By:
Marilyn Gawlik, OFS, Gwen Franus, OSF and Carolyn Barth, OFS
As we meditated on the presentation of
Jesus in the temple we realized the fact that this was the fulfillment of the
long awaited prophecy of Malachi 3: 1-4, from the Mass of the day:
“And suddenly there will come to the temple, the
LORD whom you seek, and the messenger of the covenant whom you desire. Yes, he
is coming, says the LORD of hosts. But who will endure the day of his coming. Who can stand when he appears?” In this baby, Mary and Joseph, joined
miraculously by Simeon and Anna, recognize that this is the great Lord,
majestically entering His temple for the first time.
Then Simeon adds his own prophecy:
“…My eyes have seen your salvation,…a light
for revelation to the Gentiles, and glory for your people Israel…Behold, this
child is destined for the fall and rise of many in Israel, and to be a sign
that will be contradicted…and (to His mother) you yourself a sword will
pierce—so that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.”
So Mary’s sword-pierced heart lays bare the intentions of our own
hearts; do we stand with Jesus,
the Lord of the temple and the sign of contradiction, or do we oppose Him? The time of Lent gives us
the opportunity to take an even firmer stand with Jesus, in our daily penance
and conversion. If we do so we become not hearers of the word alone but doers, graspers,
appliers and bearers of the Word like Mary, whose constant “Fiat” is not shaken
by the frightening vision of Simeon, or by anything else that comes her way.
This
feast of the Presentation of the Lord in the Temple, bridges the gap between
the celebrations of the Nativity with the Lenten season. So too, what we learned here, encourages us
to move forward from our first encounters with Jesus to a point where, with the
grace of God, we can make meaningful changes in our lives as we consider His mother
and the words of Simeon that struck her heart.
Let
us go forth with the joy of the Lord as we share the Glory of the Most High.
Let us bring the joy of the Lord to the world. This Lent let us believe and
share Isaiah 51:11: “The redeemed of the
Lord shall return and enter Zion singing, crowned with everlasting joy and
gladness, sorrow and mourning will flee.”
Let us pray: Lord, we
ask You, how do You want us to make this Lent different so that it will make us
different? Lord, as we fast forward with
You and Your Mother into Your Passion, Crucifixion and Death, help us to be
with You and to be true to everything You taught us, so that we would not be only
hearers but also doers of the word of God, bearers of You who are the Word of God. May the hearts of all of us be laid bare so
that we do pass the litmus test in the end.
We
thank you, Lord. Jesus, we place our
trust in You. You are the Glory of YHWH.
(Prayer paraphrased from Marty Lynch, OFS)
Pax et bonum
No comments:
Post a Comment