February 2, 2026: Luke 2:22-32

Please read the passage before the commentary.

It is the halfway point between fall and spring.  No matter how you look at it, we have half of winter left to go.  More importantly, it is forty days after Christmas.  It was this time that Mary and Joseph brought the child Jesus into the temple to present him to the Lord.

Luke presents Jesus, Mary and Joseph as being faithful to the Law of Moses in this respect.  In this respect they are very faithful to the Law, but they are also very faithful to the prophets.  The Law spoke of the sacrifice of turtledoves or pigeons, but nothing about presenting the child in the Temple.

The presenting of the child in the temple comes from the prophetic tradition.  The prophet Samuel was presented to the Lord in house of the Lord by his mother.  Samuel’s mother was named Hannah, which is the Jewish spelling of Anna.

In Luke’s timeline, today is the end of seventy weeks spoken by Gabriel to Daniel (Daniel 9:20-27).  The 490 days of the seventy weeks include the 15 months from the conception of John the Baptist to the birth of Jesus, and the forty days today’s for this celebration. 

Luke also presents Jesus as taking possession of his house, the Temple.  He even provides two witnesses, Simeon and Anna, the voice of a widow making herself heard.  Today, the Lord takes possession of what is rightfully his, the Temple in Jerusalem.  We are rightfully his as well since he has made us his Church.

The Law and the prophets announce the coming of the Lord.  How do we fulfill the Law and the prophets by what we do and how we present ourselves in the temple?  How do we announce the coming of the Lord?