PURIFICATION OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY

Feast Day - February 2

Apart from presenting the Christ in the Temple, Our Lady was also purified on this day.

On the Feast of Mary’s Purification, we greet her with lighted candles – shining with faith and understanding, burning with love and zeal, as Zion welcomed Christ the King; today we go to Christ, the new Light that gives Faith, Hope and Charity to us all through Mary.

The two-fold Jewish rites to which the Holy Family submitted on this occasion were the legal purifying of the mother after childbirth and the offering of the first-born male child to the Lord. The Holy Family showed reverence for the Father’s Law by fulfilling its obligations, and so the Mother submitted to the Purification in all humility.

Angels beheld in wondering awe what was the greatest event the Temple had ever witnessed. It was nothing less than the second coming of the Lord to His Temple, which the prophets had foretold. At the Presentation, God the Son made Man took possession of the Temple built for His Father’s glory, and so ratified the worship which is offered to God in sacred courts, churches.

This simple ceremony is the link between the mystery of the Incarnation and the Redemption; here the Saviour renews the oblation of Himself.

Jesus really begins His Passion in this mystery of the Presentation; and so, too, Mary begins her sufferings. It is by Mary’s hands that Jesus makes the oblation which is the prelude to His Sacrifice. We reckon the Presentation among the joyful mysteries, but it is also first in place among Mary’s Sorrows.

Simeon, enlightened by the Holy Spirit, understood the mystery and so, too, did Mary. After his first transports of joy at seeing the Messiah, he blessed them and said to His Mother, “Behold this Child is set for the fall and the rising of many in Israel, and for a sign which shall be contradicted, and your own soul a sword shall pierce, that out of many hearts, thoughts may be revealed.”

This prophecy reminds us that Mary is always to be associated with the destiny of Jesus, the one solitary partner of His lot, singled out to suffer with Him. Heresy that pierced the Son have transpierced the Mother. The early Church guarded the doctrines of Jesus by defining Mary’s titles; today those who repudiate the honour of Mary, turn from the Son also; in the mind of satan as in the mind of the Church, the honour of Son and Mother go together.

This feast reminds us how intimately Mary is associated with her Son in the work of Redemption. We welcome Her Child to our hearts with love and faith, we bless the Mother, too; for she had “not spared her life by reason of the distress and tribulation of her people, but has prevented our ruin in the presence of our God.”