Meditation for February 2, The Presentation

The Presentation, we are told, is a joyful mystery. Considering the exterior, it is. Here is a young mother smiling on her baby, an old man making with faith and recollection an offering accord­ing to the ritual, two or three words exchanged briefly in a low voice, and that is all.

But if we look deeply into the souls of the participants, what a tragic drama; a Child offering Himself to be crucified in thirty-three years, a mother wholly aware of the martyrdom her Little One will endure, Simeon giving utterance to the most terrible words a mother could hear: Behold this child is set for the fall, and for the resurrection of many in Israel. He tells Mary, the mother, that a threatening career awaits her Little One. Many faithful souls will follow Him but many others will reject Him. What a future awaits this Child! That was what Simeon meant by a sign of contradiction. A sword will pierce her own heart, her life will have but one purpose - to prepare her Child for a future martyr­dom.

This day, so often chosen for making and renewing vows, is above all else a feast of sacrifice. Simeon performs the ritual of oblation; in her heart, Mary offers Jesus for crucifixion and Jesus offers Himself to His Father for the salvation of the world.

"Take Me in Your arms, offer me, include me in Thy oblation. O sorrowful Mother, O sorrowful Jesus, teach me to be generous; I am so cowardly sometimes. I would willingly offer a couple of turtle doves, but it is much too hard to offer myself. But You do not want my pos­sessions, You want my very self, not what belongs to me, but what is a part of me. I offer myself, take all."

_________________
Adapted from Meditations for Religious
by Father Raoul Plus, S.J. (© 1939, Frederick Pustet Co.)