4TH SUNDAY (A)/ PRESENTATION OF THE LORD
IN SEARCH OF THE
TEMPLE
This Sunday is special. While it
should be the 4th Sunday in Ordinary Time, the period after
Christmas, instead of the usual readings on that Sunday, we pray over the
readings of a special feast.
It is the Feast of the
Presentation of the Lord in the Temple – St. Joseph and the Blessed Virgin Mary
offering the Infant Jesus to God in accordance with the law about the
first-born male.
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So in fact, it is another Christmas theme
outside of the Christmas season
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We just can’t move away from the spirit of God-made-man
for love of us.
I wish again to focus heavily on the
message of the first reading from Malachi 3. This book is the last Old
Testament book in the Protestant Bible, one of the last books in our Catholic
Bible (because we still have 1 and 2 Maccabees).
Malachi prophesies about the
Temple of the Lord.
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We always hear about the Temple
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We know how the Temple was the symbol of God’s
presence among his people in Jerusalem and all Israel
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The Temple, for the Jews, was the seat of God the
King
The Israelites were so blessed to
have this great building in their midst
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Shining with glory
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Full of power
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Source of strength and stability
And yet, the Israelites took for
granted the meaning of the Temple.
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They did not love God sincerely.
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They still ached for other gods to pin their hopes
on.
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Their faith in the God of the Temple became
superficial.
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The Temple became merely a false security of the
nation.
In Ezekiel 11:23, a moving
account is mentioned.
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The glory of the Lord, which always filled the
Temple, lifted up from it and from the city.
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It then moved away and went to another mountain
away from the building and location the people cherished.
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From that time on, no record showed that the
shimmering, luminous glory of the Lord appeared again in Israel.
Until of course, the Lord Jesus came
into the picture. At his birth, the shepherds saw his glory in the heavens, the
Magi were guided by a bright light to the manger. God returned again to dwell
among his people – through his Only Begotten Son, Jesus the Christ.
The Presentation of the Lord in
the Temple is the subtle, humble and unnoticed return of God in the midst of
the people he loved.
Yet he came as a baby and nobody
noticed him.
He came poor and so he was not
treated with the proper respect.
He came small and weak like the
people he came to serve, to love and to embrace.
Later in his preaching, Jesus will
speak of the Temple again.
No longer the building… but his
own Body as the Temple, which will rise up again in three days.
And because we are his Body, we
are his living Temple now in the world.
St. Paul extends this message by
saying that each person’s body is the Temple of the Holy Spirit!
How many people want to go to
Israel and to visit the site of the Temple in Jerusalem.
But what they see there is only
the ruins of the old and destroyed temple (in fact, on top of it is a mosque
actively used by Muslims).
The Spirit of the Lord is no
longer in a physical place.
The Spirit is in the Church that
loves, welcomes, serves, and forgives.
The Spirit is in a human heart
that longs to follow God’s will in little things each day.
Remember, you are his Temple now.
Let his glory shine through you –
in your smile, in your kindness, in your helpfulness to others, in your
patience, in your silent but meaningful presence as follower of Christ wherever
you are today!
