The Light, the finitude of Jesus and the sword

Jesus, the Light of the world.  In keeping with the Law of Moses that required parents to offer their first-born male forty days after his birth to the Lord (Lev. 12, Ex. 13), Mary and Joseph bring Jesus to the great Temple in Jerusalem.  Thus we celebrate the Feast of the Lord’s Presentation on Feb. 2, forty days after his birth pegged on Dec 25. 

Today’s feast is also known as Candlemas.  Today, candles may be processed and blessed to honor Jesus who is the true light of the world, revealing to us and actualizing the salvific plans of God, drawing us to his wondrous light through a process of purification and self-offering to God.

According to Jewish customs, the first born male belongs to the Lord.  He was thus offered to the Lord in the Temple in Jerusalem.  By offering a lamb or a pair of turtledoves, the parents received back their son.  In the offering of a pair of turtledoves by Mary and Joseph we see a beautiful cycle of receiving and giving between the Lord and all of us.  The Lord bestows life upon us, blesses us with our children.  We offer them back to the Lord in thanksgiving, but the Lord entrusts them to our care, to raise them up in order to radiate Christ’s light to the world.

Jesus, like us in everything but sin.  Our Second Reading proclaims that “he had to become like his brothers and sisters in every way” (Heb. 2: 17), which Hebrews 4 develops further by stating that in Jesus God truly became human, sharing all that it is to be human, save sin.

In retreats that I conduct and classes I teach, my retreatants and students find it easier to accept Jesus’ finitude in space and time, his susceptibility to suffering, which makes God, now vulnerable to human suffering, approachable.  But they find it more difficult to accept Jesus’ mental finitude, or in negative terms, ignorance.  I ask them, “Would Jesus have known how to use your cell phone, surf the net or send an email message, speak Tagalog or Visayan?”  Many respond, “Of course, because he is God.”

We want Jesus, even after the incarnation in human form, to remain omniscient.  We do not want him to become too much like us, such as, sharing our mental finitude.  And yet, if having a finite consciousness does not constitute sin, then the Letter to the Hebrews implies that Jesus, God in human form, shared our mental limitations.  And Luke, at the end of the infancy narrative, declares that he grew “in age and wisdom”, meaning to say, that Jesus’ consciousness developed, that Jesus’ understanding of his identity in relation to God, of his role in salvation history, and of his tragic fate on the cross evolved in time through the events in his life, prayer and self-reflection.

While some of us may have difficulty accepting Jesus’ finite knowledge, the proclamation of Hebrews that “he was like us in everything but sin” is indeed Good News!  For it reveals the extent of God’s condescension to share our human condition out of love, in order to come as close to us as possible, in order to assure us that the infinite and eternal God is near and intimate in Jesus, truly God and truly human.

Jesus, because of whom Mary’s heart will be pierced.   Upon seeing the Christ Child, the devout elderly Simeon prays that he could now “go in peace”, for by sending his Son into the world, the Lord had fulfilled his promises to Israel and the world.  But Simeon then prophesizes to Mary that Jesus would be the cause of the downfall of many and that a sword would pierce her heart (Luke 2:35).

Pope John Paul II, reflecting on the prophecy of Simeon, writes, “Simeon’s words seem like a second Annunciation to Mary, for they will tell her of the actual historical situation in which the Son is to accomplish his mission, namely, in misunderstanding and sorrow” (Redemptoris Mater, 16).

Jesus is the light of the world, but ironically he reveals the glory of God not through power and might, but through humility and faithful love.  He reveals the glory of God not through domination over multitudes but humble service of others, not while seated on a kingly throne, but while hanging as a convict on a cross.  Mary kept the paradox of the divine sonship of her infant Jesus with the cross looming in the horizon in her heart.  

We pray that we may present to the Lord all that we have and are, our joys and struggles, our loved ones and our world.  We pray for the grace to become a holy and presentable offering to the Lord by following in Jesus’ way of humble service and faithful love till the end, notwithstanding the consequences.  And thus radiate the light of Christ, of divine love that knows first-hand rejection and betrayal, yet perseveres and persists in loving through suffering.