On February 2, the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord is celebrated. It is popularly known as Candlemas or the “feast of lights,” because the Eucharistic celebration begins with the rite of blessing the candles, symbols of Christ, the light of the nations, as the elderly Simeon proclaims when he takes the child Jesus into his arms.
Saint John Paul II chose to celebrate the World Day for Consecrated Life on this very day, when we commemorate Mary and Joseph presenting Jesus in the temple “to offer him to the Lord” (Lk 2:22), because “in this Gospel scene, the mystery of Jesus, the consecrated one of the Father, who came into the world to carry out his will faithfully, is revealed (cf. Heb 10:5-7)” (Message for the 1st World Day for Consecrated Life, January 6, 1997).

Let us briefly reflect on the meaning of the Presentation in the temple and of the World Day for Consecrated Life.

In obedience to the law of Moses

In Jesus’ time, it was prescribed that 40 days after the birth there should be both the offering of the firstborn and the purification of the mother. For this reason, before the liturgical reform of the Second Vatican Council, this feast was called the “Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary.” Although Mary was a virgin and pure, she submitted to the law of purification, to give us an example of humility and obedience to God’s law.
The Evangelist Luke specifies that Mary and Joseph offered the sacrifice of the poor. It was prescribed, in fact, that after giving birth to a firstborn son, the mother abstain from ritual practices for forty days, after which she had to offer a twofold sacrifice: a lamb as a burnt offering and a turtledove or pigeon for sin; if the woman was poor, she could offer two turtledoves or two pigeons; and this is what the two holy spouses offered.
Looking more closely at what the law of Moses prescribed, we know that a firstborn son had to be redeemed, with an offering of five shekels paid to a priest anywhere. This recalled the fact that God spared the firstborn of the Jews during the Exodus. Although it was not necessary to go to the temple, Mary and Joseph wanted to fulfill everything in Jerusalem, and for Luke this has a precise theological meaning: Jesus is presented in the temple of God, that is, the Son of the Most High is offered to the Father who sent him. This offering of Jesus to the Father becomes a prelude to his sacrificial offering on the cross.

“My eyes have seen your salvation”

“Now, Master, you may let your servant go in peace, according to your word, because my eyes have seen your salvation, prepared by you in the sight of all the peoples: a light for revelation to the nations and glory for your people Israel” (Lk 2:22-40). These are the words of the elderly Simeon, who was the first to go out to meet the Child Jesus being presented in the temple by Mary and Joseph. Simeon is moved as he takes Jesus into his arms, and through his prayer he reveals God’s plan for that Child. A woman, Anna, also identifies the Child as the Messiah, like Simeon toward the end of his days. The Holy Spirit leads them to see in that Child the fulfillment of their long, watchful expectation. Their attitude reminds us that “the most important things in the world are not to be sought; they are to be awaited” (Simone Weil). They have the clear intuition that he is truly the promised Messiah, that very child born into a humble family of ordinary people.
Father Ermes Ronchi emphasizes: “Simeon utters an immense prophecy about Mary, three words that cross the centuries and reach each one of us: the child is here as a falling and rising, as a sign of contradiction so that hearts may be revealed. Falling is the first word. ‘Christ, my sweet ruin,’ sings Father Turoldo; may you ruin not the person but their shadows, an insufficient life, a dying life, my world of masks and lies, may you ruin an illusory life. Sign of contradiction, the second. He who contradicts our ways with his ways, our thoughts with his thoughts, the false image of God that we nourish with the unprecedented face of an abbà with great arms and a heart of light, the contradiction of everything that contradicts love. He is here for the resurrection, the third word: through him no one is lost, no one is finished forever; it is possible to begin again and become new.”

World Day for Consecrated Life

The Presentation of Jesus in the temple is a meaningful image of the total self-giving of all those called to bear witness through their lives to the encounter with Jesus as he truly is: chaste, poor, and obedient. Their response is one of love to Jesus’ loving gaze. Addressing consecrated persons, Pope Francis said last year: “You too, dear consecrated brothers and sisters, are simple men and women who have seen the treasure worth more than all the possessions in the world. For its sake you have left precious things, such as material goods and creating a family of your own. Why did you do it? Because you fell in love with Jesus, you saw everything in him, and, captivated by his gaze, you left the rest. Consecrated life is this vision. It is seeing what matters in life. It is welcoming the Lord’s gift with open arms, as Simeon did. This is what the eyes of consecrated persons see: God’s grace poured into their hands. A consecrated person is one who looks at himself or herself every day and says: ‘Everything is a gift, everything is grace.’ Dear brothers and sisters, we did not earn religious life; it is a gift of love that we have received.”
A gift of love to share with every person, in order to “dream together,” as recalled in the letter of January 18, 2021, which the prefect and secretary of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life sent to all consecrated men and women. The letter was published by the Holy See’s daily newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano. We quote some passages: “In the Encyclical Fratelli tutti, Pope Francis invites us to act together, to rekindle in everyone ‘a worldwide aspiration to fraternity’ (no. 8), to dream together (no. 9), so that ‘in the face of the various current ways of eliminating or ignoring others, we may be able to respond with a new dream of fraternity and social friendship…’ (no. 6).
Consecrated men and women in religious, monastic, and contemplative institutes, in secular institutes and new institutes, members of the ordo virginum, hermits, and members of societies of apostolic life: to all of you we ask that you place this Encyclical at the center of your life, formation, and mission. From now on, we cannot disregard this truth: we are all brothers and sisters, as we pray, perhaps not with full awareness, in the Our Father, because ‘without an openness to the Father of all, there can be no solid and stable reasons for the call to fraternity’ (no. 272).
This Encyclical, written at a moment in history that Pope Francis himself called ‘the hour of truth,’ is a precious gift for every form of consecrated life which, without hiding the many wounds to fraternity, can rediscover in it the roots of prophecy.”

Pope Francis reminded us that “the gaze of consecrated persons can only be a gaze of hope.” Let us make his prayer our own: “Let us thank God for the gift of consecrated life and ask for a new gaze, one that knows how to see grace, one that knows how to seek out our neighbor, one that knows how to hope. Then our eyes too will see salvation.”

May your journey be blessed!