Salve, Regina, Mater Misericordiae.
Today we celebrate this feast of the presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the Temple.
The feast on which Our Lady, at the mere age of three, was brought by her parents,
Saints Joachim and Anne, and presented to the priest of the Temple.
Of course, this event isn't found in the Scripture, but nevertheless it is found in the apocryphal writings,
although not everything in there is always considered to be true,
but nevertheless this did remain in the Bible.
The writings and teachings of the Father.
We see it in the writings of Saint Epiphanius, who was born in 310 A.D.,
so we're going back as early as the 4th century.
And then it makes it into the liturgy as early as the 6th century.
And of course, as we all know, the saying goes,
Lex orandi, lex credendi.
As the Church prays, so she believes.
So again, since this feast is included so early on,
in the liturgy, it certainly is a firmly established tradition in the Church.
This matter of presenting daughters to the Temple was part of the Jewish custom.
If you read the writings of the Jewish historian Josephus,
there he attests to the fact that it was a custom of the Jews to bring their daughters to the Temple
and present them at a young age,
to receive their formation.
There they would be educated and brought up until about the age of 15,
when again they would leave the Temple and be ready to be married.
We also see there's a scriptural testimony in the second book of Maccabees.
When the Temple is being sieged,
there's this testimony that says,
And the virgins also that were shut up,
that is, they were closed up in the temple,
inside the temple,
came forth, some to Onias,
and some to the walls,
and others looked out of the windows,
and all, holding up their hands toward heaven,
made supplication.
So again, these virgins, which it refers to,
were all of those young girls who were offered at the Temple.
Now, there's a tradition behind Our Lady's presentation.
As we know, Saint Anne was childless
for many, many years,
and she reached a point in her life
when she began to pray earnestly to God
for this gift of a child,
to cure her barrenness.
And she made a promise to the Lord that
if she was granted this grace of a child,
that she would then offer this child to the Temple,
to the service of God.
And of course, as we know,
God answered her prayers
with an incomparable grace.
The Immaculate Conception.
And so, Saint Anne, of course,
was faithful to her words,
and brought Our Lady,
at the age of three,
the little Immaculate Virgin,
and brought her to the Temple
to be presented to the priest.
The Immaculate as well
desired this in her little heart.
Of course, we know,
from the moment of her Immaculate Conception,
she belonged entirely to God.
And she was always docile
to the promptings of the Holy Spirit.
And so it was God Himself
who was inspiring this
in the heart of Our Lady,
even though she was only three years old.
She wanted to go there
and respond to the divine call,
and give herself entirely to God,
now in a formal way,
in a solemn way,
and in a public way,
to demonstrate to all that she
really did belong to God.
And so she entered the Temple
and offered herself
as a pure oblation
to the Lord.
And we can all imagine
what may have happened those years
in the Temple,
the good example
that Our Lady gave
to all of the other virgins,
and how impressed
the priests must have been
with her virtue
and also with her knowledge.
There, throughout those years,
as Our Lady revealed
in an apparition
to Saint Elizabeth of Hungary,
who we celebrated a few days ago,
Our Lady said that
she was busy always with prayer,
work,
and studying the sacred scriptures,
and that her one intent
was to love God
with all of her strength,
to continually belong entirely to Him,
and to offer her will
to His will.
It was there that she made her vow
of perpetual virginity
and, of course,
prayed fervently
for the coming of the Redeemer,
of whom she was always reading about
in the sacred scriptures.
Little did she know
that she would be given the grace
to be the Mother of God.
And so today,
we want to give ourselves
to Our Lady.
We should be presenting ourselves
to the Immaculate Virgin.
We should consecrate ourselves
to Our Lady
in an unlimited
and irrevocable way,
and allow her
to form our souls,
to make us holy,
and teach us all of her virtues,
and then, finally,
allow her to present us to God
as a worthy offering.
In the name of the Father,
and of the Son,
and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.