Tomorrow is a brilliant celebration of two mysteries: the Presentation of our Lord, and the Purification of our Lady. Since these mysteries fulfilled the precepts of the Old Law, we can imagine Jerusalem on this day, over 2,000 years ago, personified in expectation. This holy city exhorts its citizens and Temple to prepare for the Lord’s coming:
“Oh inhabitants of this promised land, listen! Daughter Jerusalem speaks to you. You too, oh holy Temple where God’s presence abides! For there is a great reason to rejoice: God has been born . . . .
“This profound mystery refuses to go unnoticed, even forty days later. Its radiance continues to spread throughout the world, and tomorrow its rays will arrive at our gates.
“God will enter his Temple in a new way, showing that he is truly God and man: truly God as the holiest offering, and a true man carried in his mother’s arms. The Godhead who received your countless offerings in this Temple will offer himself. The author of the law will observe it perfectly.
“See how this child will be subject to the law so that he might redeem those under the law. He will observe a two-fold precept of our law. In general, the law commanded an offering to be made upon the birth of any newborn child. More specifically, it prescribed a sacrifice for the firstborn, to give the Lord what was claimed as his own in the Exodus. Tomorrow, this newborn and firstborn son of the virgin will observe these requirements, remedying our disobedience with perfect obedience.
“He will not only obey the law but also fulfill it for a greater purpose: our salvation. This divine newborn, the new Adam, assumes the nature of our father who begot the life of the human race. He will later offer his own life so that new life might be given to all. This firstborn child is also the firstborn of all creation, the Only-Begotten who will be offered to God to liberate us from our slavery to sin, as you were once slaves in the land of Egypt. Fulfilling these laws tomorrow and beginning the expiation of our sins, he truly is, as that righteous and devout man will say, both the ‘light for revelation to the Gentiles, and glory for your people Israel.’
“Rejoice, oh Temple, but do not grow content! You who have become a den of thieves will later be purged by this child. Your veil will be rent in two as this child becomes the sacrificial lamb and, as that same blessed man will prophesy, when the sword pierces the heart of the Mother of God. Alas, you will be destroyed. Tomorrow, he who is the Truth will observe the law by bowing before what prefigured himself. But the sign will later give way to the reality, showing that he is the true temple, Emmanuel—God with us.
“But rejoice still more, Jerusalem, and all you who love her! The glory of tomorrow belongs to us as well, as seen in the example of this most blessed one among women. She was chosen to be God’s temple and will enter his dwelling place with the very one who created it. She is humble like her son, who cannot even walk into his own Temple! In such virtue, she will submit to the purification of our laws, even though she is without sin. What a lesson of humility and what dignity is given to humanity! A creature bears the Creator and is made a beautiful temple of God with the adornments of grace.
“Beloved children of the Lord: you too will be temples of God by the saving waters that will flow from the side of this new temple. Prepare yourselves, citizens of God’s kingdom, here in this city and throughout the world. God presents himself pure and perfect in the arms of his immaculate mother so that we might be made perfect as well and present ourselves to the ineffable God. Listen not only to me but also to this child and his mother who come to us saying, ‘Arise! Shine, for your light has come, the glory of the Lord has dawned upon you.’”
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Photo by Mike Labrum on Unsplash
