Sunday Homily, February 2, 2014, Presentation, Cycle A
Readings:
Malachi 3, 1-4, Yes, he is coming, says the Lord.
Psalm 24, Who is this kind of glory? It is the Lord.
Hebrews, 2, 14-18, That he might be a merciful and faithful high priest.
Luke 2, 22-40, Mary and Joseph took Jesus up to the temple to present him to the Lord.
Homily by Mike
Helen Roberta Marina Lazio was the woman that my Father married. What do I remember most about my mother? She loved to pray. She said the whole rosary every day of the last 25 years of her life. The Joyful Mysteries were her favorites for they fit well with her prayer to Mary.
Recall that the Hail Mary begins with words from the angel Gabriel [Hail Mary full of grace; the Lord is with you] at the Annunciation event and are followed by Elisabeth’s greeting to Mary at the beginning of the Visitation [Blessed are you among women; and blessed is the fruit of your womb].
The first two chapters of the Luke gospel give us the Joyful Mysteries: the Annunciation, the Visitation, the Birth of Our Lord, the Presentation, and the Finding of the boy Jesus in the Temple. Today’s Feast of the Presentation happens to be the fourth Joyful Mystery.
To help us understand more fully today’s feast, let us take a short journey within the two chapters. It begins with the story about Zechariah and Elizabeth. They are both Levites and he is also a priest. They are righteous before God and keep all the commandments of the Law; however she is barren.
They represent Judaism that is not bearing fruit, they pray for its fulfillment and God hears their prayer. Their son will be John the Baptist, the messenger of our first reading. Gabriel is now sent to Mary to announce that she will give birth to a Messiah king, and she comes to realize that the fruit she will bear fulfills the yearning and expectation of his coming given within the Law, the Prophets and the Psalms.
Gabriel tells Mary that her elderly cousin Elizabeth is not longer barren, and immediately she sets off to visit her. Elizabeth greets Mary with the words, ‘Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb.’ Elizabeth and Zechariah know that Mary is to give birth to the Messiah, and they reveal the role of John the Baptist to prepare the people for his coming. Now, recall the words of Christ, the Good Shepherd to Peter at the end of the John gospel. Three times he says, ‘Feed my Lambs.’
Lambs in the Gospel are those who have heard the words of the Good Shepherd and follow him. So, we are now presented in the Luke gospel shepherds who are watching over their flock, lambs, when angels make them aware that the Christ child will be found in a feeding trough, a manger, wrapped in stripes of cloth, a shroud.
The shepherds are to perceive the Christ child as the Suffering Servant and Lamb of God of the Good News. The Word and the Bread blessed and broken are food for the lambs. The feast of the birth of Christ [Christ Mass is the Christ Liturgy] is a feast of the liturgy the Word and the liturgy of the Eucharist: food for the soul.
The Christ child [the Word and Sacred Meal that fulfilled the written expectation of the Law, Prophets and Psalms] in the feeding trough, the Church, is now intimately understood by Simeon in the temple when he says Isaiah’s words, ‘My eyes perceive the salvation which God has prepared for the nations, a light to enlighten the gentiles and the glory of your people Israel.’
In that same way we are to manifest the Word and the Bread blessed and broken in our lives, to become the Body of Christ in the world! Liturgically we put on Christ to become the Light of the World when we are baptized in the Holy Spirit, receive a baptismal robe, and a candle lit from the Easter candle.
Remember the song, ‘This little light of mine…’ Recall the Matthew verses of a baptismal liturgy: "You are the Light of the World. A city built on a hilltop cannot be hidden, and no one lights a lamp to put it under a bushel, they put it on the lampstand, where it gives light to all who are in the house. In that same way, let your light shine before men so that seeing your good works they too may give glory your Father who in heaven.