The liturgical calendar of the Church offers us a special feastday today: the Presentation of Mary. While there is no Biblical evidence that her parents (Sts. Joachim and Anne) presented her to God in the Temple, the traditional Jewish practice would have been to do so. Mary’s “presentation” would have happened, most likely, when she completed three years of life.
At the heart of today’s celebration is our conviction that God set Mary “apart” – and did so because of her special role in our salvation. One of the popular definitions of “holy” is “to be set apart by God.” That is, From the beginning of her life, she was dedicated to God, given over to God’s purposes.
For reflection: If the Temple in Jerusalem was the house of God, the place where God was believed to be present in a special way, Mary became the house of the Lord in an even greater way, because she carried the Lord in her womb until she give birth to Him. God came to dwell in her, through Jesus, because she was open and obedient to God’s presence from the earliest years of her life. We, too, are called to be obedient to God so that we too can become His temples – people who carry Lord’s presence to others. O Blessed Virgin Mary, pray for us.
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La Iglesia celebra hoy la Fiesta de la Presentación de la Virgen María. No hay ninguna indicación en las Escrituras de que ella fuera presentada en el Templo. Pero esta piadosa leyenda quiere presentar algo muy real: que Santa María siguió a su Hijo Jesús, que su mentalidad y actitud era la de Jesús, y que, como su Hijo, ella estuvo enteramente ocupada en buscar en todo la voluntad de Dios. Ella fue una verdadera pariente de Jesús, también mental y espiritualmente, en el espíritu del Evangelio.
Oremos. “Oh Dios todopoderoso, tú nos conoces y nos amas. Como Santa María, sabemos que, ante cualquier cosa que nos pase, estamos en tus manos. A donde quiera que nos lleves, tú sabes muy bien a dónde quieres que vayamos. Haz que tu voluntad sea la nuestra, que nos lleves a tu casa, por intercesión de la Virgen y bajo la guía de Aquél que hizo en todo tu voluntad, Jesucristo nuestro Señor. Amén.”
