9781644135945

The Light of the World
the temple of the heavenly Jerusalem. Mary, the Church, guides us safely. Above, Christ, the
light, awaits us in all His splendor. There we shall eternally thank Him and rejoice with Him.
“My eyes have seen Thy salvation.”
Prayer
O Lord Jesus Christ, who on this day appeared among men in the substance of flesh and was
presented by Thy parents in the temple, and whom the venerable old man, Simeon, being
filled with the light of Thy Spirit, recognized, took up, and blessed: be pleased to grant that,
enlightened and taught by the grace of the same Holy Spirit, we may know Thee rightly and
love Thee faithfully, who with God the Father livest and reignest in the unity of the same Holy
Spirit, God, world without end. Amen. (Prayer at the blessing of the candles.)
The Purification of Mary (2)
Today we accompany Mary, the Mother of God, from Bethlehem to the temple in Jerusalem.
She carries the child in her arms and offers Him to the Lord God.
Jesus offers. The law which bound the Jewish mother to offer her first-born male child
to the Lord in the temple had no binding force in this case. Jesus Himself was God, the
lawgiver; His birth was sacred. Since He was the only-begotten of the Father, there was
no need for His being taken to the temple to be sanctified. Nevertheless, He permitted
Himself to be taken to the temple by Mary and Joseph. The great moment foretold by
the prophet has come: “Behold I send My angel, and he shall prepare the way before My
face. And presently the Lord, whom you seek, . . . shall come to His temple” (Epistle).
It is “His temple” because the temple belongs to Him. By right, all the offerings made
there should be given to Him. But He comes as a child in the arms of His mother, quiet,
unnoticed, secretly. Nothing betrays the holiness of His soul. Concealing the glow of His
divinity here in His temple, Jesus renews every blessing of the Father which He received
at the moment of His conception in the womb of the Virgin Mary: “I come to do Thy
will, O God” (Heb 10:9). Today He makes that same great, holy sacrifice of adoration,
thanksgiving, atonement, and petition. This is the first perfect sacrifice which the temple
of Jerusalem ever witnessed. The sacrifices of rams and oxen need be no more; the only
sacrifice worthy of God has been offered in the temple. “We have received Thy mercy, O
God, in the midst of Thy temple. . . . Great is the Lord, and exceedingly to be praised; in
the city of God, in His holy mountain” (Introit). This sacrifice is a prototype of the daily
Sacrifice of the Mass, at which we are now permitted to assist.
Mary offers. The offering of Jesus in the temple is accomplished by the hands of Mary.
Enlightened by the light of the Holy Ghost, Mary realizes at this moment what she must
undergo in the future. She perceives the magnitude of the sacrifice she must make. With
the same disposition of submission to the Father which Jesus has in His heart, she offers her
child. With a wholehearted and disinterested fiat in her heart and on her lips, she presents
her most precious and beloved Son as an offering. She makes her offering in the name of all
men and as the representative of all mankind. This is a great moment in Mary’s life, in the
life of all mankind, in the life of each individual soul. Mary, bringing her child, at the same
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