Today’s gospel also tells us that Joseph and Mary brought Jesus to the
temple to fulfil the requirements of the Law.
This concerned the ritual purification of Mary after childbirth and
also a sacrifice to redeem the child who, as a first-born son, belonged
to God. We have an echo here of a time when the first-born
son was actually sacrificed to a Canaanite god called Moloch. The story of Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice
his son Isaac points to a moment in history when early Israelite society
rejected human sacrifice.
The Eastern Church has yet another name for this feast; it is called The Meeting - meaning by
that the meeting of the Messiah with the Chosen People. It’s interesting that this comes later in the
Church’s year than his meeting with the Gentiles which we celebrate at Epiphany
on January 6th. But the
two festivals have this in common - they both point to the Lord’s death. Epiphany does this by the third gift
of the Wise Men, of which the carol says:
Myrrh I bring,
its bitter perfume
breathes a life
of gathering gloom,
sorrowing, sighing,
bleeding, dying,
sealed in the
stone-cold tomb.
Today’s feast points to the Lord’s death by the shedding of the blood
of two turtle doves or two young pigeons.
And while Simeon speaks of Jesus as a light to lighten the Gentiles
and the glory of thy people Israel, to Mary he says, a sword shall pierce through thine own soul also.
But now it’s our
turn to meet the Lord. We meet him
as we hear and explore the scriptures, and we meet him also in the breaking
of the bread. We meet him as we kneel to pray, and we meet
him in the poor and needy when we pause in the pace of daily life to recognise
Christ in our brothers and sisters. What
a strange business it is, this meeting with Jesus! At one and the same time it means enlightenment
and glory, and also bloodshed and grief. Just think, for example, of St Paul whose meeting
with Jesus on the Damascus Road led him to imprisonment and shipwreck, severe
punishment and martyrdom.
And what will it mean
for us – to meet the Lord? There
will be enlightenment, certainly, and glory – earthly worship should be
a foretaste of heavenly glory. But
if Christians together make up the mystical Body of Christ, in some deep
way we have to be in the world today what he was in his own incarnate life.
One of the early fathers called the Church the soul of the world.
That means we must be agents of healing love and of reconciliation
in the world. Every one of us will confront situations day by day where the healing
love of Christ is needed, where his ministry of reconciliation is needed,
where we might find ourselves called upon to practise a degree of self-sacrifice
for the good of others – a sword shall pierce our own soul also.
But of course, while
the life of Christian discipleship will surely take us by the way of the
cross, it will also take us through and beyond suffering to the joy of resurrection. Where he is, we shall be also. By faith and by Baptism and by Eucharist we
are united to Christ; we live in
him and he lives in us. This mystical
union is something which we can know now in our daily life of prayer and
discipleship – and it is something which will find its fulfilment in eternal
life.
Promise yourself that
the very next time an occasion presents itself to you in which you have
the opportunity to do real good even at cost to your own comfort, you will
not hesitate or draw back. The joy which such sacrificial living brings
to you will make you long to be an ever more faithful disciple.