The Feast of the Presentation of the Lord

Why do we have this Feast of the Presentation of the Lord 40 days after Christmas? Why do we celebrate this Feast of February 2? It is because of a journal that was discovered in 1887. In this journal, a woman named Etheria made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. And the date is about 4th century.

And she narrated in this journal what she witnessed and experienced in her pilgrimage in Jerusalem. Especially the celebrations of the early Christian community, 4th century. And among the celebrations she witnessed and she described in her journal is the Feast of Epiphany.

You see, this Feast is very old, 4th century. The other Feast that she witnessed was the procession in honor of the presentation of the Child Jesus in the temple after 40 days that He was born. Now we have to understand that Jesus and Mary were faithful Jews.

And under the Jewish law in the religion of Mary and Joseph, a woman has to do two things after she gives birth. First, she has to present herself to the priest in the temple and to offer a sacrifice for her purification. Because a woman who gives birth is considered unclean after she gives birth.

So she has to go to the priest to be blessed and she has to offer for her purification. Now without this ritual, she cannot join the worship in the temple. The second ritual is the presentation of the Child after 40 days.

The mother and the parents have to bring their child to the temple to be presented to the Lord. And what we celebrate today is not the purification of Mary, but the appearance of Jesus, the Savior of the world, in the temple. The appearance of Jesus in the temple.

What are the important lessons of this Feast for our faith and for our community? Three. First, Pope Benedict said, Jesus entered the old temple because he is the new temple. Beautiful.

Jesus entered the old temple of Jerusalem to become the new temple. We know that temple or church is a place of worship. It is a place to meet God.

It is a place to experience God. To encounter God. That is why this Feast is also called the Feast of the Encounter.

And it speaks of Jesus, the Son of God, meeting his people, represented by Simeon and Anna. Simeon and Anna, night and day, worship in the temple. They represent the people of God.

And Jesus entering this temple means he meets his people. Remember this story that I told you about my conversation with a Filipina who said to me, I don’t need to pass through a church or to a priest to go to God or to have a relationship with God. I almost told her, yes, you are not wrong.

But you are not also completely right. But I don’t want to go into argument. So I just respected his opinion, his personal belief.

Well, today, we learn Jesus himself entered the temple. In our Catholic faith, Jesus is the new temple. How do we have a relationship with God? How do we go to God? We do not pass through St. Ignatius Church.

We do not pass through Fr. Francis to go to God, to have a relationship with God. Rather, we meet God through the Mass, through the Holy Eucharist.

Not through this place, not through me, but through the Holy Eucharist. And what is the Holy Eucharist? It is Jesus himself, the new temple where we meet God. That is the first.

Jesus is the new temple. Second, another name for this place is Candle Mass. Because of the tradition of the blessing and distribution of candles, which is part of the liturgy of this feast.

This is also a very old ritual. 8th century, during the time of Pope Servius. Pope Servius started a candlelight procession to celebrate this feast. 8th century. And this ritual is based on Simeon’s words in the Gospel. When he held in his arms the baby Jesus at Brooklyn, this child is a light for the revelation to the world.

The second lesson is, Jesus is the light to our path to God. Jesus is our sure guide on the way to the Father. It is hard to walk if we do not know where to go, right? And it is even harder to walk if all around us is dark.

Yesterday, on Wednesday, I had a house blessing. We just googled the address of Kendrick, one of our altar servers. He was the one who googled it. He used Google Maps. We were walking around. I did not know where we were. We were brought to a bar. Kendrick said, Father, we are here. We were walking for 30 minutes. He said, Father, it looks like we are already far away. After 30 minutes of walking, we went back to where we started. I was so confused. I said, Kendrick, where are we really? He said, Father, it looks like we are here. It was a really fun walk. But being here on Google Maps, yeah.

This feast reminds us, Jesus, who is from heaven, is our sure guide to heaven. Third, finally, the Gospel reading tells us about the simplicity of the offering of Jesus and Mary. They did not offer gold or money, but two pigeons, two turtledoves.

This reminds us that Jesus was born among the poor. That is good news, especially today, where the majority of people in the world are actually poor. The question is, why would God choose to be born in poverty? I already told you, God wants to tell us something very important.

He could have chosen a much more exalted life context or privileged setting. But God chose to be born in a poor surrounding, in poverty. Why? Because it was not about wealth, power, and honor. It was not about prestige, comfort, and success. It was all about love. The love and compassion of God from heaven coming into our lives, into our world.

Isn’t this a good news for all of us? That God is one with us in all our struggles. Why was Jesus born into poverty? Because if you got everything, it would be hard to be God. It would be hard to acknowledge that we need God in our lives.

And we can observe that today, especially in very wealthy countries like Germany. It is not hard to see. If you got everything, you will not feel your need for God.

It is actually very hard to see and experience God. Let us watch for a moment and let us reflect.