There are many touching scenes in this gospel episode. For starters, imagine yourself in Simeon’s sandals, standing there taking the child Jesus into your arms. As we heard, Simeon blessed God, saying what has become the night prayer derived from the gospel for many who say the Divine Office, “Lord, now let your servant go in peace: your word has been fulfilled: my own eyes have seen the salvation which you have prepared in the sight of every people: a light to reveal you to the nations and the glory of your people Israel.” That is usually the last prayer I say before I hit the sack each night.
Yes, imagine Jesus being presented to you. Actually, he is presented to you whenever you partake of the Eucharist. After all, that is not bread and wine you are receiving. When you accept the host, you are acting like Simeon, taking the Lord Jesus into yourself responding, “Amen” as you do.
This sacrament, derived from Jesus sharing of himself at the Last Supper, is a sacrament of oneness. It makes us one with Christ and makes us one with one another in Christ. This enabled our Church to become the diverse community of faith that transcends countless cultures and languages.
Our catechism teaches us that we are temples of the Holy Spirit so imagine yourself as the temple in this gospel scene. Mary and Joseph have delivered their son to you in this precious sacrament. While we cannot yet see his Father, or touch his mother, nor the Holy Spirit, we can touch Jesus himself and we do whenever we partake of this sacrament in a state of grace.
We gaze upon the host held high at the consecration and know that we are not seeing bread. We know by an act of faith that we are gazing upon the swaddling clothes of God made man. We can taste the flavor of bread yet we know that what we partake is not bread but is indeed the Son of God, Jesus the Christ, whom his parents brought to the temple forty days after his birth. We taste the flavor of wine yet we know what we taste is the blood of our redeemer who died on the cross days after sharing the first Eucharist.
We hold the belief that the bread and wine are not changed into the body and blood of Christ. Rather their substance is changed into the substance of the body and blood of Christ. If that notion seems far-fetched, just think of all that God has created out of nothing from the most remote star to the deer in your back yard. Who are we to limit what God can do?
The story in today’s gospel is one of the few episodes in the Bible in which Jesus, Mary and Joseph are seen together as a family. Mary and Joseph are following the prescribed religious ritual of presenting their child, Jesus, at the Temple and offering sacrifice to God for Mary’s purification. This ritual took place forty days after the birth of any firstborn male child back then. And in this context of family togetherness, Luke concludes the story with these words:
“When they had fulfilled all the prescriptions of the law of the Lord, they returned to Galilee, to their own town of Nazareth. The child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom; and the favor of God was upon him.”
May we also grow in wisdom, allowing the favor of God to be upon us. This sacrament enables us to be refined, purified and tested. We live in a culture that challenges our beliefs and values, yet when we allow ourselves to grow in wisdom, seeking to better understand our faith and deepen our relationship with Christ, we are less likely to dismiss the awesome truth of this sacramental encounter.
Do you ever waiver in your conviction that this encounter actually puts you in touch with Jesus? I suspect many do, otherwise every seat in this church would be filled at every Mass. By their example of being faithful to fulfilling the law of the Lord, Mary and Joseph challenge us to do likewise. However tempted you are to skip Mass or even abandon the faith, by virtue of our baptism, we are blessed at every Mass to receive Jesus into our lives. We are here, not to be entertained but to give ourselves to God, who gives himself to us in return in the Eucharist, becoming one with us.
The closer we are to God, the more aware we are of God’s presence in our everyday lives. That is what enabled Simeon and Anna to recognize Jesus apart from any other infant that was brought to the temple. They could see with the eyes of their minds and hearts what human eyes cannot see. That is how they knew who Jesus was. Do we want to see what our eyes cannot see? Do we want to have a greater awareness of God’s presence and love? Do we want to see the goodness and holiness in ourselves and in others? The better we know him, the more visible Jesus will be to us.
It is not enough for us to see and recognize that Jesus is in our midst. We must also be a light to reveal Jesus to the nations; whatever we say and do is an opportunity to reveal Jesus to others. We must be the presence of the risen Christ. Actively living the gospel once we leave the halls of this Church is what this sacrament empowers us to do.
Actively living the gospel by what we say and do is the mission entrusted to us at the end of every Mass. We have the opportunity to make a difference in making the kingdom of heaven real, but only if we carry out our responsibilities to others and to God, just as Mary and Joseph did.