The Feast of the Presentation of the Lord is one that holds a very special meaning to me. It is the moment in time when the mother of Jesus, Mary, and her husband Joseph brought the baby to the temple to be consecrated to the Lord.
This was a big moment for a family in the ancient Jewish tradition and Mary and Joseph, being good followers of the law, made this journey to give Jesus to God.
The idea is that God has given us life and so we are his.
Following along with the custom of the first male child being consecrated was the method in which that law and tradition was filled.
How does that stay with us at Gannon?
If we can for a moment look past the infant presentation and see the Lord’s call to offer our lives as a living sacrifice to the him, we can draw lines and connect the continued call of God to begin a relationship with him.
If we see the presentation of ourselves as a “whole and living sacrifice” then this relationship will begin to become clear.
Think of this situation: you have committed to a relationship with another person and now it changes from the “talking” phase to the stage which says that “I will continue to work on this relationship for a life-long commitment.”
The relationships we are involved in whether it is a dating situation or a platonic one or perhaps one that is newly formed, must have the concept of treating that person with love and respect.
See, Mary and Joseph were “talking” to God about Jesus.
They were praying in thanksgiving and recognized that the necessary pinwheel is God, so they entered into the divine relationship.
Not only were Mary and Joseph in relationship with each other, they were also in relationship with God.
We can see that there is a life after this one and that the relationships we have on earth with each other will end.
Christ calls us to “Love the Lord, your God, with all your heart and soul, and love your brother as yourself.”
So in first presenting ourselves to God for his will, we will fulfill the law of love.
The divine relationship, in turn, feeds us to continue to partake in the life of Christ, so that “we will know the Father who loved us first.”
That call for presentation is made for you and me every day.
We are called to be in relationship with God.
In any relationship we must see the divine in the other person and in doing so become Christ for each other.
Mary and Joseph recognized the call “to be” and went to the temple to present Jesus to Simeon, the high priest.
One more thought: If this day God sends you a gift, if God presents himself to you in the form of a friend in need will you respond the way Simeon did with open arms or will you shove away that gift?
Simeon must have heard of a “king” to come and yet here was this little tiny infant child born to a poor ordinary family and he was able to see the divine in that child.
Sometime the greatest gifts that God sends us are in the most unusual forms and the most extraordinary ways.
If we spend our lifetime searching and only recognizing the “big” gifts, we will certainly miss out on the greatest treasures we are given – each other – in our everyday, ordinary and uncommon situations that lead us closer to Christ.
