Presentation of the Lord

February 2, 2025

Luke 2: 22-40

Today's feast is indeed a feast of paradox and contradiction: the Redeemer is redeemed, and the purest is purified. Our cast of characters includes a mother and child, and two elderly prophets. Joseph, as is most often the case, is silent.  And on this day, they all come together, as does birth and passion.  You remember how many English Christmas carols often include a hint of the Passion like in What Child Is This: “Nails, spear shall pierce Him through, the cross be borne for me, for you.” Not what you'd expect in a lullaby!  The Infant Jesus is present, and a sword of sorrow will pierce Mary, the mother.

We flash forward.  There is a beautiful Holman Hunt painting in the Guggenheim Museum in New York City called “The Shadow of Death;” it could just as well have been called, “The Sword of Sorrow.” It is one of the few examples of classical art that shows Jesus laboring as an adult in the carpenter’s shop. Joseph is absent so we presume he has died. In this painting, a day of work has ended, and Jesus has just risen from his bench and stretches in relaxation. The shadow of his body and upraised arms falls on a rack of tools on the wall, and we see prefigured the “very dying form of one who suffered there for me. But the most interesting thing about the painting is that in the background we see Mary kneeling before an open chest in which we see the gifts of the three wise men “the gold, frankincense and myrrh.” No doubt as the years went by, Mary watched her son grow to manhood. Now in Joseph’s absence, Jesus was supporting the family as a carpenter. Mary might have wondered if God had mocked her with a cruel joke that her Son was the One who would redeem his people. So again, and again she would go to the chest and gently touch the gifts, as if to convince herself that the promises were real. This might have been the only concrete contact she had with the golden hopes of thirty years ago. And on this day, as she caresses the golden crown and the casket of frankincense and the vase of myrrh, suddenly she sees on the back wall the shadow of the cross. From that day forth the shadow is ever before her. That was the sword that would pierce Mary’s soul Simeon knew what lay ahead.

Mary was given the blessedness of being the mother of the Son of God.  That blessedness also would become a sword which would pierce her heart as her son died upon the cross.  The words Simeon addressed to Mary announced that she would be intimately linked with her son’s redemptive work. The sword indicated that Mary would have a share in her son’s sufferings. Her suffering would be an unspeakable pain which would pierce her soul. Our Lord suffered on the cross for our sins, and it is those sins which forged Mary’s pain. Mary received both a crown of joy and a cross of sorrow.  But her joy was not diminished by her sorrow because it was fueled by her faith, hope, and trust in God and his promises.  Jesus promised his disciples that “no one will take your joy from you; and, not one of my little ones will be lost.” The Lord gives us a joy beyond expectation which enables us to bear any sorrow or pain and which neither life nor death can take way. Do you know the joy of a life fully surrendered to God with faith and trust? Yes, this feast we celebrate shows a curious turn of events. The Redeemer is redeemed. She, who is all-pure, presents herself to be purified. Such is the humility of our God. Such is the humility of the Blessed Virgin. They submit to the law even though they are not bound by it.  Can we see a way to imitate this humility?  And what of Simeon and Anna in their faithfulness and humility of waiting?

When Joseph and Mary went into the temple for a somewhat routine ceremony, did they think that two elderly people would reaffirm and clarify what they were only beginning to dimly understand? When Simeon and Anna rose from bed on the day we commemorate as the feast of the Presentation, they had no idea it would be different from any other day. Every day had been a day devoted to waiting for the Messiah and being prepared to welcome him.  And so, when that day arrived, they were ready.

Today in the same way Christ is present to us. Will we be ready to receive him?  When we go to bed tonight will we be able to say, “Now, Lord, you can let your servant sleep in peace?” 

Who are we on this feast day?  Anna or Simeon who have faithfully waited and seen their hope?  The silent Joseph who trusts, witnesses and protects. Mary, who is the only one to remain with Jesus from birth to passion and death and might have sometimes wondered if it was all a cruel joke?  Perhaps we are all of them.  We can mirror the faith and steadfastness they all showed, even in doubt and weakness.  We rise from bed every day in paradox and contradiction with hope in our eyes.  The keys are faithfulness, trust, and hope.

Fr. John Tran