Feast of the Holy Family
Luke 2:22-40
Most of us want to have an eventful day so that we may feel that our day has been productive for us. In the gospel for today, it is an eventful day for Mary and Joseph as they presented the infant Jesus at the temple.
Firstly, let us concentrate on the Presentation. Most of us, especially this Christmas season, enjoy a round of “Secret Santa”. In other cultures it is also known as “Exchange Gift”. It is where a few weeks before Christmas, officemates or classmates at school draw pieces of paper with the name of their officemate or classmate to whom they’ll give a gift by Christmas. And this has always been an enjoyable experience, we feel the sense of surprise but at the same time the thoughtfulness that has been brought about by this exchange of gifts.
In the gospel for today, Mary and Joseph did a sort of a Jewish version of ‘exchange gift’. In the Jewish tradition, it is required that to commemorate the Exodus of the Hebrews from the Egyptians, every firstborn male should be consecrated to the Lord. This is to remember the 10th plague where every firstborn male was killed except those whose house posts were painted by lamb’s blood so that the angel of Death would “Passover” the house. So to remember this, the infant would be presented to the priests in the temple and then for the parents to “buy-back” their son, they had to present an offering in exchange for their son. For rich people, it would be a large animal like a bull but in the case of Mary and Joseph who were just simple people, they could only afford a couple of turtledoves in exchange for their son Jesus.
This event is very memorable as it shows us that Jesus, at the start of his life, is already special by being consecrated at the Temple. He is already special. For us, as we are about to end the year, is there something that we have offered to God in exchange for the abundant graces that he has given us this year and every year? Of course whatever we offer would never suffice for what has God given us and yet our longing to be closer to our Creator demands that we should give something. And hopefully we can give to the Lord something in thanksgiving whether it may be something material or giving our time to volunteer in any church activity, or just anything to give thanks to God.
The second point in today’s gospel is the fulfilment of a promise made by God to Simeon. Imagine a friend of yours promised that you’ll go out and have a coffee or a nice meal before he goes abroad. You got so excited about this prospect and somehow it was taking some time for him to appear at your doorstep and when you felt that all your effort was going to waste, he suddenly appears at your door profusely apologising for taking so long and yet it never really mattered as you enjoyed the whole night with each other’s company.
Here comes Simeon, who most probably was given a vision by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death until he had seen the Christ. How long he was waiting we will never know. Most probably, he was waiting for many years. Maybe he received that vision when he was still in his middle ages and must have been very excited and felt so privileged by this awesome promise from God. He must have been going to the temple everyday hoping that this day is the day. And now, most probably he’s in the twilight of his life, doubts may have crept into his mind about when or whether God would fulfil his promise. And then on that day most probably when he least expected it, he being led by the Spirit to two young parents with an infant, finally realises that God has fulfilled his promise.
And the same is true in our lives. How many times have there been when we doubted whether our prayer would be answered? How many times were we close to giving up on the Lord? And yet, we know that we should persevere with our faith. There will be temptations that might make us want to give up and yet the experience of Simeon should inspire us not to give up.
Lastly, a very sombre message from Simeon to Mary that her son will be destined for the fall and rise of many in Israel. Jesus would be a sign that would be contradicted, and a sword would pierce Mary herself. And how true it was. For many centuries, Christianity has been under persecution by various groups. And since Mary said yes to the angel Gabriel, Mary experienced a lot of joys but also a lot of sorrows in her life. Mary must have realised that in order to fulfil the plan of God, she too must make a lot of sacrifices and I think the worst of them all was to see her dying Son under the cross on that first Good Friday.
This event is also a reminder for us that following Jesus is never easy. We see in the World News how Christians are being persecuted especially by Muslim extremists in the Middle East. Christians are being persecuted in communist countries who see Christianity as a threat because of the values that it carries. So we have to continue to pray and also persevere in living out our faith in these trying times. We may have the luxury of not being persecuted but also modern vices like materialism and lukewarmness are undermining our faith and we should be aware and counter these by living the gospel values of kindness, love, faith and mercy.
Again, this event in the life of the Holy Family is very significant and as we continue to celebrate the Christmas season, we must also remember that while we are joyous in this season, we must also persevere to live out our faith and be a witness to Christ Jesus.