptism
Probably all of us
have attended the baptism of a baby.
We know how happy an
occasion this is. It is a wonderful
celebration of the birth of a new child and of placing that baby in a close
relationship with Jesus.
Grandparents, aunts
and uncles, other family members, and friends are usually present. There’s lots of oo-ing and ah-ing over every
facial expression or movement of a hand.
Fast rewind and we
see this is a very similar to the scene in today’s Gospel. Mary and Joseph are presenting their baby in
the temple.
There are two rather
elderly people there, Simeon and Anna.
Seeing Jesus brought to a holy place and presented to God was a very
special moment for all of them.
And it is also a
moment that is rich in meaning. There
are at least three messages packed into this beautifully warm story.
Message 1: Reverence Human Life
The first message is
that whether it is Joseph and Mary presenting Jesus in the temple or our
bringing a baby to be baptized in a church, both are a statement about human
life.
In this action we
are affirming that all life comes from God. And our gathering in a holy place
is recognizing that this life is sacred.
And beyond that, we
are affirming in this that human joy and fulfillment come from living life in
relation to God and serving God in some way with our lives. And we do this principally by caring for
human life.
Caring for life can
take many forms. It can be caring for an unborn child, for young children, for
those who are sick or struggling in some way, the elderly, and the dying.
So, the presentation
of Jesus in the temple and the baptism of babies we know and love affirm that
all life comes from God and thus all life is sacred.
Message 2: Present Children to God
A second message is
that parents need to present their children to God regularly. This wasn’t a
once-and-for-all visit of Jesus to the temple.
What I sometimes see
today is the thinking that it is only the sacraments that count. We get the children here for baptism, then
for First Reconciliation and First Communion, and then for Confirmation.
We hear the
expression: “She’s got her sacraments,”
or “He’s received all his sacraments.” It sounds something like getting merit badges
in a scouting program [Demonstrate
scouting badges on pocket.]
The problem with
this is that sometimes there is nothing in between the sacraments. There may be little or no faith formation in
those in-between years.
We need to be about
the steady, incremental, step-by-step, age appropriate formation of children in
coming to know who Jesus is and developing a living with relating to him.
This kind of gradual
and integrated formation can only happen by presenting our children regularly
for weekly religious education and helping them to pray.
Message 3: Present Ourselves to God
And the third
message is that we need to present ourselves to God here very week.
In the gospel
passage, St. Luke uses the word “law”
five times. He keeps saying that Mary
and Joseph present Jesus to the Lord “just
as it is written in the law of the Lord” or “to perform the custom of the law.”
They were fulfilling
a commandment or regulation in the religious law of the day. In a similar way, our religious law calls us
to present ourselves to the Lord every Sabbath for the celebration of Mass.
Being here and
participating fully in the Mass has a way of opening us to the inner peace and
love of God. It connects us, consciously
or maybe only subconsciously to the mystery of dying and rising and this
touches very deep levels in our being and our psyche.
The religious law,
the commandment, is a benchmark. It is
intended to get us here when we don’t feel up to it, when we put up obstacles
to coming, or when we encounter challenges in doing this.
We are in such
circumstances, at least motivated by the law, which, thankfully, gets us
participating in something that is important for living and growing in God’s
love.
Conclusion
This warm, innocent
little event of Jesus being presented in the temple has a great deal packed
into it.
(1) It affirms that
all life comes from God.
(2) It calls us to present
our children to God by steadily seeing to their faith formation.
(3) And it calls us
to present ourselves regularly to the Lord for the event that binds and
makes us one, the celebration and reception of the Eucharist.
