Saturday, February 8, 2014

The Purification of the Blessed Mother in the Temple

Ave Maria!  Last Sunday, February 2, we celebrated the feast of the Presentation of the Lord. While its main focus is the offering of the Child Jesus in the temple, this feast is also the celebration of the purification of His Virgin Mother.  

In his book The Mysteries of Mary, Father Marie-Dominique Philippe, O.P. provides a rich meditation upon Our Lady's purification and her deep humility and steadfast faith.  He points out that the Law of Moses that required the mother's purification after the birth of her child was not binding for Mary, who was "totally pure; she has conceived and given birth to her child in a miraculous way." Nevertheless, she submits to the law, and "A legal purification is transformed into a mystery of purification."

Mary abides by the law, Father Philippe explains, in order "to remain hidden, so that her privilege may remain exclusively reserved for the glory of God.  This is the attitude of the lowly servant of God who, by divine instinct, wishes to live according to the proper demands of the common law in order to remain hidden, in order to be inconspicuous."  

By "divine instinct" the Virgin Mary, chosen by God Himself from all eternity to be the Mother of our Lord and Savior, seeks to become small and humble like the Divine Child to whom she gave birth.  She has accepted her "extraordinary mission," and she will freely and gladly fulfill it both on earth and in heaven.  Still and all, she desires "to disappear unnoticed, without receiving any special attention. She understands that the glory of God consists in hiding His works." 

Ave Maria!  How great is your humility!  And this humility of hers, Father Philippe observes, "divinely prepares Mary's heart to fully receive God's Word, even if this Word will wound her heart."  She knows that she will suffer – like her Son, with her Son, for her Son. All her Son's sufferings and sorrows will be intimately hers.   "And thine own soul a sword shall pierce!" (Lk 2:35) Simeon prophesies, and Our Lady renews her fiat of the Annunciation in humility and also in faith.  There is, Father Philippe notes,  "a very close connection between faith and humility" because humility "makes us capable of accepting a divine message which we may not understand and which at first even seems to conflict with everything we have been told before.  Insofar as pride takes possession of us and exalts us, it closes our intelligence, which then thinks it is capable of attaining the fullness of the truth.  The proud man relies solely on his personal judgment.  Hence he cannot submit to divine truth in its transcendence."  

Ave Maria!  How great is your faith!  Yes, even and especially now, while receiving Simeon's prophecy which, says Father Philippe, "is entirely directed toward sorrow and separation" and "focuses on the sorrowful motherhood – which will culminate on Calvary."  Our Lady's "fiat of faith" at the Presentation "generates in her heart and soul a much greater poverty, which is that of a very sorrowful separation from Him who is everything to her, demanding a complete surrender to God's loving will.  Without understanding, she must radically and fully accept this mysterious will of God for Jesus and for herself, preferring the complete accomplishment of this will – however painful and difficult it may seem to her – to the present possession, so wonderful and so divine, of Jesus."  In faith, Mary accepts what she cannot understand, trusting in God's mercy and rejoicing in His salvation (Ps 13/12:6).

Ave Maria!  Loving Mother of the Divine Child, teach me the humility and faith of your fiat in this "mystery of purification".  Like you, with you and through you, may I offer Your Son all the joys and the sorrows of my poor heart, singing forever of His goodness to me.  Amen.

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