Homily for the Feast of the Presentation, 2014

HOMILY FOR THE FEAST OF THE PRESENTATION, YEAR A, 2014

When our son, Luke, was around 6 months old, Ruthie brought Luke in for his scheduled check-up to the doctor. The doctor was doing some tests on Luke to check reflexes and other newborn functions. One of the tests was a visual test in which the doctor held a light to see if Luke’s eyes followed the light. Luke’s eyes did not track with the light. The doctor told Ruthie, that Luke was blind. He said something about not enough blood getting to the optic nerve while Luke was in Ruthie’s womb. For many of us who may be parents of children with physical or developmental challenges, when we first get the news that our child may have a problem, the whole world has a way of crashing down upon us. So it was for Ruth and I. We have our newborn child and before he even gets started in this world, we were told by the doctor that he was going to have to navigate this world in darkness. The world for both Ruthie and I became very dark as we worried about our son’s future.

On this Feast of the Presentation we find a world that is filled with darkness. The greed of Adam and Eve  plunged the world into an epoch of darkness. This darkness produced the sin of self-centeredness, self-indulgence, self-consumption that has robbed humanity of the vision God had for us at the creation of the world. It robbed humanity of our heart. St Paul writes that no longer human as God intended us to be, humanity slipped into a sub-human state.  It is into this darkness that Jesus was born.

Today we have Mary and Joseph, parents of their firstborn child, coming to the Temple to fulfill the religious tradition of their Jewish faith and who do they encounter but Simeon. Simeon, as Luke tells us, was a very devout and holy man to whom Holy Spirit revealed that before he died, he would see the promised one of Israel, the one who would bring light into the darkness of human hearts. Seeing Mary, Joseph and their child, he rejoices that the time had arrived and breaks out into that beautiful Canticle,
“Now, Master, you may let your servant go in peace, according to your word, for my eyes have seen your salvation, which you prepared in the sight of all the peoples: a light for revelation to the Gentiles,
and glory for your people Israel.”

Imagine Mary and Joseph’s surprise to be greeted in such a dramatic way. They had to marvel at the greeting of Simeon on the one hand , but also must have been stunned and puzzled on the other hand. Simeon was not quite finished. He follows, “Behold, this child is destined for the fall and rise of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be contradicted —and you yourself a sword will pierce—so that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.” These two young parents had already had some experiences that, though marvelous, were equally strange and disturbing. And, now, in the midst of a wondrous declaration from this old man, heard from the same lips a future that was foreboding and filled with danger.

For some people living in darkness, light is not always welcome. Darkness covers many a sin, and to have that sin exposed to the light is a fear that is dreaded. Many people in Jesus’ time, as many today, prefer to clothe themselves in darkness and will lash out at the light. The light that Jesus was going to bring into the world would change the earth forever. His light would expose the darkness in the heart of humanity, and those whose hearts were most consumed by darkness would try to put the light out. Jesus’ light shook the very foundation of his own religious tradition, and over time would eventually topple the great might of the Roman Empire, something that many armed revolutions had failed to do.

Mary speaks of this dramatic change in the world when early on in her pregnancy, she visits her cousin, Elizabeth. In Mary’s beautiful Canticle, she says that God has shown might with his arm, and has dispersed the arrogant of mind and heart. God has thrown down the rulers from their thrones and has lifted up the lowly. The hungry God has filled with good things; while the rich God has sent away empty.

The light of Christ has a way of humbling us all, doesn’t it? Have there not been times in our own lives in which we have fled from Christ’s light? Do we not all harbor darkness somewhere in our hearts? When Christ’s light exposes those areas and we see them for what they really are, are we not both horrified and ashamed? During these past months in which light has been shed on the cover up of sin in our Archdiocese, has there not been a great discomfort, a great uneasiness not only on the part of our church leaders in the Chancery, but with us as well? The teachings of Pope Francis, particularly in his letter Evangelii Gaudium, is shaking the financial world to its core, and the might of the financial institutions throughout the  world and many of the world’s wealthiest, including Catholics, are lashing back at him. Old sin dies hard. This greed of humanity still infects the hearts of many.

When the light of Christ pierces the dark places of our hearts, it is not pleasant. Like walking from a dark room into room filled with light, the blinding light hurts our eyes.  However, the light of Christ is a healing light. It is a healing therapy from the darkness that isolates us from the God who loves us. As disciples of Jesus, we are called to be bearers of his light. This requires us to invite Christ’s light into our own lives, and ask him to help us use his light to heal the darkness that we have within us. This is not just a one time, “born again event.” Conversion is something after which we must seek every day. The more we persevere, the more healing we will experience, and the brighter the light of Jesus will shine within our lives.

Ruthie was not content with the one doctor’s diagnosis of blindness for Luke. She sought out an eye specialist. The eye specialist after thoroughly examining our newborn son told us that Luke had inherited the congenital eye disorder that runs in the maternal side of Ruth’s family, and he would be border line legally blind throughout his life. However, he would not live his life in total darkness. While his eyesight would never be normal, he would be able to see. You and I are not condemned to the darkness into which our world was plunged by the sin of Adam and Eve. The light of Christ will free us from darkness if we invite it into our lives, and, as we do, we will begin to see and recover the vision that God had for humanity from the beginning of the world.