Fourth Joyful Mystery – Presentation

The Rosary relates the Christian life to that of Mary. The four great mysteries of the Rosary – the Joyful, the Sorrowful, the Glorious, the Luminous– are the brief description of earthly life contained in the Creed: birth, struggle and victory. The Christian life is inseparable from the joys of birth and youth, the struggles of maturity against the passions and evil, and finally, the hope of glory in Heaven.

Reflection

Rites of purification were held sacred in the Old Testament because they were ways of consecrating life to God. Life was a gift from God and the first born was entrusted to the Lord. Life was not something that we were to manage by ourselves. When we seek to manage life by ourselves, we end up constructing concentration camps, or enacting laws that make us selectors of who lives or dies. When humanity grants itself the authority to manage the issues of life, we do things that are inhuman and intolerable. In the Presentation, by contrast we are confronted with a mother who humbly consecrates her child to God. But there is also a more universal dimension to the story. The mother is entrusting her child to God, whilst God at the same time is giving his son to all of humanity.

On the Feast of the Presentation, the first reading from the Prophet Malachi tells of the wonderful coming of the Lord to his Temple. But then the prophet asks, “Who can bear the day of his coming? Who will remain standing when he appears?” The Lord, we are told, will purify the sons of Levi as a refiner purifies gold. Our lives are chaotic, full of ambiguity and confusion. Jesus is the only one who can purify our hearts. The fire that will be lit by this child is the Cross that will become our salvation. But in order to be saved we must choose him. The Presentation of Jesus in the Temple is the placing of a choice before each one of us.