Meditation on the Presentation of the Lord

This Sunday, we are presented with a unique occasion, for today's feast, the Presentation of the Lord, takes precedence over the Sunday in Ordinary Time. Therefore, we get to celebrate this "final" end to the Christmas cycle. Although the Christmas season ended with the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord, we are again presented with the infant Jesus. In fact, the Vatican actually leaves their outdoor Nativity scene up until this feast, and in the Extraordinary Form it is also seen as another ending to the Christmas season. Additionally, from tonight until the Easter Vigil, the Marian antiphon at Compline is no longer the Alma Redemptoris Mater, but the Ave Regina Caelorum. 

It is evident that this feast brings about a ton of change, and that is what I want to focus on in this meditation. The two texts of the Mass I will use are the Collect and the Prayer after Communion for this Feast. 

The Collect reads:

Almighty ever-living God,

we humbly implore your majesty

that, just as your Only-Begotten Son

was presented on this day in the Temple

in the substance of our flesh,

so, by your grace,

we may be presented to you with minds made pure.

Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,

who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,

one God, for ever and ever.

The Prayer after Communion is:

By these holy gifts which we have received, O Lord,

bring your grace to perfection within us,

and, as you fulfilled Simeon's expectation

that he would not see death

until he had been privileged to welcome the Christ,

so may we, going forth to meet the Lord,

obtain the gift of eternal life.

Through Christ our Lord. 

These two prayers have a theme within them of movement - a procession, we might say, which is of course highly appropriate since the rubrics of the Mass call for a procession. But why? We didn't have a procession on Christmas, and that feast was bigger. We didn't have one on Epiphany. We actually only have them three times a year. Palm Sunday, the Easter Vigil, and today. 

It is because of the mystery of the day. This Feast is very much an ending, but it is also a beginning. The mysteries surrounding the Infant Jesus end today. We now begin to look towards the Pascal Mystery. 

Throughout the Christmas cycle, we were constantly reminded of how we must welcome the Lord in our lives. During Advent, we were given the summons to make room in our souls for Him. On Christmas, we saw Him be born as man for us, and were called to let Him be born in our hearts. We celebrated how He lived in the Holy Family, and were inspired to bring Him more fully into our families. We were given the perfect example of Mary, keeping Christ perfectly in her soul. And Epiphany showed us how to present our gifts to Him in spiritual sacrifice. 

Today now we come again to Jesus, and desire to embrace Him in our souls, as aged Simeon embraced Him. We realize that we are the temples that Christ wishes to enter. And so, as the Collect said, we present ourselves, "with minds made pure," and the Light of Jesus enters in. 

But today it is not enough that Christ enters in, for we must now go further. We must begin our procession to Calvary. The Liturgy turns to the sufferings of Christ, and so shall we. But this procession of our souls is not simply to death, but also resurrection. We know that we will, "obtain the gift of eternal life," asked for in the Prayer after Communion. This is our expectation; this is the end of Christ's becoming man. 

Let us then now hold Jesus in our hearts as we move on to sacrifice our lives to God. We will no longer contemplate the Divine Infant, but rather the preaching of the God-man, along with His sufferings. The angels will not sing, "Glory to God," but rather silently adore His Precious Blood shed for us. And our Blessed Lady will not again hold her child, until she holds His lifeless body, after He has shown the depth of His love.

Mary, Mother of God, Pray for us!

St. Joseph, Pray for us!

Blessed Simeon and Anna, Pray for us!