The Feast Day of the Presentation of the Lord highlights the unity of Jesus’ humanity and divinity, and the promise of his work of redemption. The Holy Family followed Jewish custom and religious obligation of coming to the Temple. Amidst this poor family, holding a the young infant, Simeon and Anna encountered their Lord. Whenever we walk into a Church for our personal time of prayer or to receive a Sacrament, let us always anticipate to encounter our Lord who comes to save us.

The Lord Jesus Christ was welcomed by two elders, Simeon and the prophetess Anna. They embody the patient expectation of Israel as they acknowledge the infant Jesus as the long-awaited Messiah. Upon holding the infant Jesus, Simeon prays to God with these words: “Now, Master, you may let your servant go in peace, according to your word, for my eyes have seen your salvation, which you prepared in the sight of all the peoples: a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and glory for your people Israel.”

The Lord Jesus Christ, forty days after His birth, in keeping with the biblical significance of the number forty and with Jewish custom, was presented in the temple in Jerusalem by His parents, Mary and Joseph. Saint Luke’s Gospel recounts the story. After the Presentation, Jesus was to enter the temple again as a boy and later as an adult. He would even refer to His own body as a temple which He would raise up in three days. Jesus’s life was a continual self-gift to God the Father from the very beginning to the very end. His parents did not carry their infant Son to a holy mountain, a sacred spring, or a magical forest. It was in His temple that the God of Israel was most present, so they brought their son to God Himself, not just to a reflection of Him in nature.