Simeon
came in the Spirit to the temple grounds and when the parents brought in the
child Jesus, to do to him what is customary according to the Law, he took him
in his arms and praised God, saying:
“Now you release your servant in peace, Master,
according to your word.
“For my eyes have seen your salvation that you
prepared in the sight of all peoples,
“A light for the revelation to the nations and
the glory of your people Israel.”
His
mother and father were amazed at what was said about him. And Simeon blessed them and said to Mary, his
mother: “Behold, he is destined for the fall and rise of many in Israel and for
a sign of opposition; and a sword will pierce your soul.”
~~
“It
was the scariest day of my life.” That’s
not what I expected my friend to say after the baptism of her first child. So, I probed a little. She explained that as little Julie passed
through the waters of rebirth, she had a profound sense that she was giving her
daughter up for adoption. She was;
that’s true. Now, the way God parents us
does not in any way compete with our earthly parents, it doesn’t take them off
the scene, the domestic church is where we hope people first experience God’s
fatherly love even if that doesn’t always happen. But, at the end of the day, God is
first. We’re all adopted, and I’d never
really stopped to consider how that affects some parents.
To
have your child baptized is to give a wonderful gift, not just to the child,
but also to God. I’ll never know exactly
what that sacrifice is like, but we all know sacrifice and we will come to know
it more fully. We are all here because
we feel called to give of ourselves. To
truly give something of your self over to God can be as scary as handing over
your child. It’s scary because it makes
us vulnerable. It’s scary because to
give God control is take a risk. And
risks involve the possibility of falling.
To grasp God’s hand requires us to let go of the safety rail we’re
clinging to, to let go of our defenses that don’t let us quite give God control
of everything in our lives. God doesn’t
guarantee we’ll never fall – He guarantees we’ll rise.
The
Presentation, and hearing Simeon’s prophecy, is the first of Our Lady’s Seven
Sorrows. Over this semester, I’ll preach
through all of them to help us live out our special devotion in Holy Cross to
Our Sorrowful Mother. We’ll see a lot of falling. We’ll see a lot of cross. Our Christian conviction is that in that
cross, not despite it, is revealed God’s power to save. As our Constitutions tell us: “If we drink
the cup each of us is poured and given, we servants will fare no better than
our master. But if we shirk the cross, gone too will be our hope. It is in
fidelity to what we once pledged that we will find the dying and the rising
equally assured.”
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