Lessons For the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord

Lessons For the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord

1. Move to the next level: By presenting the Child Jesus in the Temple instead of a Synagogue, Mary and Jesus challenge us to move from our supposed level of comfort to the next level of spiritual heights.

2. Catch them Young for Christ: By presenting Jesus in the temple, Jesus’ parents have set an example for parents to take up the noble task of being what Lumen Gentium No 11 calls “first heralds of the gospel” to their children in the Domestic Church through ensuring that their kids get religious education. Prepare them for Life: Besides providing children with religious and civic education, it is crucial for parents to teach their kids how to survive independently by not preparing the road for them but preparing the kids for the road of life.

3. Fulfil the Requirements of the Church: By fulfilling the Jewish law that every first-born belonged to God (Ex. 13:1-2) and must be redeemed or brought back with five shekels (Num. 18:15-16), Jesus, Mary and Joseph challenge us to embrace humility and obedience through fulfilling the requirements of the law in our parishes such as contracting marriage in a Catholic way, fulfilling our financial obligations in Church (redeeming your pledges), reconciling with the Church et al.

   

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4. Embrace Poverty of the Spirit: By offering a pair of turtle doves and two pigeons, Mary and Joseph teach us that Jesus came to identify with the “anawims,” the poorest of the poor which further challenges us to copy his humility because although he was in the form of God, Jesus did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped (Phil. 2:6).

5. Wait on the Lord: Simeon waited on the Lord and he saw Israel’s consolation while Anna its redemption – as such, we are reminded that those who wait on the Lord in terms of hunger, unemployment, delay in admission, childlessness, lack of promotion and illness or near death-experience shall mount on eagles wings (Is. 40:31).

6. Fast and Pray: In the life of Simeon and Anna, the Church presents us with prayer and fasting as the oldest weapons of fighting the devil.

7. Be Consecrated: By holding endless vigil in the temple, Simeon and Anna urge religious men and women to dedicate themselves to the priestly and religious life and indeed all of us to be consecrated and dedicated to God.