HIS PRESENTATION AND OUR CONSECRATION

FEAST OF THE PRESENTATION OF OUR LORD

Mal 3:1-4; Ps 24:7-10; Heb 2:14-18; Lk 2:22-40

Jesus, Our Consecration and Purification

We celebrate the feast of the Presentation of our Lord in the Jerusalem Temple. His parents, Joseph and Mary, took him to the Temple in Jerusalem to present him to God as prescribed by the Law of Moses. So, their action was to fulfil the prescription of the Law of Moses, as we read in the Gospel. “When the day came for them to be purified as laid down by the Law of Moses, the parents of Jesus took him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord, --observing what stands written in the Law of the Lord: Every first-born male must be consecrated to the Lord—and also to offer sacrifice, in accordance with what is said in the Law of the Lord, a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons.” As the Gospel passage indicates, the purpose is to purify the mother and child. Three things are involved in the purification: presentation, consecration, and offering of sacrifice. We have considered these three as part of the priestly life of Jesus Christ. As in every aspect of his life as man, Our Lord fulfils the Law of God and establishes a new Law, a new covenant, and a new religion. Thus, his presentation is the fulfilment of the Law of God and its requirement and initiation of the new order, which would come into effect with his ministry. The presentation highlights the aspect of consecration, which the Law requires but cannot accomplish due to the corruption in human nature.  

Because of the highlight or emphasis on consecration, the Evangelist brings the old and upright Simeon, a priest of the old Levitical order, to witness the end of the old dispensation of the Law and fulfilment of the Promise made by the Lord to grant salvation to his people. Simeon witnesses the new and unique consecration of human nature to God, which is the perfection of the priesthood and the fulfilment of human salvation, God promised. “Prompted by the Spirit he came to the Temple and when the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him what the Law required, he took him into his arms and blessed God; and he said: ‘Now, Master, you can let your servant go in peace, just as you promised; because my eyes have seen the salvation which you have prepared for all the nations to see, a light to enlighten the pagans and the glory of your people Israel.’” The glory is not that of the former people of Isreal but of the new Israel founded on the child and his mother and arising from all the nations. The old priest Simeon is more fortunate than Abraham and all the patriarchs because he did not see human salvation in the future but held him in his arms and gazed upon him. He witnessed the perfection of priestly consecration in the Child Jesus Christ and blessed God.

Another type of consecration also found its fulfilment in the child and his mother, the general consecration of the people of God to his word. By this general consecration of the people of God, they are called prophetic people. The old Anna was in the Temple to witness the perfection of this consecration in the child and his mother. The Evangelist introduced her as a prophetess, and rightly so because everyone living out a consecration to the word of God is a prophet indeed. “There was a prophetess also, Anna the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was well on in years. Her days of girlhood were over, she had been married for seven years before becoming a widow. She was now eighty-four years old and never left the Temple, serving God night and day with fasting and prayer.” Her consecration to God makes her a religious of the old order. Her consecration is unique but imperfect because of the corruption of human nature. So, God called her to witness the perfection of religious consecration. For this, religious celebrate today as their special day.

The second reading dwells on the perfection of the priestly consecration or order.  The letter to the Hebrews developed the priesthood of Jesus Christ based on the purity of human nature consecrated to God in his humanity. Psalm 40 prophesied this consecration of the body of Jesus Christ to the Father as a sacrifice pleasing to the Father. Hebrews changed the ‘open ears’ of the Son of Man to "a body you have prepared for me", for the open ear led to the sacrifice of his body on the cross of Calvary. “Since all the children share the same blood and flesh, Christ too shared equally in it, so that by his death he could take away all the power of the devil, who had power over death, and set free all those who had been held in slavery all their lives by the fear of death.” Our obedience to the will of the Father is the essence of our consecration to him. He saved us by consecration to the will of the Father as the Son of Man, for his death on the cross is a result of his open ears to the Father’s will. The Father’s will that he made present in our humanity destroyed the power of evil or disobedience working in our fallen nature. Thus, by obedience, he became immortal, for whoever does the will of God lives forever.

Since he lives for God, he makes God present to us as his brothers. He is a priest in the Order of Melchizedek of old. The religion originating from his consecration is heavenly because it follows the will of the Father as in heaven. His priesthood is also perfect because he gives the holiest of all things, the Father’s will. He acts on his brothers by his twofold authority: the purity of his human nature and the immediacy of the Father’s will. The first reading presents him as the angel of the covenant/consecration and the purifier/priest. “The Lord you are seeking will suddenly enter his Temple; and the angel of the covenant whom you are longing for, yes, he is coming, says the Lord of Hosts. Who will be able to resist the day of his coming? Who will remain standing when he appears? For he is like the refiner’s fire and the fuller’s alkali.” His power to purify us is from the twofold authority he wields: as the first-born of our nature and the giver of the holiest thing. He is our High Priest in the latter sense; by this power, he purifies the sons of Levi. The sons of Levi here refer to all born of water of baptism, for he will make all who believe in him priests to offer the acceptable sacrifice to God. In the presentation of the Lord, we celebrate our consecration and our common priesthood in him.

Let us pray: Almighty ever-living God, we humbly implore your majesty that, just as your Only Begotten Son was presented on this day in the Temple in the substance of our flesh, so, by your grace, we may be presented to you with minds made pure. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.