Reflections
Reflection for the Feast of the Presentation Vigil
February 1, 2025
Forty days after the birth of their child, the young couple brings their newborn to the temple to observe the law. This whole process has been mind-blowing…and they don’t know what the future will hold. Have they met the Magi yet? Have they been to Egypt? And then what?
Then there is Simeon, an elderly priest of the temple. He has been through some troubling times. How to stay true to his calling, and yet deal with this world now controlled by Rome, often violently? Is he troubled by the ways that priests have been negotiating with government leaders? What about those zealots who are fomenting armed rebellion? Yet somehow God seems to be telling him that the Christ is coming and he will live to see it.
And then there is Anna, whose youthful aspirations for a happy married life are crushed by the death of her husband after only seven years. Left on her own, she finds comfort and meaning as she dedicates herself to seeking God. What does that mean? She probably isn’t sure…yet feels called to this life. She believes in the promise of God to send a Savior. And somehow she believes that she will live to see the Christ who will be a light for the people.
What do they expect this child to become? A Davidic King who will make the country safe again? Who will bring back that older idyllic world? They don’t know, and they may be aware from other times and saviors who have failed…so they are looking for a Savior who will be a light…even to the Gentiles. And it won’t be easy, and this mother will know sorrow, as well as joy because of who he is to become. He will be a sign that will be contradicted. There will be the rise and fall of many, but he will be a Light for the world.
Like Mary and Joseph, Simeon, and Anna, we live in a world that has changed, that hasn’t lived up to our expectations. We can remember when our communities were large and effective. In June of 1960, twenty-two of us entered Mount St. Scholastica, a community 600 strong. As time went on, we moved from staffing schools to working to implement Vatican II in the schools and parishes. We can all tell fond memories of those years.
But our world and our lives has changed, and like Simeon and Anna, we are struggling to see what God has in store for us now. But those six sisters who crossed the Missouri River to Atchison in 1863 to assist the monks in ministering to the immigrants on the frontier, would have been astonished by that community of 600 I joined in 1960.
What keeps us grounded is what Simeon and Anna saw in the Christ…God in human form…one of us. Like them, we look to Christ, who is Light…even for our troubled world.
Pope Francis has called us in this Jubilee year to be signs of hope, to trust in God’s presence in our world and in one another.
“We must fan the flame of hope that has been given us, “
he reminds us, “and help everyone to gain new strength and certainty by looking to the future with an open spirit, a trusting heart and far-sighted vision.”. Like Simeon and Anna we don’t know what the future will look like, but we can have confidence that this same Christ will be our Light.