The Feast of the Presentation: What is the glory of God?

The psalms are ancient hymns of Israel. Their composition spans centuries. Psalm 24 is an ancient hymn of praise to welcome the King of Glory into his Temple, the Lord mighty in battle.

Lift up your heads, O gates!
and be lifted up, O ancient doors! that the King of glory may come in. Who is the King of glory?
The Lord, strong and mighty, the Lord, mighty in battle!  Lift up your heads, O gates!
and be lifted up, O ancient doors! that the King of glory may come in.

 The lintels of the doorway of the city of Jerusalem and the Temple need to be higher because the king is entering his Temple and human structures are too small.
 
The Feast of the Presentation or Candlemas as it is also known, because Jesus is the light of the world, is the fulfillment of ancient Judean prophecy.  The prophet Ezekiel, in the wake of the destruction of Jerusalem and the Babylonian captivity, said that God’s glory had departed the Temple, but a time was coming when his glory would return. Jesus taught in the Temple precincts. In Luke’s Gospel, Jesus would one day enter the Temple to cleanse it by turning over the tables of the money changers. Just before his arrest and crucifixion, he prophesied that not a stone would be left upon a stone. That, however, is not today. Today, he comes to his Temple cradled in his mother’s arms. His mother and father are offering a gift of two turtle doves for Mary’s purification forty days following childbirth as prescribed in the Book of Leviticus. Jesus was born into a loving, observant, but poor family. A turtle dove, the offering of someone who cannot afford a lamb, looks like our mourning dove, but is slightly more colorful. The glory of God returns to his Temple in humility and the faith of his parents.
 
The Old Testament Background
To understand this story, we have to examine the Old Testament background behind our feast. Malachi is the last book in the Old Testament, as we Catholics organize it.

“Thus says the Lord GOD:
Lo, I am sending my messenger
to prepare the way before me;
And suddenly there will come to the temple
the LORD whom you seek,
And the messenger of the covenant whom you desire. Yes, he is coming, says the LORD of hosts.
But who will endure the day of his coming?” Mal. 3:1-4

 The Gospel of Luke follows Malachi and tells the story of the angel Gabriel appearing to Mary and the story of Jesus’ birth. The January 1 Feast of Mary, Mother of God was formerly the Circumcision of the Lord. That feast was about Jesus circumcision, which made him part of the people of Israel. This feast, however, is about Mary’s purification, not Jesus’ circumcision.
 
God’s people call out to him and God responds. What St. Luke wants you to believe is that the King of Glory, mighty in battle as in Psalm 24, comes, not as a conventional warrior, but as a baby, cradled in his mother’s arms. The gates and lintels of the Temple don’t have to raise at all to let Jesus in. He is not very big. He comes, however, to make war, but humanity is not his enemy.
 
But why does Malachi prophecy that the Lord will return to his Temple. We need to go back, perhaps, two hundred years before Malachi to the time of Ezekiel.
 
The Temple and the Messiah
Ezekiel is, like St. John the Baptist, the son of a priest. Based on the information provided in the prophetic book, Ezekiel was probably born around the year 622 B.C., two hundred years, more or less, before Malachi. Ezekiel said that he turned 30 years of age, about five years after Judah’s King Johiachin was exiled from Jerusalem. His prophecies were probably all delivered as he lived in exile on a canal in Babylon, modern day southern Iraq. His prophecies were gathered by other Judahites, the Men of the Great Assembly or Great Synagogue, and made into the book or scroll that we call Ezekiel. The book of Ezekiel, describes the destruction of Solomon’s Temple and the desolation of Judah, which occurred around 587 BC.
 
Ezekiel’s vision was that the glory of the Lord departed from the Temple. He describes his vision in Chapter 10.

Then I looked and there above the firmament over the heads of the cherubim was something like a sapphire, something that looked like a throne. And he said to the man dressed in linen: Go within the wheelwork under the cherubim; fill both your hands with burning coals from the place among the cherubim, then scatter them over the city. As I watched, he entered.  Now the cherubim were standing to the south of the temple when the man went in and a cloud filled the inner court.  The glory of the LORD had moved off the cherubim to the threshold of the temple; the temple was filled with the cloud, the whole court brilliant with the glory of the LORD.  The sound of the wings of the cherubim could be heard as far as the outer court; it was like the voice of God Almighty speaking

 Ezekiel describes his vision of God with fiery serpents, the seraphim, the highest of the angelic hosts. There are cherubim, one of whom puts live coals into the hands of the man dressed all in linen. It looked as if a human hand moved among the cherubim. There were wheels in the vision of God that moved inside each other. The vision was covered with eyes that saw everything and everybody. There were four faces in the vision; a man, a cherub, a lion and an eagle. He had seen them before, not in this vision of the Temple, but by the River Chebar in Babylon. The vision moved wherever it chose, because God would go wherever God wanted to be as he was not limited to Israel. God would follow his people into captivity, but, then Ezekiel describes how God’s glory left Solomon’s Temple. Chapter 10 again,

“When the cherubim moved, the wheels went beside them; when the cherubim lifted up their wings to rise from the earth, even then the wheels did not leave their sides.  When they stood still, the wheels stood still; when they rose up, the wheels rose up with them, for the spirit of the living creatures was in them.  Then the glory of the LORD left the threshold of the temple and took its place upon the cherubim. Ez. 10:16-18

 God has abandoned the Temple and Jerusalem to the enemy and went into exile with the people.  But remember, God had promised Abraham the land of Israel. That he would make of Abraham a great nation. That Abraham would be a blessing on all peoples. God, would return, because God keeps his promises. In Chapter 43, Ezekiel describes a day to come when the glory of the Lord would return to the Temple,

“Then he led me to the gate facing east, and there was the glory of the God of Israel coming from the east! His voice was like the roar of many waters, and the earth shone with his glory.  The vision I saw was like the vision I had seen when he came to destroy the city and like the vision I had seen by the river Chebar—I fell on my face.  The glory of the LORD entered the temple by way of the gate facing east.”  Ez. 43:1-4

 This is the basis of the prophecy that the Messiah would enter Jerusalem from the east, the Mount of Olives. If you remember, on Palm Sunday when we read the Passion of the Lord, it starts with Jesus entering Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives.
 
What would that day be like when the glory of God returns? That is what Malachi speaks of in the first reading today.

“But who will endure the day of his coming? And who can stand when he appears? For he is like the refiner’s fire, or like the fuller’s lye. He will sit refining and purifying silver, and he will purify the sons of Levi, refining them like gold or like silver that they may offer due sacrifice to the LORD.” Mal. 1:3

 God wants to burn away anything that is not for the good of others.  In his purity, the baby refines us. When we gaze on him, we are meant to find our salvation. The four gospels, describe Jesus ministry of healing, exorcism, teaching and forgiveness of sins leading up to the crucifixion. So what role to the prophets Anna and Simeon play?
 
Luke's Gospel: Anna and Simeon the prophets of the New Covenant
The two prophets are Simeon, a Judean, and Anna, the daughter of Phan′u-el, a member of one of the northern tribes lost to the Assrian conquest.  Remember, Jesus starts his public ministry in the north where the lost ten tribes used to be. Luke’s gospel has both men and women involved in the fulfillment of the prophecies. Perhaps the prophetess Anna seems like a surprise, but the Old Testament has other female prophets, Deborah, Jael, Esther, Judith and Miriam are women who spoke and acted for God. Anna was a married woman, now a widow, who took up a life of radical asceticism, living in the temple and fasting and praying night and day. That was her entire life, after her husband’s death. She was consecrated to prayer and fasting, a practice that continued among the early Christians and is the root of religious life until today.
 
Luke speaks also of Simeon,

“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.”

This is a reference to Isaiah 40,

“Comfort, comfort my people, says your God.
Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her
that her warfare is ended, that her iniquity is pardoned,
that she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins. (Isaiah 40:1-2) ….

 Isaiah continues at verse 9

“Get you up to a high mountain, O Zion, herald of good [news]” Get you up to a high mountain,
O Zion, herald of good [news]; lift up your voice with strength,
O Jerusalem, herald of good [news], lift it up, fear not; say to the cities of Judah, “Behold your God!” Behold, the Lord God comes...  

 It’s the exact same language you find in the New Testament when Jesus comes onto the scene and starts proclaiming the Good News, the evangelion, the Good News. This is the deep background for the two prophets the Holy Family meets upon entering the Second Temple.
 
These two prophets are linked to the new Temple. If the first part of Simeon’s prophecy is linked to the past prophecies of Ezekiel, Isaiah and Malachi, the second part of his prophecy points forward to the crucifixion. He says,

“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.” Lk. 2:35

 Simeon’s prayer is called the Nunc Dimmitis, which translate means, ‘now depart.’ The first half of the prophecy is focused on consolation...in the presence of all people, a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory to thy people Israel.” (Luke 2:31b-32)   The second half of the prophecy is focused on the cross ...this child is set for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign that is spoken against.
Purification on Mary

Mary and Interior Mortification
So, the Purification of Mary is complete with the sacrifice of two turtle doves. But Simeon say, ‘that a sword will pierce her heart so that the thought of many can be revealed.’ Purification as the Torah sees it and purification in following Jesus on the cross. Both are present in this feast.
 
Mary has the title, ‘Queen of the Martyrs.’ Luke emphasizes both Jesus’ coming crucifixion and Mary’s interior martyrdom standing by her Son. The cross will result in the death of Jesus, but Mary will undergo an interior martyrdom. She’s going to suffer with her Son witnessing the death of Jesus. Mary’s interior martyrdom takes place at Calvary. So she merits through Calvary the title of Queen of the Martyrs. Mary’s martyrdom is exemplary for us. We may not be crucified, but being faithful to God as trials come along is an interior mortification. But this all raises the more basic question.
 
What is God’s glory?
When do you witness the glory of God? When we pray and we hope for a miracle, something awe inspiring, we witness God’s glory. True, walking on the stormy sea, raising Lazarus from the dead and exorcising demons is pretty powerful stuff. But people saw those things and didn’t believe. But that is not how the gospel sees God’s glory only. God’s glory is Zacchaeus deciding that he would make restitution for every time he cheated someone. God’s glory is not in curing the blind man, but that the man that can now see follows Jesus on the way to the cross. God’s glory is in Mary and Joseph who had so little but followed faithfully, although there is no mention of any great deed of power that their Son ever did for them. They didn’t need it. God’s glory is when Jesus makes water into wine to help a man who couldn’t afford the wedding feast he wanted to give his friends. St. Irenaeus said that the glory of God is the human person fully alive.

Psalm 74 said “Lift up your heads, O gates 
and be lifted up, O ancient doors! that the King of glory may come in.”

Lintels don’t magically get taller, defying the limitations of wood. If we are the Temples of the Glory of God, we don’t grow larger physically to allow him in. Our hearts and souls grow. Our minds see the reality of the goodness of God all around us. By God’s grace we transcend our limitations. Transcendence is growing beyond natural limits through the power of God’s grace. That is what Christianity offers; a grace filled relationship with and in God.  
 
We should all want to be better people. That is a good thing to want. But to be a saint is to go only where faith and God’s grace can lead us. Our saints are the glory of God. The people of Israel failed, as do we, when we mistake the pleasure of physical things, for the glory that only God’s good favor can bestow. The human heart is made for a reality and a glory that transcends this world, but is made present now in the life of grace. Salvation isn’t something that will happen to us, it happens for us now when we invite the King of Glory in. So lift the lintels of your hearts high, open wide the gates to your innermost thoughts!