Presenting Jesus in the temple fulfilled the law, Mary: Day 217

Presenting Jesus in the temple fulfilled the law

When Mary offered her firstborn Son in the temple, St. Alphonsus tells us, it was much more than the fulfillment of a ritual obligation. She was offering him up to God as a sacrifice—and herself as well.

In the Old Testament law there were two instructions concerning the birth of firstborn sons. The first was that the mother was to remain ritually unclean, confined to her house for forty days. After that, she was to go purify herself in the temple. The other instruction was that the parents of the firstborn son were to take him to the temple and offer him there to God.

On this day the most Blessed Virgin obeyed both these instructions. Although Mary was not bound by the law of purification, since she was always a virgin and always pure, yet her humility and obedience made her wish to go like other mothers to purify herself. At the same time, she obeyed the second instruction to present and offer her Son to the Eternal Father. “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” (Lk 2:22). But the Blessed Virgin didn’t offer Jesus as other mothers offered their sons. Others offered them to God, but they knew that this offering was simply a legal ceremony. By redeeming the children, they made them their own, without fear of having again to offer them up to death.

Mary, however, actually offered her Son up to death. She knew for certain that the sacrifice of the life of Jesus which she then made would one day actually be consummated on the altar of the Cross. In this way Mary, by offering the life of her Son, because of the love she had for him, actually came to sacrifice her own entire self to God. Leaving aside, then, all other considerations into which we might enter on the many mysteries of the Feast of the Presentation, we do well to consider the greatness of the sacrifice that Mary made of herself to God in offering him on this day the life of her Son. —St. Alphonsus Liguori, The Glories of Mary

IN GOD’S PRESENCE, CONSIDER . . .
Does Mass attendance sometimes feel like the mere fulfillment of a ritual obligation? How might I learn more about the meaning of that ritual so that when I take part in the Mass, I can make more of a conscious offering of myself to God?

CLOSING PRAYER
From the “Chaplet to the Mother of the Most Holy Eucharist”: Hail Mary, O mother of the most holy Eucharist! Help me to believe completely, help me to love completely, help me to live what I believe and love completely.

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