By Veronica A. Arntz
The feast of Candlemas is a rich
tradition in the Church; it is a day that we celebrate many events, including
the purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Presentation of our Lord in
the Temple, and the Nunc Dimittis of
Simeon. In reflecting on this beautiful feast day, one common theme that we
find present is obedience. Obedience is the proper response of an individual to
God’s invitation and call; it is the fitting response to God’s commandments and
law. We too should strive in obedience to follow the commandments of God, just
as we find in the Holy Family and the aged Simeon.
The first example of obedience is
Mary who, even though she was conceived without original sin, went to be
purified in the Temple in accordance with the Mosaic Law. As we read, “And when
the time came for their purification according to the law of Moses, they
brought him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord (as it is written in the
law of the Lord, ‘Every male that opens the womb shall be called holy to the
Lord’)” (Luke 2:22-23, RSV-CE).
I shall return to the
Presentation of Christ later. For now, the reference to purification comes from
Leviticus 12:2-8, which gives the laws for purification after a woman has given
birth to a child. As St. Paul explains to the Galatians, we know that these
laws were given to Israel because of the nation’s sinfulness: “Why then the
law? It was added because of transgressions” (Galatians 3:19). In other words,
God gave to the Israelites the laws about food, purification, and sacrifice
because of their sinful behavior; in an attempt to bring them back into His
covenant, He gave them more ritual laws to follow, to separate them from the
other nations.
What is remarkable is the Blessed
Mother’s obedience: in a certain way, she was not bound by these laws because
of her lack of sin. Nevertheless, because she, like the individual in Psalm 1,
who “meditates upon the law day and night” (Psalm 1:2), is faithful to God’s
laws, submits herself to them out of obedience, and comes to the Temple for her
purification. What a sublime example for those of us who live in the age of
grace: we, who are fettered by the chains of sin, should strive to be obedient
to God’s commands and to repent for our sins as we attempt, through His grace,
to remain ever more faithful to His laws.
Furthermore, we find obedience in
the Holy Family in bringing Christ to be presented in the Temple. This
presentation is also rooted in the Old Covenant; as cited above, Luke quotes
from Exodus 13:2, which states, “Consecrate to me all the first-born; whatever
is the first to open the womb among the sons of Israel, both of man and of
beast, is mine.” Further, we read, “You shall set apart to the Lord all that
first opens the womb” (Exodus 13:12). Thus, we see that the Holy Family is following
the prescriptions of the Old Law: Jesus Christ, as Mary’s first-born Son (Luke
2:7), is brought to the Temple to be consecrated to the Lord.
This should strike us as somewhat
odd and ironic. Jesus is the Lord; He is God. Should that not exempt Him from
the laws, which He Himself established? How can the Lord be presented to the
Lord? First, we should note the Holy Family’s obedience to the Torah: Mary and
Joseph are righteous Jews (Matthew 1:19), and so they desire to obey all the
precepts of the Law. Even though one might think that they, above all people,
should be exempt from bringing Jesus to be presented (since he is the Son of
God), they still follow the precepts of the Law and bring him to the Temple.
Moreover, this presentation is a further sign of Jesus’s divinity. As we read
in Psalm 110:2, “The Lord says to my lord: ‘Sit at my right hand, till I make
your enemies your footstool.’” This verse is often interpreted to reveal the
divinity of Christ: Christ the Lord is the only one who can speak to His Lord.
Similarly, only the Lord can be
offered to His Lord in the Temple. Christ’s whole life was an act of obedience
to the Father. As He prays in His high priestly prayer, “‘Father, the hour has
come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you, since you have given him
power over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him….I
glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work which you gave me to do;
and now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory which I had with
you before the world was made” (John 17:1-2, 4-5). Christ accomplished the will
of the Father on earth; he glorified the Father through His work, and now He asks
to be glorified through His death, which is also an act of obedience.
Finally, on this feast day, we
celebrate the obedience of the aged Simeon, who is described as a “righteous
and devout” man, “looking for the consolation of Israel” (Luke 2:25).
Furthermore, “it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he should not
see death before he had seen the Lord’s Christ” (Luke 2:26). Simeon comes to
the Temple by the prompting of the Holy Spirit when Mary and Joseph bring
Christ to be presented, and upon seeing them, he proclaims his beautiful and
profound Nunc Dimittis prayer: “Lord,
now let your servant depart in peace, according to your word; for my eyes have
seen your salvation which you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, a
light for revelation to the Gentiles, for glory to your people Israel” (Luke
2:29-32). Simeon is finally rewarded for his obedience to God, in remaining
devout and faithful, trusting in his promises. He has seen his salvation, and
he can now pass into the next life peacefully. The Nunc Dimittis has traditionally become the Church’s prayer during
Compline: we too are called to be like Simeon, obediently waiting for our Lord
and anticipating our salvation.
Holy Mother Church gives us the
opportunity to reflect on these holy individuals as examples of obedience to
God. Indeed, even Jesus Christ, our Lord, is revealed as an example of
obedience to His Father in Heaven. We too, who are living in the New Covenant,
are called to give our obedience to God through obeying His commands, following
the teachings of the Church, and frequenting His sacraments. These are the means
given to us to receive His grace; just as Mary and Joseph were righteous before
God through following the Old Covenant, which Christ had come to fulfill, so
too are we justified before God through His grace by being obedient to the
means of salvation He has given to us in His Church. Let us then pause on this
beautiful feast day, especially as we approach the season of Lent, and ask for
the grace to increase our obedience to the Father, through the “obedience of
faith” (Romans 16:26).
