By Leon Bent –
Mary’s presentation was celebrated in Jerusalem in the sixth century. A church was built there in honour of this mystery. Although the feast at times disappeared from the calendar, in the 16th century it became a feast of the universal Church, celebrated on 21st November.
As with Mary’s birth, we read of Mary’s presentation in the temple only in apocryphal literature. In what is recognized as an unhistorical account, the Protoevangelium of James tells us that Anna and Joachim offered Mary to God in the Temple when she was 3 years old. This was to carry out a promise made to God when Anna was still childless.
Though it cannot be proven historically, Mary’s presentation has an important theological purpose. It continues the impact of the feasts of the Immaculate Conception and of the birth of Mary. It emphasizes that the holiness conferred on Mary from the beginning of her life on earth continued through her early childhood and beyond.
On this Feast of the Presentation of Mary in the Temple by Joachim and Anne, we are invited to make the choice to surrender our lives to the Lord. Parents are reminded of their solemn responsibility to present their children for Baptism. We are all challenged to bring this Feast to life in our age and thereby continue to participate in God’s unfolding plan for the whole human race.
Mary had already been chosen by God, preserved by a singular grace as a chosen vessel through whom the Incarnate Word would be given for the salvation of the whole world. However, the offering by her parents is a response to the invitation to join our free choice to God’ invitation. This exercise of freedom lies at the heart of discipleship, and is the inner core of every vocation, to cooperate with grace.
Today’s Feast emphasizes our response to God’s gifts. We remember the response of Mary’s mother and father in their decision to present her in the temple for dedication to the Lord. All parents are called to imitate their response by presenting their children for Baptism.
We reflect on the mystery of Mary’s own continuing response from her very earliest days to the Lord’s invitations of grace. Yes, that is right, though preserved free from the fractured freedom which is the bad fruit of original sin; Mary was called to continually give her “Yes” to God’s invitations of love. In that continual “Fiat” she shows us the way we are all called to respond to the invitations of grace in our own lives as we grow in holiness.
She was the first evangelizer and the first disciple of her own Son Jesus. She gave the first Gospel testimony to her cousin, Elizabeth, without words, as the Redeemer in her womb drew the child in her womb, John the Baptizer to Himself. Jesus did so from the Throne he had established in Mary’s womb, a living Tabernacle. Jesus, Love Incarnate, drew John from the very first home of the whole human race, a mother’s womb, into eternal communion.
At the beginning of that missionary encounter, Elizabeth greeted Mary with profound humility, saying “who am I that the mother of my Lord should come to me?” Then the son in her own womb became the first convert “in utero” as he leapt in praise of the Maker of the Universe, who had taken up residence in Mary’s womb.
There are very few records of Mary’s explicit words in the texts of the New Testament of the Bible. However, there is no lack of her presence at the most significant events in the life, ministry, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ and therefore in the great events of salvation history. She always encountered God – in profound ways – from the beginning to the end of her life. In every encounter, she surrendered to Love and was changed.
Mary was there at the Incarnation, Birth, Crucifixion, and Resurrection of the One whom Christians proclaim is God Incarnate, Jesus Christ. She was there throughout what are often called the “hidden years” in His life at Nazareth where ordinary work was ennobled and childrearing forever changed because of His participation. His disciples spent three years with Him, during His “public ministry”, but Mary spent thirty three years!
We should remember and reflect on the truth that in the earthly life of the Redeemer, every word he uttered – at every age and stage – and every act he undertook was redemptive, revealing as it does the very life of God and the mystery of heaven touching earth. Because of that, every moment of His presence among us reveals the deeper purpose of our own lives when they are lived entirely for Him.
Mary was there in all those pregnant moments of His complete thirty three year earthly mission of love. His redemptive presence forever changed the history of the world and can do so in our own personal histories if we learn how to surrender to His invitation to love and choose to live as she did. The mission of the Redeemer continues now for all who have the eyes to see His presence still walking and working among us; and the ears to hear His loving words still being spoken amidst the cacophony of our daily lives. Mary did.
Every waking moment can now be filled with the invitation of grace for each one of us, if we learn to discover their deeper meaning and make them our own. If we learn to live our entire life as, an invitation to love, an encounter with the God of love, as Mary did, we will find our lives transformed by the Son whom she bore for the whole world.
Is it any wonder that the early Christians painted her image in the catacombs during their moments of fear, persecution and doubt? They found great inspiration from this little woman of great faith. In her “yes” they came to understand that ordinary people can change human history. They were inspired to add their own “yes”, their own “fiat” to hers.
Is it any wonder that the writings of the early Fathers of the Christian Church are also replete with reflections on this woman who said so little verbally in the biblical text? That is because it is not about an abundance of our words but rather our receptivity to the Word.
And, this final flourish! On this Feast of the Presentation of Mary, let us make the choice to surrender ourselves to the same Lord. That is how we can bring this Feast to life in our own age and continue to participate in God’s plan for the whole human race.
Leon Bent is an ex-Seminarian and studied the Liberal Arts and Humanities, and Philosophy, from St. Pius X College, Mumbai. He holds Masters Degree in English Literature and Aesthetics. He has published three Books and have 20 on the anvil. He has two extensively “Researched” Volumes to his name: Hail Full of Grace and Matrimony: The Thousand Faces of Love. He won The Examiner, Silver Pen Award, 2000 for writing on Social Issues, the clincher being a Researched Article on Gypsies in India, published in an issue of the (worldwide circulation) Vidyajyoti Journal of Theological Reflection, New Delhi. On April, 28, 2018, Leon received the Cardinal Ivan Dias Award for a research paper in Mariology.
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