“The Presentation of the Lord”
This homily was given at the Pontifical North American College,
Vatican City State,
by Rev. Kurt Belsole, OSB
Feb, 2, 2016
In the magnificent Cathedral of Chartres, there is a lovely 13th century stained-glass window commemorating this feast and the infant Christ is wrapped in swaddling clothes, presented in the temple, and placed on what is clearly an altar.
Today’s feast serves as a fitting transition from Christmas to Easter.
This small Christ Child is still in His Mother’s arms, but she is already offering Him in sacrifice—in the Temple, in the very place of sacrifice.
And there is a motif of light throughout today’s feast.
On Christmas the light shone out of the darkness and the Lord was adored by Mary and Joseph and the shepherds.
On Epiphany, the Magi as representatives of the Gentiles, guided by a star, came as a small company of three to adore to Lord.
Today on the Feast of the Presentation, Christ is proclaimed by the aged Simeon as the light of revelation to the Gentiles and the glory of the Lord’s people Israel; that light which first appeared just to the small band of Mary, Joseph and some Jewish shepherds, and then to the more universal but still restricted group of the Magi, today bursts forth in a splendor that enlightens the whole world–and fittingly, as that light was placed into the hands of the aged Simeon who proclaimed the newborn Christ as the light of revelation to the Gentiles
–today we Gentiles have held in our hands lighted candles as signs of the Light of Christ which we have received and which we bear into the world.
In the Greek Church, this feast is called the “feast of meeting or encounter” because in the temple, Simeon and Anna met their Lord and here and now we meet Him in His word and in His sacrament, in the Eucharist, and in the Christian assembly.
When we receive Holy Communion, we take the role of Simeon who was privileged to hold the Lord’s anointed in his arms, but we receive him not into our arms as did Simeon of old, but into our bodies, into our hearts, and into our souls—or as the Fathers of the Church would say, in this sacramental encounter the body is fed and the soul is nourished—we receive him—so that he may bring his light into even the most hidden recesses of our lives as he becomes more intimate to us than we are to ourselves and that he may dispel whatever darkness lies hidden there—even the remnants of anger, lust, gossip, envy, and unholy fear and unnecessary self-doubt which need to put to flight by the light of Christ.
In reflecting on today’s feast, we see that today Jesus enters His Father’s house for the first time as an infant being dedicated to the Lord. We will meet Him again in the temple listening to the teachers and asking them questions, and finally, we will see Him on Calvary, making the Jerusalem temple itself obsolete as He himself becomes the temple, the altar, and the Lamb of sacrifice—and one day, God willing, we will see him as the risen Lord in the new and eternal Jerusalem which as we read in the Book of Revelation had no temple because the Lord, God the Almighty, is its temple—he and the Lamb—that temple which had no need of sun or moon, for the glory of God gave it light, and its lamp was the Lamb.
For the aged Simeon, there is nothing more that he wants from life. Having seen the Redeemer—the Messiah, he is overcome with gratitude and pours out from his soul, the night prayer of his life, Now Lord, you may dismiss your servant in peace. His beautiful canticle, the Nunc Dimittis, serves as the gospel canticle for our daily night prayer, the official night prayer of the Church.
For us, who have been graced to live in the fullness of time, for us who in our liturgy participate “in mystery” in the worship of the choirs of angels and the saints, for us who will see the altar candles lighted for Mass and for Morning and Evening Prayer, again and again, day after day and year after year—these candles need always to remind us of Christ’s victory of light over darkness, the victory of good over evil, the victory of the Lord of Light over the prince of darkness, and finally they must remind us of the very freedom of the sons of God—because light, not darkness has definitively triumphed in the paschal mystery of Christ’s saving passion, death, and resurrection. They are not simple banquet candles dressing up a festive table—rather they are concrete symbols and reminders of Christ the Light whose feast we celebrate today.
But for us, priests and future priests, today’s feast of the Presentation of the Lord in the Temple has another meaning as well—in Chartres the stained-glass window depicted Christ as a child placed on an altar. For us—throughout our preparation for priesthood as well as in our priesthood itself, and perhaps especially in this time exams, it is good to recall that the candle in shedding its light, in burning brightly in the presence of the Lord—is itself consumed. For us, to be instruments of Christ’s light and love, we willingly place ourselves on the altar, and we will be consumed—or to use the words of Saint John the Baptist, the Friend of the Bridegroom, he must increase, I must decrease.
To Christ, the Light of the World—to our God who is a consuming fire—be glory for ever and ever. Amen.
Source: Rev. Kurt Belsole, OSB, Saint Vincent Archabbey, Latrobe, PA
www.liftupyourhearts.church