The following meditation from the Feast of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary is from the Facebook page Antonio Cardinal Bacci: Meditations for Each Day. It is a most edifying page of daily meditations that I highly recommend.
2nd February
The Purification of Our Lady
1. Today the church commemorates the presentation of the Child
Jesus in the temple and the purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary. These
ceremonies were carried out in order to comply with a twofold Mosaic law. One
part of this law referred to women who had become mothers; the other part was
concerned with first-born male children. According to the first law a mother
was officially regarded as impure for forty days after she had given birth to a
child. When this period was over she had to present herself in the temple and
make an offering of a lamb and a turtledove. If she were poor, she could
substitute a second young pigeon for the lamb. (Cf. Lev. 12) The second law
(Cf. Es. 13:2; 34:19; Num. 8:16; Lev. 27:26) commanded the mother to offer and
consecrate to God her first-born son. She was to do this in memory of the
miracle in Egypt when the Angel of God destroyed all the first born sons of the
people of the country and spared those of the Israelites. In later times when
the ritual worship of God became the special obligation of the tribe of Levi,
the first-born sons of the other tribes had to be presented in the temple and
bought back by an offering.
It is quite clear that Jesus and Mary were not bound by this
twofold law. But they voluntarily subjected themselves to it in order to give
an example of humility and obedience.
2. When we meditate on the subject of this feast, we find two
outstanding examples to be imitated. The first is given by Mary. She was
perfectly pure and holy, conceived without original sin and full of grace. She
knew well that she had conceived her Divine Son by the power of the Holy
Spirit. So she was not obliged to observe the humiliating law of purification.
Nevertheless, she fulfilled it and gave God the offering of the poor as a lesson
for us in humility and poverty. It is so easy for us to excuse ourselves from
obeying the law and to make a display of our special privileges before others.
Let us learn from Mary to love silent submission and detachment from worldly
wealth and honours.
The other example is given us by Jesus. Being God, there was no
need for Him to be bought back in the same way as the first-born sons of the
Israelites. He was the Saviour Who had come to redeem the human race from sin
and make them heirs to the kingdom of Heaven. But He said of Himself: “I have
not come to destroy, but to fulfil.” (Mt. 5:17) A few days earlier He had
submitted to the painful and humiliating rite of circumcision. Now He allows
Himself to be offered in the temple as a victim of expiation for all mankind.
These are glorious examples, before which our pride should bow in shame. We
should be moved to offer ourselves to God lovingly and without reserve.
3. In
the Gospel narrative of St. Luke (Cf. Luke 2:22-31) another character also
appears. He intrudes upon the scene without any apparent right to be there, but
he had been inspired by God. This is the old and saintly Simeon. He was not a
priest. He was an upright man, careful in his observance of the law, who was
waiting longingly for the coming of the promised Redeemer. The Holy Spirit
dwelt in him and had revealed that he would not die until he had seen the
Saviour. He was inspired to go to the Temple, where he saw Jesus. He took Him
in his arms and was overcome by joy. Then he blessed God and declared that he
was prepared to accept death now that he had been able to see and embrace the
Saviour as God had promised. “Now thou dost dismiss thy servant, O Lord,
according to thy word, in peace.” (Luke 2:29) It was a beautiful way to meet
death, to be able to hold Jesus close to his heart and see his long life of
hope and expectation rewarded by the loving embrace of his Lord. Let us try and
live like Simeon, with our minds and hearts turned towards Jesus. Let us think
chiefly of Him, love Him above everything else, and work only for Him. Then our
death will be as beautiful as his. In fact we shall have been even more
fortunate, for we can go further than receiving Jesus in our arms. We shall be
able to receive Him into our hearts. He will be at hand to give us the
supernatural strength which we shall need on our great journey into eternity.
No comments:
Post a Comment