November 21 — PRESENTATION OF MARY IN THE TEMPLE

Presence of God. — O Mary, present You my offering and my life to the Lord.

Meditation

1 — Although Sacred Scripture tells us nothing about the presentation of the most blessed Virgin in the temple, this fact is authoritatively founded on the most ancient Christian tradition and the Church has recognized it in an official way by making it the subject of a particular Marian feast. The Child Mary, who at a very tender age, leaves home and parents to go to live in the shadow of the temple, speaks to us of detachment, of separation from the world, of full dedication to the service of God; it speaks to us of virginal consecration to the Most High. After her, countless virginal souls will present themselves at the temple to offer themselves to God, but no offering will be so pure, so total, so acceptable as that of Mary.

Our Lady is truly the privileged one among all creatures, she who from the first moments of her existence has heard the great call: “Hear, O daughter, and see and incline your ear, and forget your people and your father’s house” (Ps. 44, 11). The Most High has become enamored of her beauty and wishes her all for Himself; Mary responds and her response is most ready and complete. Similar to that of Our Lady must be the response of souls whom God calls to the altar, calls to religious life or to virginal consecration in the world. These souls too must separate themselves from the world, must leave relatives and friends, must detach themselves from their people, from their home; not always can it be a material separation, but it must always be a spiritual separation, that is, of affection. It is the heart that must be detached, must isolate itself, because the elect of the Lord can no longer in any way belong to the world: “they are not of the world” (Jn. 17, 14), said Jesus. To live in the world without being of the world is not easy, but it is absolutely necessary to respond to the divine call. There are virginal souls who fail in their vocation of “consecrated” or do not correspond to it fully because they are still attached to the world, to its maxims, to its vanity, to its curiosities, to its softnesses, because they have not had the courage to realize a true separation, or at least, after having begun it, have not remained faithful to it. And this can happen not only to souls who live in the world, but also to those who live in the cloister, because the world penetrates everywhere and everywhere invades hearts not totally detached.

2 — To total separation corresponds total offering, total consecration. Mary gives herself entirely to her God, gives herself to Him without reserve, gives herself to Him forever. “Lord, in the simplicity of my heart I offer You today myself, as a devoted servant forever, in sacrifice and homage of eternal praise” (Imit. IV, 9, 1). Such must have been the dispositions with which the holy Child offered herself to the Most High, dispositions that were lived with a coherence that confounds our misery. Not for an instant did Mary fail in her total consecration; God was able to make of her all that He wished without ever finding the least resistance. Circumstances exceedingly difficult and painful filled the life of Our Lady: the doubt of Joseph about the origin of her maternity, the journey to Jerusalem in conditions so delicate and uncomfortable, the squalid poverty in which she sees her Child born, the flight into Egypt, the hard life of Nazareth, the hostilities and malignity of the Pharisees toward Jesus, the betrayal of Judas, the ingratitude of a people so benefitted and loved, the condemnation to death of the Son, the journey to Calvary, the crucifixion in the midst of the insults of the rabble. In vain would we scrutinize the heart of Mary to discern there a single movement of resentment, of protest, of lament; Mary has given herself totally to God and leaves God to exercise over her all His rights of Sovereign, of Lord, of Master; she has nothing to object, nor does she marvel that her immolation must reach such a point: has she not offered herself without reserve? And now that her offering is being consumed she has only to repeat: “Fiat! Ecce ancilla Domini!”.

How much diversity in our life of consecrated souls! With what facility do we take back the gift made to God! We take back our heart, when we let it be reoccupied by human affections; we take back our will, when we do not know how to submit to certain obediences that mortify or contradict us, when we do not know how to accept things that cost us, when we complain, protest, defend our rights. Yet the only true right of the soul consecrated to God is that of letting itself be totally operated and consumed for His glory.

Let us ask Mary presented in the temple to take in her maternal hands our poor offering, to heal and complete it with hers, so pure and perfect, to include it and hide it in hers, so great and generous, that, thus purified and renewed, it may be pleasing to God.

Colloquy

“O Beloved of God, most lovable maiden Mary, could I today offer You the first years of my life, to dedicate myself entirely to Your service, holy and sweetest Lady mine, just as You presented Yourself in the temple and consecrated Yourself entirely to the glory and to the love of Your God! But I am no longer in time, having lost so many years serving the world and my caprices, so forgetful of You and of God. Woe to that time in which I did not love You! But better late than never to begin. Behold, O Mary, that today I present myself to You and offer myself entirely to Your service, for that little or much that remains to me to live on this earth; and, like You, renounce all creatures and dedicate myself entirely to the Love of my Creator. I consecrate, therefore, O Queen, my mind that it may always think of the love that You merit, my tongue that it may praise You, my love that it may love You. Accept, O Most Holy Virgin, the offering that this miserable sinner presents to You; accept it, I beseech You, for that consolation that your heart felt when, in the temple, you gave yourself to God. And if late I place myself at Your service, it is well that I make up for lost time by redoubling homage and love.

“O Mother of mercy, help, with your powerful intercession, my weakness and obtain for me from your Jesus perseverance and the strength to be faithful to You until death; and grant that, serving You always in this life, I may come to praise You eternally in Paradise” (St. Alphonsus).