How is consecrated life connected to the Presentation of Jesus? In presenting Jesus in the Temple, Mary and Joseph show themselves models of poverty, chastity, and obedience.
By Br. Stephen Camara, MIC
“A light for revelation to the nations, and glory to your people Israel!” So the aged Simeon hails the infant Son of God (see Lk 2:22-40).
The mystery of the Presentation of Jesus in the Temple (celebrated on Feb. 2, 40 days after Christmas) is a mystery of hidden glory. After the extraordinary signs at His birth, we might expect Jesus to continue signs and wonders to draw all people to Himself. But He chooses a hidden life, only recognized by those like Simeon and Anna who have received the Holy Spirit. Luke continues:
When they had fulfilled all the prescriptions of the law of the Lord, they returned to Galilee, to their own town of Nazareth. The child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom; and the favor of God was upon him.
Humility and hiddenness
The Catholic Church is full of such hidden glories. As Proverbs 25 says, “It is the glory of God to conceal things, but the glory of kings is to search things out.” We cannot fathom every mystery at once; understanding is a part of the interior life that often comes gradually.
This includes understanding the hidden glory of the consecrated life, which we also celebrate on Feb. 2.
This day was established as the World Day of Consecrated Life by Pope St. John Paul II in 1997, following the release of his apostolic exhortation on the same theme: Vita Consecrata. This annual feast, he said, serves a threefold purpose in relation to God, to all the faithful, and to men and women living a specific religious consecration:
First, every human heart has an “intimate need” to praise God and thank Him for His gifts, including the gift of consecrated life.
Second, all the faithful are invited to learn more about consecrated men and women among them, to honor them, and to encourage vocations to priesthood and religious life.
Third, persons living these special vocations must rediscover, celebrate, and assimilate the graces of their past calling, their present lifestyle, and their future mission.
Religious vocation
What is consecrated life? “Consecrated life” is the life of religious men, like the Marian Fathers, and religious women (sisters and nuns) who have bound themselves more closely to God, living out their baptismal consecration by the public profession of vows.
To be “consecrated,” broadly speaking, is to be set apart from the world as holy to God. In the Old Testament, people were “consecrated” before they participated in a sacrifice. Jesus gave a new form to this personal and communal consecration through the Sacrament of Baptism.
Consecrated life is God’s gift: He calls men and women to love and serve Him in a special kind of interior life and apostolate.
Most religious, like the Marian Fathers, profess vows of voluntary poverty, perpetual chastity, and perfect obedience. These have been called the three “evangelical counsels,” because Christ in the Gospels explicitly urges His apostles to follow Him in these ways. They directly oppose a worldly lifestyle of greed, lust, and pride, and point all the baptized toward our heavenly goal.
Consecration and the Holy Family
How is consecrated life connected to the Presentation of Jesus?
In presenting Jesus in the Temple, Mary and Joseph show themselves models of poverty, chastity, and obedience. Luke writes that they offered a “pair of turtledoves,” the cheapest purification offering mentioned in Leviticus 12 for those too poor to afford a bull or a lamb. Furthermore, both were perfect virgins, parents of Jesus by grace rather than nature (though He did receive His human flesh from the Blessed Virgin). Nevertheless, they were perfectly obedient even to this detail of the Mosaic Law.
What about those who are not living under vows? Are they simply to honor the professed religious from a respectful distance?
This day reminds us that distance is not always respectful. We can honor religious men and women on Feb. 2 — and, indeed, one every day — by visiting them, celebrating with them, and learning in prayer and conversation how to live, even in the world, an interior life with God.
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