The Lord Returns To The Temple Suddenly

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

The Feast of the Presentation of the Lord in the Temple marks in a way the end of Christmas in the sense that the mangers are taken down after this feast.   According to Jewish law the first-born son had to be redeemed and the mother needed to be purified.  Luke is careful to note that the parents of Jesus observed all that the Law requires and even though it was not necessary to take the child to Jerusalem, the parents thought this was fitting, and rightfully so.

The prophet Malachi (3: 1-4) tells us something surprising: the Lord will suddenly come to the temple.  What does he mean?  The Lord is always in the temple so how can he come suddenly.  We find the answer from the prophet Ezekiel who says when the Jews were sent in Exile the spirit of God even after the temple was rebuilt was no longer there.  It was not what it used to be and something was missing.  So this is the background that a good Jew would know.

So when we read the gospel (Luke 2: 22-40) have in mind that this is the first time the Lord comes back to the temple on this occasion of his Presentation.  What Malachi was saying was indeed to prophesy what would happen this day.  How did the Lord come when he returned to the temple?  He came as a baby, not with power and an army but as a defenseless little one.

The second part of Malachi’s prophesy is the Lord will come to purify and refine the temple so that they can make worthy sacrifice to the Lord.  A fuller in those days did his work far from the city since it smelled so bad.  God comes as a baby to purify us, to make us clean and able to offer worthy sacrifice to the Lord.  God wants to take away all that is not good or worthy of the other in our lives.

The child in his simplicity and humility makes the temple and us pure and docile.  The baby purifies and refines us.  This God of Israel returns to the temple to transform it.  What are we to do?  Only one thing is needed as Simeon shows us: he looks at the Child, he gazes upon him. This is why in Rome and many other places the manger is not taken down until after this feast.  It is a beautiful ending of the Christmas season where hopefully we have gazed up the Child many times.  This feast reminds us to continue to look upon the Lord as a child, as a little one who comes to save us.  This is what will purify us and make us clean.  The Lord invites us to do this for a few minutes every day!

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