“May you seek Christ; may you find Christ; may you love Christ!” (Saint Josemaría).
When Christ was only a few days old, His Mother, Mary, and His foster father, Joseph, carried Him to Jerusalem to the Temple according to the Law of Moses.
The purpose of that law was to purify the Mother of the Child – after childbirth – and to redeem the first-born Son. As Mary is the Queen of Heaven, the Immaculate Conception, conceived and born without sin, and Christ is God the Son, begotten of the Holy Spirit as God made Man, the entire purpose and procession of their journey to Jerusalem was completely and utterly arbitrary. After all, the sinless Queen of Heaven does not need purification, and nobody could ever redeem the Redeemer.
So why then did God the Father Will that God the Son and His Holy Mother and foster father travel at great inconvenience to themselves to Jerusalem? Of course the obvious answer would be that God the Father wished that His Holy Son should fulfil the prophesies, but the obvious objection to this theory is that God the Father could have created other – less arduous prophesies for them to fulfil… So, the question remains… Why did the Holy Family travel to Jerusalem with a newborn, when they were neither in need of purification or redemption?
And the answer, is quite simple… They went, according to the “Law of Moses”… In other words, they went in obedience to the Holy Will of God, because they KNEW that all arbitrary rules and laws still stood because God willed it so…
And so, in obedience… “And when the time came for their purification according to the law of Moses, they brought Him up to Jerusalem to present Him to the Lord... Simeon took Jesus up in his arms and blessed God and said, ‘Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to Thy word; for mine eyes have seen Thy salvation...’ And His father and His mother marvelled at what was said about Him.” (Luke 2:22-35).
And I have been reflecting on Simeon as well as I consider this mystery, which we commemorate in the fourth joyful mystery of the Most Holy Rosary, when we remember the presentation of Christ at the temple…
You see Simeon rose that morning to go to the Temple. And when he was there, holding the Christ Child he knew – through the power of the Holy Spirit – that Christ was the Son of God! The Venerable Mary of Agreda wrote of her revelation in the “Mystical City of God” that Simeon and the prophetess, Anna, had raised the Blessed Virgin in the Temple from when she was a very young child. And knowing her – through her vocation in the Temple – they also knew that the Child of the Virgin would be a Child of Faith. Then to actually see the Child of the Virgin and be filled with the Holy Spirit, who enlightened them, they knew with a firm certainty of faith that Christ was the Child they had been waiting for…
And knowing the FAITH that drove such a realisation, I pray the prayer of Saint Josemaría, who said, “May you seek Christ; may you find Christ; may you love Christ!”
For that is what the Holy Spirit inspired in those special souls on that very special day…
For with prayer, I stand on Holy Ground where everything is clear. Here. At the Foot of the Cross.
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