Presentation

The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today mark the Presentation of Jesus in the Temple. As Friar Jude Winkler points out, the Temple in Jerusalem was the Presence of God among the Jewish people. This Presence was not in bodily form. Luke who writes of the presentation of Jesus was a Gentile who may have confused two rites of Jewish tradition. The promise of purification by the Messiah is made in text of the Prophet Malachi. This text was probably written during the rebuilding of the Temple in Jerusalem after the Babylonian exile. The people had ceased the practice of some of their traditional ways. We struggle today with the question of which Christian traditions can be abandoned in reform thinking and which need to be recovered from the orthodox point of view. The letter to the Hebrews reminding us of the humanity of Jesus and His communion with us in all things but sin, is proclamation that the Word made Flesh is our continuing Presence and the details of the blessings, Canticles and purifications will be studied and revived and rejected as our humanity seeks to grow in knowledge and wisdom with Brother Jesus. When we seek to draw more from tradition and ritual than it can offer, we substitute our imperfect spiritual understanding for the search for deeper intimacy with the Divine. When we reject the profound experience of the Divine in ritual and tradition we risk prescribing to God how He is Present to humanity.