Homily (Reflection) for the Memorial
of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary (21st November, 2016)
on the Gospel and the Memorial
Rev 14:1-5;
Ps 23:1-6. (R. cf. v.6); Lk 21:1-4.
Mary’s presentation was celebrated in Jerusalem in the
sixth century. The Eastern Church was more interested in the feast, but it does
appear in the West in the 11th century. Although the feast at times disappeared
from the calendar, in the 16th century it became a feast of the universal
Church. As with Mary’s birth, we read of Mary’s presentation in the temple only
in apocryphal literature. In what is recognized as an unhistorical account, the
Protoevangelium of James tells us
that Anna and Joachim offered Mary to God in the Temple when she was 3 years
old. This was to carry out a promise made to God when Anna was still childless.[1]
Topic: Offered to God.
Jesus saw rich people putting their gifts into the treasury and
also a poor widow who put in two small copper coins. And He said,
Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all of
them; for all of them have contributed out of their abundance, but she out of
her poverty has put in all she had to live on.
But what moved this poor widow into this heroine act, giving
all she had to live on? She must have understood “that the LORD is God! It is
he that made us, and we are his; we are his people, and the sheep of his
pasture” (Ps 100:3). Although we are
not to lazy about (cf. 2Thess 3:10) but
we must remember always that God takes care of all His creatures. Hence, Jesus
asks us not to worry about anything because no one can add a single hour to
his/her life span through worrying, cf. Matt
6:25, 27.
The memorial of the presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary
ought to reawaken in us the necessity to offer ourselves entirely to God. Our
lives ought to be in line with Saint Paul’s letter to the Romans, “If we live,
we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord; so then, whether we
live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s” (Rom 14:8).
Bible Reading: 2Cor 8:1-15.
Thought for today: We are God’s.
Let us pray: Lord, with the voice of thanksgiving
I will sacrifice to you and what I have vowed I will pay – Amen (cf. Jon 2:9).
Blessed Virgin Mary – Pray for us.
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