Are we ready to
see Jesus revealed?
When, in Luke’s
Gospel, Mary and Joseph take the
child Jesus to Jerusalem to present him
to the Lord, they encounter two righteous souls: an old man named Simeon and the prophetess
Anna. All four of these adults, being in
right relationship with God, are open to God’s revelation, as described by
Simeon: My eyes have seen your salvation.
Simeon knows that the child Jesus is destined for the fall and rise of many in Israel, and to be a sign
that will be contradicted. As the
Letter to the Hebrews explains, God must become human, incarnate in the
humanity of Jesus, and subject himself to death in order to conquer death, that through death he might destroy the one
who has power of death. Because of
Jesus’ ultimate sacrifice, death is not a barrier to us, not the final moment,
not the end of the journey, but is rather a path to perfect union with the
Father. We can grasp this truth only if
we are open to Jesus revealed in our midst.
But how do we open
ourselves, open our hearts, as Simeon and Anna, Mary and Joseph, did, that we might see the Lord
revealed as well? Psalm 24 suggests that
we lift up our gates, that the Lord of glory may come in! The whole community is
asked to respond with openness to the arrival of the universal king, the God of
Israel. Moreover, the prophet Malachi
urges a path of radical purification:
when the Lord whom we seek arrives at the temple, he will be like the refiner’s fire, or like the
fuller’s lye, that he might purify
the sons of Levi. When the child
Jesus, the Lord of glory, is presented to us, we must be prepared for radical
change, radical renewal, radical openness, that we might participate fully in
salvation here and now, free of any fear of death, ever giving thanks, fully
open, as we await our redemption in the Lord, Jesus, revealed
to us, once and for all, in all his glory.
This post is based
on Fr. Pat’s Scripture class.
Image source: www.wordclouds.com
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