Please read the passage before the homily.
We celebrate the feast of the Presentation of the Lord into the Temple. It is forty days after his birth. It marks the end of liturgical references to Christmas.
The Presentation celebrates a mystery. This means that it has a basis in two major forces of Jewish life, the Law and the prophets. The Law required a temple ritual the mother and that every firstborn male child belonged to God. The prophets were recognized as authentic interpreters of God’s word.
Note that Mary and Joseph took the child to the temple according to the law of Moses. The parent were faithful members of God’s people.
Note also the presence of the prophets. Simeon is not a priest or a Levite; he is a very respected member of the community, possibly a prophet as was Anna. The name Anna is the name of the mother of the prophet Samuel. Anna’s mention links the presentation of Jesus to the presentation of her son Samuel to the Arc of the Covenant. You can read this story in the first two chapters of the first book of Samuel.
All this highlights who Jesus is. He is not only the firstborn Son of God, but he is also the most reliable of all the prophets. This episode, like other episodes of Jesus’ life, tells us not what happened to Jesus but who Jesus is. They are not photographs from the life of Jesus, but revelations of the mystery of Jesus.
We are people of mystery also. We live among people God has given us. These people tie us to our roots and move us into our destinies.
I have just come from Mexico from a sacred trip. My very Catholic and Christian friends welcomed me and those with me. We celebrated our common faith. We visited and prayed together. We celebrated Mass with Catholic isolated from the mainland so that they have Mass seldom each year. We met with their bishop and were welcomed by their seminarians.
They were worried about us, those caught in the wildfires of California, those suffering from our extreme cold weather, or those involved in the airplane crash on the Potomac. They are our amazing Mexican Catholic sisters and brothers, sharing our faith and Catholic life.
They and we are all part of the same mystery of the Presentation of the Lord that includes the Law of Moses, the service of the Prophets, and the support of the Annas and Simeons who meet us on our journeys.