Today we celebrate the purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the Novus Ordo.
Today it's called the Presentation of the Child Jesus in the Temple.
In reality, the two things, of course, go together, and the tradition of both liturgies is the same.
And the purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary has always been understood by the Church to be also a feast of our Lord.
And if you want to think of it as the Presentation of the Child Jesus in the Temple, it's also a feast of the Blessed Virgin.
And that's kind of one of the major points of the feast day,
is that the two things go together.
The other name for today's celebration, traditionally in the English-speaking world, is Candle Mass, the Mass of Candles.
We're not blessing candles at this particular morning Mass,
but we will be at the evening Mass, be blessing candles and having a procession.
But the custom of blessing the candles at this particular feast, and thus making it Candle Mass,
are the words of Simeon in today's Gospel, where he speaks of Christ as the light to the revelation of the Gentiles
and the glory of our people Israel.
Christ calls himself the light of the world.
And today, our Blessed Lady is the true light-bearer, the true Lucifer, as St. Anthony,
of Padua, referred to her.
Many people don't like that, but St. Anthony was not afraid to use that title in reference to her.
The great angel who became Satan lost that title because he chose darkness rather than light.
But Our Lady chose the light and chose the light so fully and completely and perfectly
that she became the light-bearer, the bearer of light to the whole world.
She is the Mother of God.
She is the Mother of God, the God-bearer, the Christ-bearer, the one who brings Christ into the world.
And today, she brings him into his temple.
She brings him into his home, into the place of sacrifice,
the place where, so to speak, at least symbolically, all the promises will be fulfilled.
The temple rightly belongs to our Lord.
The Holy of Holies in the old temple, which was empty at the time of the purification,
of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Ark of the Covenant had been lost.
That Holy of Holies was a symbol of the true presence of Christ in the world,
the symbol of Our Blessed Lady's womb, a symbol of our tabernacle.
And as I said, when Our Lady brought Jesus into the temple, it was empty.
God had provided at the Babylonian exile an opportunity to begin to substitute
or prepare for the substitution or the replacement of the old law.
And so when Our Lady brought Jesus into the temple,
she was bringing the true presence that all the symbols had pointed to.
And in the temple, of course, was the place where the sacrifices were offered
before the Holy of Holies, and our Lord is the true sacrifice.
And the light that he carries into the world,
is not only his teaching, not even, you might say, principally his teaching,
the light that he brings into the world is the grace of God by which we are enlightened.
Because without his grace, without faith, without the power to act with the mind and heart of God,
nothing would avail us, not even the teaching of Jesus.
That's why Jesus is not just a teacher, he is a redeemer.
His words are not just something that reach our ears,
but they penetrate to the heart because of his grace,
which he won upon the cross.
And so when Our Blessed Lady brings Jesus into the temple,
brings the light into the temple as the great light-bearer,
she is bringing the sacrifice there.
And she is willingly, not only bearing the light to the world,
but offering the light to the world.
She willingly brings her son into the temple for the purpose of sacrifice.
The old law required that, as we read in the Gospel of Luke today,
in remembrance of the Passover, required that each time that there was a firstborn son in a family,
that son would have to be redeemed, would have to be brought to the temple,
and bought back with an offering.
An offering of the poor was,
two turtle doves or two pigeons.
And the woman would have to be purified.
After having given birth to her son, she would be ritually unclean and would have to be purified.
Well, this was also a symbol, a symbol of the redeeming power of Christ,
and a symbol of the purity of the Blessed Virgin.
And they humbled themselves to take upon themselves obedience to these laws,
even though Christ didn't need to be redeemed,
but was the Redeemer.
And Our Lady didn't need to be purified,
but was wholly pure, wholly immaculate.
Our Lord came into the temple to offer the sacrifice by which we would be redeemed.
And Our Lady came into the temple to join in that sacrifice so that we could obtain purity.
That is the light that we all must embrace.
And so today we turn to both our Lord and our Blessed Virgin,
and we turn to both our Lord and our Blessed Virgin,
and we turn to both our Lord and our Blessed Virgin,
and we turn to both Our Lord and Our Blessed Lady on this Feast of Our Lord,
and Our Blessed Lady asking for the grace of God's mercy,
and the grace to enter so deeply into the redeeming power of God,
and the grace to enter so deeply into the redeeming power of God,
that we, too, are bearers of light to the world,
not only by our example in our words,
but by our life of sacrifice joined to the Eucharist.
So in this Holy Sacrifice of Christ,
we pray for God's light and for the strength of our souls,
and for the strength always to be faithful to him as Our Lady was,
that we enter into the temple not only to worship God and to find his presence,
but also to offer ourselves in union with him as a sacrifice pleasing to God.
Satsang with Mooji