Feast of the Presentation: Read: Malachi 3:1-4; Heb 2: 14-18; Lk 2:22-40
In all the celebrations of the great feasts and solemnities of Christ we seek not only to commemorate a great Hero,
but to supplicate Christ Himself to make present in us and for us the power and grace of those feasts. The Mass is not just
a devout recalling of the Last Supper or of Calvary: it is Christ Himself enwrapping and enrapturing
us, here and now, into His eternal worship of the Father by literally incorporating us into His “Corpus”, His
risen and ascended Body. Sacramental absolution of sin is not simply a “nice little blessing”: it is the power
of Christ’s own self-sacrifice destroying the work of Satan and of our own sinful selves in our hearts and souls. And
so one could go on for all the sacraments.
But today, we need to seek from the Word of God what power of grace Christ seeks to infuse into us by this celebration
of his Presentation in the Temple, also known as Candlemas or the Purification.
In the reading from Hebrews, we heard why Jesus took on our flesh and blood; there are at least two reasons: first,
in order to die, so that by dying He could wrest from Satan all power over death; and, second, to free us all from the fear
of death and from the slavery that comes from that fear. When Simeon took Jesus in his arms, he said: Now, Lord I can die
without fear, I can die in peace for my eyes have seen your salvation. Simeon prophecies that the child would free all nations
from their greatest fear, the fear of death.
Here lies something of the power and grace which Christ desires to communicate to each of us here today. Freedom from
the fear of death and freedom from the slavery of which Hebrews speaks, namely the slavery of sin. We need to understand that
the real death which Christ destroyed for us is not in the first place bodily death, but eternal death, the death of our spirits.
Spiritual death means eternal separation from God, a curse which was symbolized by the departure of Adam and Eve from Eden. Such death is the work of Satan who is himself eternally separated
from God, and opposed to all who would belong to God. Such death is also the work of our free will when we collaborate with
the ways of Satan. Bodily death is the fate of all human beings because of original sin, but if our spirits renounce Satan
and all his works and if we embrace, as did Simeon, the child Jesus, the God-man Christ, then our bodily death becomes but
a passageway, a doorway to the promised freedom of eternal, spiritual life. And on the day of Resurrection, our bodies will
rise again, freed from all trace of original sin, to be reunited with our spirits in the company of Christ and of all the
elect.
There will always be in us, perhaps with the exception of the few, a certain fear of death. The reason is that as long
as we perceive physical death as the end of our existence, as long as we cling to the slavery of sin, we fear that, beyond
death, we will be somehow handed over to Satan for eternal punishment. Everyone who fears expects punishment. But this is
where Christ can free us from that fear, if we accept His power and grace. He became that little child precisely in order
to destroy the source of our fear and the habits of our fearful living. The moment our first parents sinned, death became
Satan’s weapon to enslave us through fear and to hold us in fear by constantly working to make us sin more and more.
His design is that we live forever with him in physical and spiritual separation from God. But the moment Christ died on the
Cross, Satan’s weapon passed into the hands of Jesus. Death could not hold Jesus because Jesus was without sin. And
the design of Jesus is precisely the opposite of Satan’s: it is that, body and soul, we live for ever with Him in eternal
communion with God.
Slavery to sin is a signal to us that we are still afraid of death, that we still expect punishment, that we still
suspect that Satan has power over death, that we have not yet understood in the depths of our hearts that Christ now holds
the keys of death and that by the keys of Peter he forgives every sin and every sinner that comes to Him in trusting faith,
hope and love. The reality is that most of us still feel this slavery to sin. Freedom from it is the work of Christ and of
our own willingness to let Christ purify us. This is the sense of today’s first reading. Christ the purifier: For he
is like the refiner’s fire, or like the fuller’s lye. He will sit refining and purifying silver, and he will purify
the sons of Levi, refining them like gold or silver that they may offer due sacrifice to the Lord. Obviously, the Lord can
purify us immediately - think of the martyrs whose blood, mingled with that of Christ, purifies them immediately of every
sin. But normally, the Lord purifies us gradually, using every means available to do so: does not the very process of aging
signal to us that He is purifying us to turn gradually to Him for the hope of eternal youth? Do not sickness or misfortune
of any kind, whilst painful and humiliating, offer us the doorway to trust in His strength and grace? Does not the doctrine
of purgatory hold out to us the wonderful hope that, even after bodily death, Christ will not let go of those who, however
minimally, have tried to surrender to Him and have not rejected Him?
In other words, today’s solemnity is another reminder to us that we have not here a lasting city and that the
pain and suffering we undergo, if embraced with faith in the forgiveness of sins and in Christ’s victory over death,
can ready us for that lasting city which is the Temple of the Living God in Heaven. Christ understands our suffering, for
He Himself suffered; Christ understands our testing, for He Himself was tested. But because Christ never sinned, He is able
to purify us from our sin so that his Light, consolation and grace may allow us to die in peace on that happy day that He
calls us to Himself.
In a world which seems to be facing great uncertainty in almost every dimension of life, we would be foolish not to
embrace the renewed opportunity of grace which Christ the Light of all Nations offers us today: to have confidence in His
victory over the world and over the Prince of this world; to be reassured in
our faith in the forgiveness of our sins and in the final freedom from slavery to sin; to welcome Him as the Purifier of our
entire lives; to have unflagging trust in His heartfelt compassion and companionship with us in our struggles; and to rejoice
without apology in His desire and power to save us, body and soul, from eternal death and to raise us up, body and soul, to
eternal life.
Let me conclude on a very practical note. We need to liberate ourselves from the mind-pattern of our culture to think
that who we are and what we do in this life, big or small, is of no significance for the next life, if indeed, as many would
doubt, there be a next life. We cannot now live as if God did not exist and then expect God to solve our problems when we
realize we have excluded Him from our lives. If you don’t believe in God, why blame Him? The choices we make in life,
especially the significant ones -and each of us knows for him or herself what those choices are- must be made not just in
some vague reference to, or personal interpretation of, God’s will. Our choices will be true when, in conscience, we
make them with reference to the doctrine of Christ as it is taught by the Church of Christ, in whatever area of life is involved. The Devil seeks to shrink our perspectives and fool us with decoys. Christ
commands us to lift up the gates of our hearts and let Him, the King of Glory, enter.
There is no time to lose lest all the grace given us is itself lost and we find ourselves on the threshold of hell,
incapable, because unwilling, of calling on the name of the Lord. The challenge of today’s feast is to live life in
such a way that when death comes upon us we can cry out joyfully with Simeon: “At last, all-powerful Master, let your
servant go in peace, for my eyes have seen your salvation.”
Msgr. Peter Magee
St. Matthew’s
Cathedral, Washington DC
Sunday, February 2nd, 2003, Feast of the Presentation
