The Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary

2 Macc. 6:18-31, Lk.19:1-10. Today’s reading presents Eleazar, an aged Jewish Scribe, who was willing to die rather than defile himself by eating meat forbidden by the law of God. In today’s Gospel, Zacchaeus, a tax collector, professes his new found faith and his purpose of amending the wrongs he had done. In the celebration of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, we celebrate an important truth about Mary: From the beginning of her life, she was dedicated to God, given over to God’s purposes. For her dedication to God, from an early age, she was called by God to become a greater Temple than the magnificent Temple in Jerusalem. If the Temple in Jerusalem was the house of God, the place where God was believed to be present in a special way, Mary became the house of the Lord in an even greater way, because she carried the Lord in her womb until she give birth to Him. God came to dwell in her, through Jesus, because she was open to God’s presence from the earliest years of her life.

Today’s celebration focus on the fact that from her childhood Mary did the will of God and was ready to become the Temple of God’s Son at the time of God’s choosing. We are also called to do the will of the Father in Heaven so that we can also become Temples of the Lord, people who carry Lord’s presence to others. Writing to the Church in Corinth, Paul says: “Do you not know that you are God’s temple?” We ask Mary to pray for us now so that we may always do the will of the Father and so become Temples of God as she was.

May the Lord cleanse our hearts from all sin, preserve the innocence of our hearts and keep our minds from vanity, so that we may continue to do the will of God at all times! Amen!! Have a glorious day!!!