Believing the Unbelievable

By now, some of those colorful, plastic trees have been put back in the box. The traditional live trees have begun to shed their leaves. It’s over—time to move on, but wait. Behind every story lies another one to be told. The Presentation in the Temple is one story that is a prologue to a multi-chapter narrative.

So, tolerate a few fallen tree needles. More celebrations are coming. From birth to honoring a special mother, to marveling at three gift-bearing sojourners, and then on to a famous baptism, await our attention. But first, return to this Presentation. After the famous birth, it is here in this Presentation that the story of salvation and redemption begins to take shape and is defined for us. What are we seeing? Parents, poor in earthly goods, wealthy in faith, participating in God’s plan, and a foreshadowing of the child and mother’s earthly future. It’s a compact piece of storytelling from Luke.

Giving back to God what is God’s and then getting back what was offered is a Gordian knot that challenges us to figure out how to untie it. Perhaps, we can take from this Greek legend, Alexander the Great’s decisive solution to untying that famous knot with the slash of his sword. The lesson for us is to act fiercely, in our own knotty difficulties with faith. Luke is not writing a fantasy story, yet the story he tells is quite fantastic. Simeon, who happened to be nearby with the Holy Spirit upon him, recognized the child as the Messiah and made predictions for what lay ahead for mother and child.

Approach vigorously. Offer our lives to God only to receive in return a better spiritual life that outperforms anything our earthly selves could deliver.

Prayer:

I will sing to the Lord all my life, sing psalms to my God while I live. May my thoughts be pleasing to God. I will rejoice in the Lord. (Psalm 104, adapted by Bernard J. Camire SSS in Praise God in His Holy Place, 48).

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