FEBRUARY 1 / 2, 2020
5:00 PM (SAT), 7:30 AM (SUN) ORDINARY FORM MASS
In 1976, a decade after the close of the Second Vatican Council, Pope Paul VI invited Polish Cardinal Karol Wojtyla to lead the annual Vatican Lenten retreat attended by the Pope and the members of his Curia.
The twenty-two reflections from this retreat were published in 1977 under the title of “Sign of Contradiction.” The entire book is barely over 200 pages – not very long at all.
Who would have guessed that two and a half years later, Cardinal Wojtyla would be elected Pope John Paul II; or that 35 years later he would be canonized as a saint.
Today we celebrate the Feast of the Presentation of Jesus in the Temple. This feast is 40 days after Christmas, and marks the end of the traditional Christmas season.
The Gospel recounts how, in fulfillment of the Law of Moses, Mary and Joseph bring the infant Jesus to the Temple to consecrate him to the Lord – to “redeem” Him – as was required of all firstborn sons – at the cost of two turtledoves.
In a sense, this was the discount rate for poor couples – as the regular rate was to sacrifice a lamb.
How strange – the Redeemer is redeemed?
The Lamb of God cannot afford a lamb?
Or that the Son would need any further consecration to the Father from whose heart He was begotten?
Perhaps this is what Simeon was alluding to by calling the Christ child “a sign that will be contradicted” … among many other things.
Equally contradictory is that God the Son – incarnate as a human infant – enters the Temple built to worship Him … and almost nobody seems to notice. Nobody, except a elderly man and an elderly woman.
In today’s Gospel, Simeon prophesies that “a sword will pierce” Mary’s heart, “so that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.”
Similarly, in ending his Lenten reflections, Cardinal Wojtyla – Saint John Paul II – juxtaposes the “sign of contradiction” … that is, Jesus – Our Lord; and the “sign that appears in the heavens” in Revelation 12 … that is, Mary – Our Lady.
Today, the nativity scene in the Vatican will be taken down. And in three weeks and three days, we will begin the 40 days of Lent. Followed by Holy Week and Easter; and the 40 days of the Easter season.
40 days, symbolic of the 40 weeks from conception to birth for a human baby. 40 days, symbolic of spiritual rebirth.
In the fifth reflection from that 1976 retreat, on the Joyful Mysteries of the Rosary – and the fourth Joyful Mystery is the Presentation in the Temple, today's feast – John Paul says:
[Christ’s] reign begins when [this] temple sacrifice is offered in accordance with the [Mosaic] Law, and it attains full realization through [His] sacrifice on the cross, offered in accordance with an eternal plan of love.As we approach this altar to receive the Sacred Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ; let us pray that we might engage more deeply the graces of our own redemption in Christ Jesus … poured out from this altar … in the perpetual remembrance of that eternal plan of love.
