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The Athenaeum of Ohio

Terrance Callan

Probably no season of the year makes us more aware of family than the season of Christmas. People usually put a little extra effort into clearing their calendars so they can enjoy this time with everyone at home. The readings this Sunday center on the family of Jesus, inviting us to consider making his family a model for our own.

Mary and Joseph brought Jesus to the temple in Jerusalem "in accordance with the dictate of the law of the Lord." In so doing, they were being dutiful children of Israel. Perhaps many other Jewish families were bringing their little sons into the temple that same day, too. But the attention given Jesus clearly revealed that his consecration to God was something special.

As Jesus will declare later in this Gospel, the temple was His Father’s house. In the temple, He would astound the scholars with His understanding (Luke 2:47). In the temple, He would spend every day teaching during the weeks before His passion and death (Luke 19:47). So it should come as no surprise that when the parents of Jesus bring Him into the temple, God stirs the hearts of two special people within it to speak about what Jesus will do.

The first to come forward is the "righteous and devout" Simeon, a man waiting all his life to see Christ the Lord. The Holy Spirit, always advancing God’s plan of salvation, now directs Simeon to the son of Mary and Joseph. Imagine their surprise as Simeon sweeps Jesus up in his arms and prays his Nunc Dimittis, declaring that God can now bring his life to a close because he has seen the one who brings salvation to the world. And not to Israel only but to the Gentiles as well, a revelation introducing the theme of Luke’s Acts of the Apostles.

Simeon also has words for Mary about the suffering she will endure because so many in the world will resist the message of her son. But, she hardly has time to ponder those words before the widow Anna approaches, a woman in whom Mary might have seen a vision of herself in later years. As a prophetess, Anna also had the Holy Spirit to guide her to the Holy Family at this moment.

Her words of thankful praise for Jesus must have given Mary some comfort after Simeon’s distressing revelation about the child’s later mission. Mary and Joseph must have been happy to return "to their own town of Nazareth" after learning about their child’s destiny in Jerusalem. In Nazareth, they could share some precious years together. But, they also watched Him grow in wisdom, age and grace as He drew closer and closer to fulfilling His Father’s plan.

In the first reading, Sirach identifies honor and respect as two ingredients that will bring a family close together. Honor and respect do not diminish with time. In youth, they are exhibited through care and kindness toward aging parents. And God’s grace is always there to help.