November 21, 2015

Mary's Presentation

November 21, 2015:  Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary

  • 'Crown' tie bar:  King Antiochus (1st reading), Christ the King (tomorrow's celebration)
    • 'People' tie pin:  brothers and wife (gospel)
    • 'Angel' pin:  "they are like angels" (gospel)
    • Silver- and gold-colored accessories:  Elymais was famous for its wealth in silver and gold (1st reading)
    • 'Eyeball,' 'girl with heart' pins:  Sleep has departed from my eyes, for my heart is sinking... (1st reading); I'll thank You with all my heart (psalm); young Mary (today's feast)
    • Tie with 'feet':  The nations are sunk; their foot is caught (psalm)
    • White shirt:  liturgical color for Presentation of Mary celebration

    Listen


    Pope Francis to Education Congress
    Today there's a tendency toward a neopositivism, educating in immanent things.  The greatest crisis in education is this closure to transcendence.  To prepare hearts that the Lord might manifest himself is the true mission of the teacher and the goal of all education.
    There are three languages:  of the head, of the heart, and of the hands; education must go forward these three ways; instructing in how to think, helping students to feel well; and accompanying students as they act.  The three languages must be in harmony:  that students think about what they feel and do, feel what they think and make, and do what they think and feel.
    Respond to the brutalities of war by committing yourselves to learn and teach mercy, especially the fourteen Works of Mercy.  Think through them; they're the work of the Father.  [On the occasion of 50th anniversary of Vatican II Catholic education document Gravissimum educationis]
    Read
    • 1 Mc 6:1-13  King Antiochus tries to pillage rich Elymais, retreats when city rises up, hears he lost in Judah, takes to his bed, tells friends his evils are to blame, grieves.
    • Ps 9:2-4, 6, 16, 19  "I will rejoice in your salvation, O Lord" who rebuked the nations and destroyed the wicked.  The needy shall not be forgotten.
    • Lk 20:27-40  Sadducees:  “Whose wife will the childless woman be?”  Jesus:  “The risen don't marry.  God is of the living; to him all are alive.” 
    Reflect
      • Passionist:  Mary was totally committed to what she perceived God asking her to do.  In Galatians, suggested as a reading for today, Paul recounts that God sent his son, "born of a woman," to free us to be God's adopted children.   Mary participated in the great redemptive act.  Luke spells out her role by detailing its beginnings, how the angel Gabriel announces to Mary her calling and destiny.  The church has grown in appreciation of Mary’s participation in God’s work, realizing it was the centerpiece of her life, and that it began early, before she was married.  Mary came to see the task laid out before her, and she consented.  We gather Mary was up to the task, not suddenly but from being close to God and his way of doing things, throughout her young life, from its beginning; her orientation toward God was a lifelong tendency, from her infancy, as today’s feast suggests:  her presentation in the temple.  We have no biblical evidence for it but don’t need it given her life's trajectory.  So a tradition built up about her early dedication to God.  We recall and honor Mary's total dedication to God’s work, from the beginning.
        Presentation of the Virgin in the Temple
        Giotto
      • DailyScripture.net:  "All live to him":  The Sadducees couldn't conceive of heaven beyond what they could see.  We can be like them, not recognizing spiritual realities because we try to visualize them.  The Sadducees came to test Jesus to make the resurrection look absurd; they didn't believe in immortality, angels or spirits. Jesus retorts by dealing with the fact of the resurrection. Jesus refutes them from scripture:  At the burning bush, the Lord tells Moses He is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.  He shows that the patriarchs who died hundreds of years previously were still alive in God.  God was friend of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob when they lived; that friendship couldn't end with death:  "I am continually with you; you hold my right hand.  You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will receive me to glory."  The ultimate proof is Jesus' own resurrection.  "I am the resurrection and the life; whoever believes in me, though they die, shall live, and whoever lives and believes in me shall never die."  "'What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor heart conceived, what God has prepared for those who love him,' God has revealed to us through the Spirit...."
      • Universalis:  Today's memorial celebrates Mary’s “dedication” of herself to God from infancy, inspired by the Spirit, whose grace had filled her since her immaculate conception; see Wikipedia.
      Posted by at

      No comments:

      Post a Comment

      Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)