Homecoming To The Temple

Homecoming

Today’s feast is a commemoration of the wonderful moment when Jesus, the Messiah and Son of God, comes home to the Temple at Jerusalem. Homecoming is a wonderful moment in life. I recall decades ago, flying into our South Texas airport after a one-week training session, and my whole family was there. Unfortunately, my next stop was a local hospital, because I was bleeding from some unknown internal cause and instead of joy, our whole family felt apprehension. Recently, our whole nation was stunned when a military helicopter, flying near our U.S. capitol, rammed a passenger jet as it was landing, killing everyone on board. A wave of prayer and empathy spread across the globe as each of us imagine how we would feel if we were awaiting a homecoming of a loved one taken from us with sudden violence.

Joseph and Mary brought their newborn Jesus into the Temple for a solemn ceremony. “As the firstborn, [Jesus] belonged to God. According to the Law, Mary and Joseph were required to take him to the Temple and ‘redeem’ him by paying five shekels.” There was also a required sacrifice of purification for Mary. All this is total irony. Jesus, Second Person of the Blessed Trinity, humbled Himself to become human so that He could by His life, death, resurrection and ascension redeem His people. Mary, who conceived and gave birth to Jesus in total virginity, was already pure Mother of the Redeemer.

“However, the Gospel story nowhere mentions Jesus’ ‘redemption,’ but seems to describe instead a religious consecration—such as a priest might undergo. Saint Luke tells us that Jesus is ‘presented’ in the Temple, using the same verb that Saint Paul uses to describe the offering of a sacrifice” in the letter to the Romans. So everything about this event at the Temple is unique, a singular intervention by Divine Love, just as the Incarnation and birth of this little boy were for the world.

Wait, as the TV commercial says, there are even more great things. Here’s an old man who had heard from heaven that his “bucket list” had a promised event: Simeon would before death see the Mashiah of the Lord. He takes the child from Mary and prays words that are so special the Church uses them every night in Compline, or Night Prayer: “Now, Lord, you may dismiss Thy servant in peace, for my eyes have seen salvation.” But he adds a chilling word for mother Mary: "Behold, this child is set for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign that is spoken against (and a sword will pierce through your own soul also), that thoughts out of many hearts may be revealed."

And let’s not forget this elder woman, Anna, who has been in the Temple constantly since being widowed. Why is she telling everyone she can about the child? We don’t hear the Gospel telling us that she, too, heard a revelation by the Holy Ghost. An ancient legend in the Protoevangelium of St. James, probably written down at least a hundred years after the event, tells us that Mary herself had her early education among the women of the Temple. Anna, then, could very well have known how special this young virgin mother was from personal experience.

The Church knows how special this event in the life of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph was, and is. It is called “Candlemas” because people from antiquity have been bringing candles for blessing by Jesus, the Light of the World. And the day is called the Feast of Purification, not because Mary was purified, but because the Messiah came to purify His people with the fire of the Holy Spirit.

We celebrate today the conclusion of the Christmas-Epiphany season, this long festivity in the depths of winter, because Jesus partakes of the same nature as we do. He is human and divine, and only with that unconfused identity has the power to raise our nature toward and into divinity, sacramentally through faith and earthly elements. God’s love is made manifest, and we are invited to celebrate, because the Light has come, and the darkness cannot overcome it.