Given on 22nd June at St Paul’s, Wood Green, as part of the parish’s annual novena to Our Lady of Perpetual Help from 18th June to 26th June. In 2021, to mark the Year of St Joseph, the parish invited 10 preachers to speak about the figure of St Joseph in the Infancy Narratives.
The scene of the presentation of the Lord in the temple is surely one of the most moving scenes in the whole of the scriptures. This scene, forty days after Jesus’ birth, presents a time of newness and promise.
Forty days after the birth of Jesus, Joseph and Mary bring the child Jesus to the temple to present him to the Lord. They follow the ritual of the Jewish Law. It is written in the Book of Exodus that every male that opens the womb shall be consecrated to the Lord and an offering, or a sacrifice of thanksgiving will be made to the Lord. The poor brought a pair of turtle doves or two young pigeons in accordance with the law; the more wealthy needed to sacrifice one lamb, one pigeon and one turtledove. Mary and Joseph are pious in following the Law and poor; they represent the righteous ones of the Old Testament, the anawim in Hebrew, the ‘little people’ of Israel who trust deeply in the Lord because they rely utterly on him. They are the poor named in the Beatitudes.
Forty days was also the time needed before the ritual purification of a mother after childbirth. She would be ritually bathed and then resume her full life again.
The new-born boy is to be consecrated to the Lord. The word ‘consecration’ is very important. It means to make holy, it means to offer a sacrifice, to hand over someone or something to God in order that God transforms what is offered. We speak of the consecration of the bread and wine in the mass which become the Body and Blood of Christ. The earthy elements of bread and wine are offered, handed over and returned to us as God’s gift of Christ’s Body and Blood. We speak of the consecration of a religious man or a religious woman who hands over his or her life to God. This is usually symbolised by the candidate prostrating themselves on the floor so that their life can be transformed by the grace of God. Similarly, the priest is consecrated to the service of God and his Holy People at ordination. He prostrates himself on the floor and then his hands are consecrated with Sacred Chrism; a sign that these hands will be holy and used in service of the Lord. Consecration is a very rich word which invites our own reflection on the way in which we consecrate, or make holy, each day to Jesus.
In this wonderful scene we hear the encounter or meeting of Our Blessed Lady and Joseph, tenderly holding their child, and the elderly Simeon and Anna whom I always think of as grandfather or grandmother figures. I often associate Simeon and Anna with the elderly of the parish who come faithfully to the church each day, wanting to pray, perhaps lighting a candle for their family and wanting to be present at the Mass. We know that following the opening of churches as the rules of the pandemic eased, it was often the older and sometimes very elderly parishioners who were again the daily mass-goers who wanted to be back in the church around the altar. They are today’s Simeon and Anna. Simeon, described as righteous or standing right before God, waiting to meet the Lord before his death and waited for the promise of God to be fulfilled. Anna had been a widow for many long years after a short marriage of only seven years with her husband. She was now eighty-four. I can imagine Anna sitting in the same seat, doing the same rituals as part of her daily prayer, just like some of you who also wait for the coming of the Lord as we all do. We know that ultimately our life is in his hands. Anna never left the temple, serving God night and day with fasting and prayer. When she saw the Christ-Child she gave thanks to God and spoke about the child to all who were awaiting the redemption of Jerusalem.
The phrase the ‘redemption of Jerusalem’ speaks of the Jewish longing for the coming of the Saviour, the Messiah. Many thought he would come with great power and remove Roman rule, others thought that he would come and there would be earthquakes and dramatic events. We know that the Messiah came quietly on a cold night, God made man in the flesh of Jesus Christ, born into poverty, wrapped in swaddling clothes, laid in a manger, who is our Saviour. We give thanks for the forgiveness of our sins, for his healing grace, for the many ways in which he gives us life and hope. We place our trust in him and offer our lives to him.
Let us reflect on Simeon who is the other wonderful figure in this story. He comes to the temple prompted by the Holy Spirit so that he could perform the customs of the law. He takes the baby Jesus in his arms and blesses God, recognising that he can now die peacefully because he can believe in the resurrection. His consoling prayer becomes the Nunc Dimittis which is said by priests, religious and many others, at every night prayer: ‘Now, Master, you can let your servant go in peace, according to your word; for my eyes have seen your salvation which you have prepared in the sight of all the peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles and glory for your people Israel.’ Jesus is the fulfilment of the promise of God, he is the light of the world who illuminates the darkness and makes a new covenant with those who are baptised; he is the fulfilment for which Israel longed.
In Rembrandt’s painting of the presentation of Jesus in the temple, he shows the gathering of Simeon, Anna, Our Blessed Lady, Joseph and the child Jesus in a little corner of the large stone building of the temple. Only they are fully illuminated as the light of Christ shines out. In an intimate act of tender love Simeon proclaims the words that give us deep hope and solace when life is difficult. They are an invitation to trust in the mercy of God and an invitation to stay close to Jesus when the storm rages around us as we heard in yesterday's gospel. We are invited to trust in him as he speaks to us, ‘Why are you so frightened?’, ‘Do not be afraid’, ‘Did you not know that I am with you?’
This beautiful scene also invites our reflection on Our Blessed Lady and the particular calling which she is given as the Mother of God. Simeon speaks prophetically that Jesus will be persecuted, suffer and die, and believes he will rise from the dead. Jesus is a ‘sign of the fall and rise of many in Israel’, as some turn to him and follow him as Christian disciples, but others walk away. Simeon prophecies that a sword will pierce Our Lady’s heart as she sees the pain of her son who is rejected, persecuted and carries his cross to Calvary. I am sure that when Our Blessed Lady saw Jesus fall on the way to Calvary and stood at the foot of the cross, she must have pondered these words of Simeon. As the Mother of the Church, she is the Mother for all mothers who suffer for their children; mothers whose sons are in prison, mothers whose children are addicted, whether to alcohol or drugs, mothers who have suffered in this area because of knife crime and many other mothers. We can go to Mary who carries this sword in her heart and bring our pain and suffering to her and ask her to pray for us.
Finally, I remember one Christmas Eve when I was a parish priest in Nottingham. The Church was ready for Midnight Mass. People had spent the day preparing it and it looked very beautiful. It was a bitterly cold night with a biting wind. At about 6:30pm, I went to lock the darkened church to keep it safe until we would open it nearer to midnight for carols and Mass. A man ran up the steps and said, ‘Father, can we come and say a prayer in the church’. I said, ‘Of course’. He then went back to the car and brought his wife carrying a very small baby. I said, perhaps rather naively, that this looked a very small baby. He said that they were on their way home from the hospital after giving birth and that this was their first born. They wanted to offer the child to God to thank him for their gift and to ask Our Lady's prayers. It was a beautifully moving scene as they carried the little bundle of the baby into the Lady Chapel and placed the baby on the altar, said their prayers and lit a candle. They showed their faith, love and their trust in God. It was a wonderful sign with which to begin the celebrations of Christmas.
The presentation of Jesus in the temple gives us great hope of his promise that he is our Redeemer, that he has made us his adopted children, that we share in the gift of his mercy and will find our home in him.
May the example of Simeon and Anna encourage and inspire us.
Our Lady, Mother of Sorrows, pray for us.
Image: Fr Lawrence Lew OP