Feast of the Presentation of the Lord

Lectionary: 524 

Surely he did not help angels
but rather the descendants of Abraham;
therefore, he had to become like his brothers and sisters
in every way,
that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest before God
to expiate the sins of the people.

Today, as the world marks Groundhog Day and prepares for the secular feast of Valentines, the Church recalls the infancy of Jesus. Forty days after Christmas, the Presentation of the Lord might be the last gasp of the Yule Season, but it's also a lovely way to remember the Holy Family's wholehearted observance of their Jewish religion. 

Some scholars have suggested that Saint Luke emphasized the Savior's Jewish roots with several infancy stories to reassure Roman authorities that ours was not a new religion, self-spawned among the innumerable "spiritual" movements of a settled, aging, and suspicious empire. Governments don't like new religions unless they promise to change, challenge, and mean nothing. 

But I wonder if the scholars' concern is to suggest the Church's distance from its Jewish lineage while the text placated the authorities. As if the faith was Jewish "in name only."

Certainly this feast reflects Saint Paul's teaching, 

"But when the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to ransom those under the law, so that we might receive adoption. (Galatians 4:4-5)

The Lord, his apostle, and the Church never doubted that we are heirs of the Jewish faith. 

Many Americans are enchanted with "land, lots of land, with an open sky above." Their notion of freedom is no law, no restrictions, no limits, and plenty of power with neither responsibility nor consequences. If they discover that such a place never existed, cannot, and never will, they still think it should. 

Joseph and Mary suffered no such illusions. Gratefully and joyfully they brought their firstborn son to the Temple to invest him in the Law of Moses with all its restrictions, privileges, and assurances. Nor would the Child ever renounce that Law. Rather, he insisted, 

Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have come not to abolish but to fulfill. Amen, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or the smallest part of a letter will pass from the law, until all things have taken place. (Matthew 5: 17-18)

With antisemitism again on the rise like Lady Macbeth's damned spot, Catholics must reconfirm our love and gratitude for our Jewish ancestry and our Jewish religion. 

The cowboy who wants an open range wants no one with him, neither wife nor children, though an Indian servant might be handy. Jesus frees his people by binding himself to us; and, like the LORD his Father, he will never abandon us despite the troubles we cause. Thirty-some years after the Dedication in the Temple, he will return to Jerusalem to find his greatest freedom as nails are driven through his hands and into the wood of a cross.