HOMILY for The Presentation of the BVM
preached at the Conventual Mass
Zech 2:14-17; Mag; Matt 12:46-50
In the Eastern Church, today’s feast is one of the twelve great feasts of the liturgical year, a correlation to the Western feast of the Immaculate Conception. It celebrates the truth that Mary was set apart by God’s grace to become the Most Holy Theotokos. And this truth is presented through the beautiful story found in the Protoevangelion of St James that Our Lady, as an infant, went to dwell in God’s Temple in Jerusalem so that, “in the fullness of time”, she would become God’s Temple, the earthly dwelling place of the Word-made-flesh. As such, today’s feast of the Presentation of Mary in the Temple, celebrates a visible act that confirms that which had begun interiorly by God’s activity in Mary’s soul at her conception, namely, her consecration to God from the very beginning of her existence which culminates in her Fiat at the Annunciation.
Pope St John Paul II, in his encyclical on the consecrated life, thus reflects that “Mary in fact is the sublime example of perfect consecration, since she belongs completely to God and is totally devoted to him. Chosen by the Lord, who wished to accomplish in her the mystery of the Incarnation, she reminds consecrated persons of the primacy of God’s initiative. At the same time, having given her assent to the divine Word, made flesh in her, Mary is the model of the acceptance of grace by human creatures… “Consecrated life looks to her as the sublime model of consecration to the Father, union with the Son and openness to the Spirit”. (Vita consecrata, 28)
At our solemn profession, after making profession for life, I recall these words which the Provincial said: “God has consecrated you to himself.” How those words struck my heart and resounded in my soul! I belong to God, I am his, and he is mine! As Jesus says in today’s Gospel: “Anyone who does the will of my Father in heaven, he is my brother and sister and mother”. (Mt 12:50) Here, it seems to me, is the origin of the titles by which we’re called: brother, father, sister, and so on. For God, in his mercy, has (inexplicably) chosen us, and he gives us the graces we need to do our heavenly Father’s will day after day, so as to be drawn deeper and deeper into his household, his life, his charity.
Our Lady, in her presentation, shows us, that our human freedom is still engaged in collaboration with the divine call. For even though the initiative is God’s, the assent is still ours to give in cooperation with his grace. So, as consecrated religious, we are invited every day to renew our consecration as we present ourselves before God, in the Temple of our hearts which we give to him daily through acts of prayer and loving obedience; here in the Temple of Christ’s Church where we sing his praises and serve his sacred Liturgy; and in the common life in which we minister to one another with charity. In each moment of the day, let us renew our own Fiat to live this consecrated life with humility, trust, and joy. Fittingly do we entrust ourselves to Our Lady, our sweet Mother of Mercy, for as St John Paul II says: “The Blessed Virgin shares with [us] the love which enables [us] to offer [our] lives every day for Christ and to cooperate with him in the salvation of the world. Hence a filial relationship to Mary is the royal road to fidelity to one’s vocation and a most effective help for advancing in that vocation and living it fully.”
May Our Blessed Mother, Mother of Preachers, pray for us!
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