Memorial of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Lectionary: 500

As Jesus drew near Jerusalem,

he saw the city and wept over it, saying,
“If this day you only knew what makes for peace but now it is hidden from your eyes.

Pope Benedict XVI, in his two-volume book Jesus of Nazareth, remarks about how quickly the Christian movement lost its fascination for Jerusalem. The city had been for Jews the center of the world, the holy city. Those who could travelled to the city annually. Those who lived far away scrimped and saved for years to afford their one pilgrimage. Many Jews believed God would gather his faithful people there on Judgment Day. Even the dead, called from their graves, would hurry to Zion on that Day.

The new Christian movement was not interested. They didn’t make the pilgrimage; they didn’t sing about the city. When the Roman army leveled the city in 70 AD, scattering its citizens to the far corners of the earth, Christians suffered no trauma. Despite the welcome Jerusalem gave to the Baby Jesus, Saint Luke recalled Jesus’ grief over its failure to recognize the hour of its visitation, and his prediction of doom. It was not important to the New Covenant.

The Church sees in Mary the New Jerusalem. Our celebration of her presentation in the temple, despite its lack of historical foundation, recognizes the transfer of allegiance from the City to the Woman. Where the city seemed hopelessly mired in sin, this woman has never known sin. Where the city failed to recognize the time of her visitation, she received the Word of God as the Angel Gabriel announced it.

Mary, as Saint Luke tells the story, is the Daughter Jerusalem. Though a child of Nazareth and a mother in Bethlehem her destination is Jerusalem. Her final appearance, in the Acts of the Apostles, is there in the Cenacle.

With Advent just around the corner we look forward to the two great precursors of Jesus: John the Baptist and Mary. They will challenge and invite us. One will urge us to meet him in the wilderness, beyond the hullaballoo of Jolly Holly Christmas and Shopping for the Perfect Gift. There we should consider the tragic consequences of our sins and the Goodness of God who redeems sinners. The other will invite us into the holiness of her boudoir to find the Lord of Heaven nestled in her bosom.



Saint John and Mother Mary “gather my faithful ones before me, those who have made a covenant with me by sacrifice.”