LIGHT, PURIFICATION AND ENCOUNTER: THE CHRISTMAS DREGS.
February 2, 2020: Feast of the Presentation of the Lord.
A German proverb says: “If the eye does not want to see,
neither light nor glasses will help.”
We are forty days after Christmas, and we are invited to
celebrate the Presentation of Jesus in the Temple in a festive way. God became
man so that men in search of God could meet him. The place par excellence of
this encounter is the Temple, the holy abode of God among men. The feast of the
presentation of Jesus in the Temple is the true culmination of the mystery of
Christmas. One could, without fear of being wrong, say that today is Christmas
dregs. Because in Simeon and Anna meeting the newborn that Joseph and Mary, by
obedience to the Law present in the Temple, it is all the thirst for God of
human being that is satisfied. To see God is everyone's deepest aspiration. All
of man’s life is geared towards this end. Humanity today meets his Messiah and
is purified from it. The light of Christ enlightens our steps towards the God
of all promises.
More than another epiphany, today we celebrate a meeting of
purification and accomplishment. In itself, this celebration has these three
elements: Purification, Encounter and Light.
Above all, we are cultural beings. We are born in a culture,
live in a culture and die in a culture. We cannot, therefore, dissociate our
life from the habits and customs of our societies or from cultural integration.
The Word of God made flesh was born in a society, the Jewish culture. So, by
obedience to the Mosaic law, he was subject to the Jewish practices of his
time. This celebration of this day, beyond the theological and pastoral
connotation, is intrinsically cultural. Indeed, the Mosaic Law prescribes that,
forty days after the birth of a first son, the parents go to the Temple for a
rite of purification of the mother. The book of Leviticus describes in detail
this ceremony of purification of the mother, which in fact will also correspond
to the first exhibition of the child (Lev 12: 1-8).
Purification is actually the first element of this
celebration. The first reading and the gospel mention it. In the first reading,
the prophet Malachi tells us that the coming of God's messenger will open up an
era of purification. He comes, “like the refiner’s fire, or like the fuller’s
lye. He will sit refining and purifying silver, and he will purify the sons of
Levi, refining them like gold or like silver that they may offer due sacrifice
to the LORD.” This announced purification is the one Joseph and Mary undergo
when they take the newborn child to the Temple in Jerusalem; the same one who
will have the mission to cleanse us from our sins by his death.
This first teaching on purification opens us immediately to
the second, presentation and encounter. The strong point of the presentation of
the baby Jesus in the Temple is that of the encounter with the old man Simeon
and the prophetess Anna. This carries the deeper meaning of the meeting of God
with a humanity in search of God. It is said that the old man Simeon stood in
the Temple, hoping against all hope for the coming of the Messiah. His
expectation was so deep and so fervent that God gave him satisfaction. So, he
can exclaim, “Now, Master, you may let your servant go in peace, according to
your word, for my eyes have seen your salvation, which you prepared in the
sight of all the peoples: a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and glory for
your people Israel.”
As we pointed out, in the old Simeon, all of humanity awaits
the manifestation of God, and Anna, the prophetess participates in this
expectation. The best part is that their waiting takes them to the Temple. They
lived in the Temple, seeking the manifestation of God. Therefore, this question
comes to us today, where do we hope to find the true revelation of God? God is
found above all in his house, in the Holy Temple, in our churches. It is once
found in the Temple that we tend to incarnate him in our daily lives and in our
homes. Like Simeon and Anna, let’s not be afraid to make the abode of God our
first true abode. Because the Temple is the place par excellence for meeting
with him.
Caught in a certain philosophy of religious relativism, some
people no longer attend churches on the pretext that God can be found
everywhere. Someone once told me that he didn't come to church too often, but
that he still attended mass on TV. My response was without much humor:
"This is spiritual laziness." The Mass is not a spectacle to be followed
on television, rather an encounter, a celebration to be experienced by
participating in it. Masses on radio and television are for the sick and
disabled, not for the lazy. Anna and Simeon would not have met the Messiah if
they had sat in their houses ...
And finally, the last element arising from this
liturgy, the light. This festival is known under certain skies as
"Candelaria" or "Candlemas". The focus here is on Christ
Jesus, as light that comes from God to illumine our steps. He is the true light
which is revealed to the Gentiles and leads them to meet God. Through the
candles that we light at the start of this celebration, we too are called to
become an expression of this light in our families, in our societies and in the
world. The epistle to the Hebrews can rightly say of Jesus, that he made
himself like us in everything, until death, so that we too should be made like
him in glory. Therefore, if Christ is the light of our lives, we too should
become the light of this world, a light to our brothers and sisters.
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