FEAST OF THE PRESENTATION OF THE LORD - FEBRERO 2, 2020

Ø  The   liturgy of the ordinary time is interrupted by this Sunday because it coincides with the liturgical date of the Presentation of the Lord.      

Ø  This feast was celebrated for the first time by the Eastern Church and   was called “The encounter.” Around the 6^th century, the Western or Roman Church began to celebrate it.   

Ø  This feast has a double meaning: the presentation of the first born in the Temple after 40 days of his birth and the purification of the mother.   

Ø  It may be considered either a feast of the Lord or a feast of Mary, but the Church in its liturgy favors the feast of the Lord.      

Ø  It is a feast with a great meaning. In the book of the prophet Ezequiel, we are told that the glory of Yahweh abandons the Temple.    

Ø  This glory of Yahweh is Christ. It returns to the Temple when Jesus is presented to the Lord.  

 

FIRST READING  Mal 3:1-4

v The prophet speaks as if it were God and tells us that after the Messenger,  the Lord we seek  will come to his Temple.     

v He switches between the image of the Lord and that of the messenger, the messenger of the covenant.   

v Jesus is the mediator, the messenger of the new covenant.  

v The prophet asks who will bear his presence, when he comes.   Because he comes to purify.  

v Let us reflect on this image of the purification, he will purify like  fire, thus he will purify the sons of Levi. The sons of Levi are the priests. 

v He will purify them so that they can offer the sacrifice to God.   

v Then the sacrifice of Judah and of Jerusalem will be pleasing to the Lord.   

v From our baptism, we are priests and we can offer sacrifices with our life open to the Lord and to our brothers and sisters.   

v Jesus has come and with his life  he has purified us from our sin, he has taken away the sin of the world and  has   nailed it to his cross with him.   

v When he enters in our life and we allow him to purify us, we experience pain and sadness, like the gold and silver. If they could speak, they would tell us their pain, but with the joy to become what they really are.   

v This pain and sadness become unspeakable joy, freedom, justice and peace for those who let themselves to be purified.   

v God wants always what is good for us; whatever he does in us is good and gives us happiness.   

v The joy, the happiness of his presence nobody can take it from us, a new and beautiful intimacy with the living God, our Christ and Lord, begins.       

RESPONSORIAL PSALM - Ps 24

R.    (8) Who is this king of glory?  It is the Lord!
Lift up, O gates, your lintels;
reach up, you ancient portals,
that the king of glory may come in!
R.    Who is this king of glory?  It is the Lord!
Who is this king of glory?
The LORD, strong and mighty,
the LORD, mighty in battle.
R.    Who is this king of glory?  It is the Lord!
Lift up, O gates, your lintels;
reach up, you ancient portals,
that the king of glory may come in!
R.    Who is this king of glory?  It is the Lord!
Who is this king of glory?
The LORD of hosts; he is the king of glory.
R.    Who is this king of glory?  It is the Lord!

Ø  This is a psalm of praise to God creator and victorious King   

Ø  The question, who is this king of glory? Is repeated several times in the psalm and is used as the response.     

Ø  In the psalm to this question, the answer is the Lord of hosts.    

Ø  He is the king who fights, against who or what?  

Ø  Against the forces of evil, our Lord and Christ fights so that we may get back the capacity to be and live in the way He has created us.  

SECOND LETTER  - Heb 2:14-16

     Jesus shares our same flesh, our same blood.  

     So that from our same condition and reality, he might be able to destroy the evil one, author of evil and pain, and thus free us from fear. 

     The author of this letter says that he did not liberate the angels but the children of Abraham and thus he had to be just like his brothers and sisters     

     To be able to expiate the sins of the people    

     Because he was tested through suffering he can help those who are tested in many ways by pain, limitations, temptations…    

GOSPEL  Lk 2:22-40      

§  Luke narrates the presentation of Jesus as the firstborn and the purification of Mary as a mother who has given birth to his first male child.  (See Levíticus c. 12)

§  In this gospel there are four different scenes.   

§  The first one explains what is happening. What does the Law of Moses prescribes.  

§  The second introduces an older holy man who has been waiting during his entire life for this moment in which the Lord, the Savior, would be present in the midst of his people in his temple. His faith recognizes in this defenseless and poor child, a child like any other child, the savior that God had promised. Do I recognize the presence of God in the simple and daily situations of my life?    

In this second scene or paragraph, Simeon says a prayer, which the Church repeats every day after the prayer of compline at the end of the day “Now, Master, you may let your servant go in peace,  according to your word, for my eyes have seen your salvation which you prepared in the sight of all peoples.”  

§  The third scene explains how his parents were surprised of what they saw and heard.  Simeon approached Mary and prophesized that she would suffer much because of this defenseless child she carried into her arms, this child will be a sign of contradiction. Certainly, Jesus is the great sign of contradiction of everything that is against the love and respect toward the human being and toward God. 

§  In this same scene we are introduced to the older woman Anna, she is in the temple and awaits also with eagerness the Lord coming to his temple. She thanks God and speaks of this child also. 

§  The fourth scene takes us to Nazareth where Jesus will spend the greatest part of his life.  The evangelist tells us that the child grew and became strong and the favor, the love and the blessing of God was upon Him.    

§  The son of God lives a simple life, “the child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom; and the favor of God was upon him.”   He is God, but according to St. Paul in the letter to the Philippians says “he did regard equality with God to be grasped at rather he humbled himself and subjected himself to death, death on a cross.  

§  Jesus lives in Nazareth like any other man from his village until his hour comes to proclaim the project of the Kingdom. He must have been like everybody else, if not,  nobody would have been surprised when he began to preach.   

§  Most of the human beings remain anonymous their entire life.   Many accept this reality of their life as something that is normal, it is their lot; others seek to go out of this situation, seeking something different.    Very few men and women discover the wealth hidden in a simple, monotonous and unnoticed life without glamour.   

§  How do I live my life?   

 CLARETIAN CORNER 

“…so, I remained in my convent as before, and he (Claret) continued in his missions, maybe without remembering me anymore, until the time God had established from his eternity, for us to transfer to this new world, where he wanted to begin his Work… and so it has happened in this foundation, that though the Archbishop was unwilling to be concerned for this or that,  he has been, by Divine impulse, concerned for everything...           

            The ongoing mutual knowledge and the great spiritual similarities between them, will little by little make possible, a sincere friendship, a mutual companionship which will manifest itself largely through  their letters.  The time they spend working together in Cuba was especially rich.  Two strong and firm temperaments, which without planning it, were united by God for the same Project.  

 BIBLIOGRAPHY 

MUÑOZ, Hortensia y TUTZO, Regina. Dos Plumas movidas por un mismo Espíritu. 2010

PAGOLA, José A.   El camino abierto por Jesús. PPC 2012

PARIS, María Antonia, Autobiografía  

Sagrada Biblia - versión oficial de la Conferencia Episcopal Española.