Sunday Meditation: The Presentation

There is a lot packed into this Sunday.  It is the Feast of the Holy Family and for Year B the Gospel takes us to The Presentation of Jesus at the temple. 

When the days were completed for their purification

according to the law of Moses,

They took him up to Jerusalem

to present him to the Lord,

just as it is written in the law of the Lord,

Every male that opens the womb shall be consecrated to the Lord,

and to offer the sacrifice of

a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons,

in accordance with the dictate in the law of the Lord.

 

Now there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon.

This man was righteous and devout,

awaiting the consolation of Israel,

and the Holy Spirit was upon him.

It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit

that he should not see death

before he had seen the Christ of the Lord.

He came in the Spirit into the temple;

and when the parents brought in the child Jesus

to perform the custom of the law in regard to him,

He took him into his arms and blessed God, saying:

“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 sight of all the peoples,

a light for revelation to the Gentiles,

and glory for your people Israel.”

The child’s father and mother were amazed at what was said about him;

and Simeon blessed them and said to Mary his mother,

“Behold, this child is destined

for the fall and rise of many in Israel,

and to be a sign that will be contradicted

—and you yourself a sword will pierce—

so that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.”

There was also a prophetess, Anna,

the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher.

She was advanced in years,

having lived seven years with her husband after her marriage,

and then as a widow until she was eighty-four.

She never left the temple,

but worshiped night and day with fasting and prayer.

And coming forward at that very time,

she gave thanks to God and spoke about the child

to all who were awaiting the redemption of Jerusalem.

 

When they had fulfilled all the prescriptions

of the law of the Lord,

they returned to Galilee,

to their own town of Nazareth.

The child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom;

and the favor of God was upon him.

~Lk 2:22-40

This is the second week in a row Fr. Geoffrey Plant does an amazing job of explaining today’s readings. 

 

Fr. Plant’s explanation of a mother’s purification after childbirth as a return to the profane from the sacred is startling.  I had never heard that before.  I questioned it actually.  Most explanations do not reproduce that.  However, at Chabad.org, a religious Jewish question and answer website, we do get this:  

 

Why the difference in the laws of ritual purity between the birth of males and females?

By Chana Weisberg

Question:

 

My question is on the subject of cleanness of a mother after the birth of a male or female (Leviticus 12). The woman is unclean for seven days after a male birth, and after the birth of a female the mother is unclean for fourteen days. Why is there a difference between the birth of males and females?

 

Answer:

 

You write the word "cleanliness," when really it is "ritual purity." A woman's "impurity," or "tumah" in Hebrew, during her menstruation is a built-in component of her natural monthly cycle. Her status of "impurity" demonstrates her descent from a peak level of holiness, when she had the ability to conceive a precious new life through her union with her husband.

 

The status of "tumah" is not meant to imply sinfulness, degradation or inferiority. On the contrary, it emphasizes, in particular, the great level of holiness inherent in woman's G‑dly power to create and nurture a new life within her body, and the great holiness of a husband and wife's union, in general. Since a woman possesses this lofty potential, she, also bears the possibility of its void; hence her status as tameh, ritually impure. Since she experienced "the touch of death," so to speak, with the loss of potential life, as reflected by her menstruation, she enters this status of "impure."

 

After having given birth to a baby boy, a woman must wait a minimum of seven days before beginning her pure days; while after a baby girl is born, she must wait a minimum of fourteen days. Since the female child inherently carries a higher degree of holiness, due to her own biological, life creating capability, a greater void, or tumah, remains after her birth. Thus, the greater tumah after a baby girl's birth reflects her greater capacity for holiness (due to her creative powers) and necessitates the longer wait to remove this ritual impurity.

Now the question is in reference to the difference between a the ritual waiting between a boy and a girl child, but explaining, Chana Weisberg substantiates Fr. Plant’s explanation.

Meditation: “Now, Master, you may let your servant go in peace, according to your word, for my eyes have seen your salvation,”

Sunday Meditation: The Annunciation

This is the last Sunday in Advent and Christmas Eve all in one day.  It’s a strange coincidence of the calendar.  The Fourth Sunday in Advent is reserved for a Marian Gospel reading, and today’s reading is the most profound of the Marian passages.

 

The angel Gabriel was sent from God

to a town of Galilee called Nazareth,

to a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph,

of the house of David,

and the virgin's name was Mary.

And coming to her, he said,

"Hail, full of grace! The Lord is with you."

But she was greatly troubled at what was said

and pondered what sort of greeting this might be.

Then the angel said to her,

"Do not be afraid, Mary,

for you have found favor with God.

 

"Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son,

and you shall name him Jesus.

He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High,

and the Lord God will give him the throne of David his father,

and he will rule over the house of Jacob forever,

and of his kingdom there will be no end."

But Mary said to the angel,

"How can this be,

since I have no relations with a man?"

And the angel said to her in reply,

"The Holy Spirit will come upon you,

and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.

Therefore the child to be born

will be called holy, the Son of God.

And behold, Elizabeth, your relative,

has also conceived a son in her old age,

and this is the sixth month for her who was called barren;

for nothing will be impossible for God."

Mary said, "Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord.

May it be done to me according to your word."

Then the angel departed from her.

~Lk 1:26-38

 

Fr. Geoffry Plant does a great job explaining both ends of the readings. 

Fr. Plant also highlights a poem by Denise Levertov.  Let me present it for you.  It’s a wonderful poem.  Levertov was born in England but immigrated to the United States.  Her father was a Hasidic Jew but converted to Christianity, and Denise grew up under both religions.  As a young adult she was more or less agnostic but in mid life she felt a powerful calling back to faith and ultimately became Catholic. 

 

Annunciation

By Denise Levertov

 

We know the scene: the room, variously furnished,

almost always a lectern, a book; always

the tall lily.

       Arrived on solemn grandeur of great wings,

the angelic ambassador, standing or hovering,

whom she acknowledges, a guest.

 

But we are told of meek obedience. No one mentions

courage.

       The engendering Spirit

did not enter her without consent.

         God waited.

 

She was free

to accept or to refuse, choice

integral to humanness.

 

                  ____________________

 

Aren’t there annunciations

of one sort or another

in most lives?

         Some unwillingly

undertake great destinies,

enact them in sullen pride,

uncomprehending.

More often

those moments

      when roads of light and storm

      open from darkness in a man or woman,

are turned away from

 

in dread, in a wave of weakness, in despair

and with relief.

Ordinary lives continue.

                                 God does not smite them.

But the gates close, the pathway vanishes.

 

                  ____________________

 

She had been a child who played, ate, slept

like any other child–but unlike others,

wept only for pity, laughed

in joy not triumph.

Compassion and intelligence

fused in her, indivisible.

 

Called to a destiny more momentous

than any in all of Time,

she did not quail,

  only asked

a simple, ‘How can this be?’

and gravely, courteously,

took to heart the angel’s reply,

the astounding ministry she was offered:

 

to bear in her womb

Infinite weight and lightness; to carry

in hidden, finite inwardness,

nine months of Eternity; to contain

in slender vase of being,

the sum of power–

in narrow flesh,

the sum of light.

                     Then bring to birth,

push out into air, a Man-child

needing, like any other,

milk and love–

 

but who was God.

 

 

This was the moment no one speaks of,

when she could still refuse.

 

A breath unbreathed,

                                Spirit,

                                          suspended,

                                                            waiting.

 

                  ____________________

 

She did not cry, ‘I cannot. I am not worthy,’

Nor, ‘I have not the strength.’

She did not submit with gritted teeth,

                                                       raging, coerced.

Bravest of all humans,

                                  consent illumined her.

The room filled with its light,

the lily glowed in it,

                               and the iridescent wings.

Consent,

              courage unparalleled,

opened her utterly.

 

It’s such a beautiful poem.  I absolutely love the last sentence: “Consent, courage unparalleled, opened her utterly.” 

And this gives occasion for a rendition of “Gabriel’s Message,” here by The King’s Singers.

Meditation: "Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord.  May it be done to me according to your word."

 

Sunday Meditation: John the Baptist, Again

This is the second Sunday in a row the Gospel focuses on St. John the Baptist.  Last Sunday we looked at him through Mark’s Gospel.  Today we get an even fuller characterization through John’s Gospel.

 

A man named John was sent from God.

He came for testimony, to testify to the light,

so that all might believe through him.

He was not the light,

but came to testify to the light.

 

And this is the testimony of John.

When the Jews from Jerusalem sent priests

and Levites to him

to ask him, “Who are you?”

He admitted and did not deny it,

but admitted, “I am not the Christ.”

So they asked him,

“What are you then? Are you Elijah?”

And he said, “I am not.”

“Are you the Prophet?”

He answered, “No.”

So they said to him,

“Who are you, so we can give an answer to those who sent us?

What do you have to say for yourself?”

He said:

“I am the voice of one crying out in the desert,

‘make straight the way of the Lord,’”

as Isaiah the prophet said.”

Some Pharisees were also sent.

They asked him,

“Why then do you baptize

if you are not the Christ or Elijah or the Prophet?”

John answered them,

“I baptize with water;

but there is one among you whom you do not recognize,

the one who is coming after me,

whose sandal strap I am not worthy to untie.”

This happened in Bethany across the Jordan,

where John was baptizing.

~Jn 1:6-8, 19-28

Bishop Robert Barron’s sermon on John the Baptist is the absolute best understanding of the saint that I have come across.  This is a must listen and perhaps a must bookmark. 

 

Did you get that?  John the Baptist is the summation of every religious figure.  Here is the sculpture Bishop Barron alludes to of John the Baptist at the Cathedral of Chartres. 

 

 

Doesn’t he look a little like John Michael Talbot?  Here is a lovely song by John Michael, "Worship and Bow Down."

 

Meditation: “Who are you?” He admitted and did not deny it, but admitted, “I am not the Christ.”

Sunday Meditation: John the Baptist

All important comings require preparation.  Today we have the preparation for the coming Lord.  We meet John the Baptist, who echoes the words from Isaiah to make things ready.

 

The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ the Son of God.

 

As it is written in Isaiah the prophet:

Behold, I am sending my messenger ahead of you;

he will prepare your way.

A voice of one crying out in the desert:

“Prepare the way of the Lord,

make straight his paths.”

John the Baptist appeared in the desert

proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.

People of the whole Judean countryside

and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem

were going out to him

and were being baptized by him in the Jordan River

as they acknowledged their sins.

John was clothed in camel’s hair,

with a leather belt around his waist.

He fed on locusts and wild honey.

And this is what he proclaimed:

“One mightier than I is coming after me.

I am not worthy to stoop and loosen the thongs of his sandals.

I have baptized you with water;

he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”

~Mk 1:1-8

Fr. Joseph Mary of the Capuchin Franciscans gives a passionate exegesis of just who John the Baptist is and the importance of John’s message. 

 

 

Fr. Joseph reminds me of John the Baptist himself! 

Meditation: “Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths.”