THE WORD
Mal 3,1-4 / Heb 2,14-18 / Lk 2,22-40
When the days were completed for their puri cation according to the law of Moses, they took him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord, just as it is written in the law of the Lord, “Every male that opens the womb shall be consecrated to the Lord,” and to off er the sacri ce of “a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons,” in accordance with the dictate in the law of the Lord. Now there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon. This man was righteous and devout, awaiting the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him. It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he should not see death before he had seen the Messiah of the Lord. He came in the Spirit into the temple; and when the parents brought in the child Jesus to perform the custom of the law in regard to him, he took him into his arms and blessed God, saying: “Now, Master, you may let your servant go in peace, according to your word, for my eyes have seen your salvation, which you prepared in sight of all the peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and glory for your people Israel.”
IN OTHER WORDS
With pregnancy a woman’s whole world is transformed, and when the child is finally born her whole life embarks on countless life-changes. A child offers possibilities, but also disturbs her plans; it rearranges her relationships – in simple and radical ways; it reshuffl es her priorities, reordering her values and nuancing her principles.
Because the micro-issues of feeding, cleaning, nursing, watching and teaching and so on are so immediate and pressing, she has no luxury of time for meditating on the value of this child, or locating its history within a larger horizon. Only when crisis strikes is she reminded of who this package is – when it gets sick, when it meets an accident, when it is lost. Then she realizes how much her existence has become centered on its well-being and so much less on her own.
The presentation of Jesus in the temple invites all of us to reflect on the scriptural view that every child is a gift from God, graciously bestowed and therefore meriting acknowledgement. In this religious matrix in fact every child makes our salvation and redemption possible, by bringing out the best in us. For each of us instinctively reaches to protect and love the child, to seek its well-being – spontaneously, without thought of compensation, in pure grace.
Every birth thus offers parents the chance of presentation, and with it, revelation. The Son of
God who is also Son of Man awakens to the existential meanings of any child for any parent: as God’s entry in flesh and blood into every family. The Presentation invites every parent to re ect not only on the Jesus in Simeon’s arms, or the Santo Niño venerated in the Sinulog, but on their own sons and daughters.
Just today, beyond reminiscing on particular incidents in their intertwined lives, can parents not meditate – in the same way Mary and Joseph, Simeon and Anna did – on the mysterious blessings God has given them in their children? Just today, can siblings not gaze on each other and wonder who they are, what they mean, how much value they hold, for each other in God’s eyes?
- Fr. Dionisio Miranda, SVD | President, USC, Cebu City
The Word in other words 2016
An annual project of Logos Publications, The WORD in Other Words Bible Diary contains daily scripture readings and reflections written by priest, brothers, and sisters of the three congregations founded by St. Arnold Janssen (the SVD, SSpS, and SSpSAP). It hopes to serve as a daily companion to readers who continually seek the correlation of the Word of God and human experience.
