Feast of the Presentation of the Lord
World Day for Consecrated Life: Mass of
Thanksgiving for Religious
-
Today’s feast of the Presentation of the
Lord in the Temple forty days after his birth evokes once
again the mystery of Christmas. The child of Mary, foretold
by the prophets to be the Emmanuel, God-with-us and
announced by the angels as the Saviour, is now recognised,
according to the word of the prophet, to be the Lord
entering his Temple. Simeon and Anna, representatives of the
faithful remnant who looked forward to the deliverance of
Jerusalem, rejoice to see the salvation God has prepared for
his people and joyfully acknowledge Jesus to be the Messiah,
a light to enlighten the pagans and the glory of Israel. And
the mystery of the cross falls across this scene too as
Simeon describes Jesus as a “sign destined to be rejected”,
and for Mary, a sword will pierce her heart. Yet at all
times the Feast of the Presentation remains somehow full of
hope and of light because the Incarnate Lord, who died and
rose again, is present with us until the end of time. The
candles we bear thus evening tell us we have been bathed in
his light, we walk in his light, and we carry his light to
others.
-
The Feast of the Presentation is
celebrated in a particular way as the World Day for
Consecrated Life. Every religious order, institute and
family has its own charism and its own spirituality, but the
feast of the Presentation sheds light on at least one
characteristic which is common to all forms of religious and
consecrated life. The Lord said “I am going to send a
messenger before me.” Religious are messengers of the coming
and of the presence of the Lord. In the witness you give and
in the work you do in our parishes, schools and hospitals,
you prepare people for the coming of the Lord. You bring a
message of God’s nearness and of the consolation and peace
he gives to his people. I saw this recently during the Week
of Prayer for Christian Unity when Sisters especially were
evident at ecumenical events, giving a witness of the Lord
who comes to bring unity to his people, giving a witness of
evangelical presence, of kindly listening, and of sharing
the experience of being a disciple and friend of the Lord.
And I was grateful that you were there. So I encourage you
to persevere in this vocation to be a messenger in your work
with children, with adults, with the sick and elderly, with
those who are preparing for the Sacraments, and with those
with special needs. Continue to be a messenger of the Lord’s
presence so that he may come to dwell with his people.
-
Simeon was overjoyed to see Mary’s child
and he glad recognised Jesus to be the light of the world.
At the same time, he cryptically said of Jesus that this
child would a sign that is rejected, a sign of
contradiction. As these decades have worn on, that
characteristic of Jesus’ mission to be a sign of
contradiction, fulfilled on the cross, has been more and
more the experience of the Church in the later 20th
and early 21st centuries. The Church which wants
to be a Church for the world and at the service of the world
has found itself having to take up a prophetic stance, a
counter-cultural stance in respect of many things which are
going in the world today, and so, like her Saviour, She too
is a sign that is rejected, a sign of contradiction. And if
that is true of the Church as a whole, it is especially true
of consecrated life, both in the prophetic witness of
religious in their work and in the painful contraction of so
many religious orders, institutes and families.
-
Yet rejection did not deter the Lord: for
Him it became the way to show his love even more abundantly.
The experience of rejection must not deter his Church: she
must continue to be a Church which is the sacrament of
salvation. Neither should rejection or difficulty or
uncertainty deter you, my dear brothers and sisters in
religious life. I cannot believe that the Lord has given the
gift of consecrated life to the Church for it to come to
nothing. So I encourage you to continue to live the charism
of your religious order, to give us a shining witness of
poverty, chastity and obedience. I encourage you to lift up
your light and be a prophetic sign of God’s coming and of
his presence in the world, especially to the poor. And as
you prepare to renew your vows now, I want to thank you on
behalf of the Diocese of Paisley, of its priests and people,
for the witness of your consecrated life and for your work
here. Please pray for me as I will for you.
St. Peter’s, Glenburn
2nd February 2007
|
|
