Every day in the Liturgy of the Hours, the Church sings three canticles from Saint Luke’s Gospel. At Morning Prayer we sing the Benedictus, the hymn of praise offered by Zechariah upon the birth of his son, John the Baptist. At Evening Prayer we sing the Magnificat, the hymn of praise offered by Mary during her visit to Elizabeth, John’s mother. And during Night Prayer, we sing the Nunc Dimittis, the hymn of praise offered by Simeon in the Temple when he first beheld the child Jesus and recognized the Messiah.
These three canticles are sung day after day to keep ever before our eyes the eternal plan of salvation and its fulfillment in the Son of Mary who is also God the Son, and today the Church keeps the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord Jesus which recalls the moment when the righteous man Simeon first uttered the words, “Lord, now let your servant go in peace; your word has been fulfilled.”
In the Gospel today, taken from chapter two of Saint Luke, we read of that extraordinary encounter in Jerusalem, when forty days after his birth at Bethlehem the Lord Jesus was taken to the Temple by Joseph and Mary to present him to the Lord. But their simple act of devotion on that day also became an inflection point in all of human history.
Simeon and Anna were the privileged witnesses to the unveiling of divine glory in the human face of a newborn child. By the gift of the Holy Spirit, Simeon and Anna were permitted to understand and confess the infinite mystery contained in the tiny body of the baby Jesus, and they glimpsed from afar what the redemption of the world would cost both the child and his mother: everything.
Mary learned that her Son would be a sign of contradiction in the world and that she would share in his suffering in order to open human hearts to hear and heed the Word of God, the Eternal Word who took flesh in her womb and was given through Israel to the entire human race as the Incarnate Word, full of grace and truth. And so Mary’s last recorded words in the New Testament, spoken thirty years after that day in the Temple, show us her role in the Church until the Last Day. At Cana she said of her Son: “Do whatever he tells you.”
But two millennia after those events, even those of us who know that Jesus Christ is Lord still too often do not do whatever he tells us. We do not imitate Mary and live in the obedience of faith for many reasons, not least because to do so always brings self-sacrifice and the heart-piercing sword of sorrow that Mary accepted. And our failure to follow Mary’s maternal instruction by not always doing everything Christ teaches us is one of the reasons why the Church is constantly in need of being reformed and purified.
In addition to being called the Feast of the Presentation, this celebration is also known as the Purification of Mary. And just a few moments ago in the Opening Prayer of this Mass, we prayed to God the Father that “just as your Only Begotten Son was presented this day in the Temple in the substance of our flesh, so, by your grace, may we be presented to you with minds made pure.”
An essential dimension of true purification is reformation, and authentic Christian reformation is never about changing doctrine to make it acceptable to the times or about creating a new organizational chart of the Church to satisfy rationalist schemes of our own devising. No, Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever, and he alone gives the Church her form and doctrine.
Authentic Christian reformation, therefore, is never about changing the Church and is always about changing ourselves, about being more deeply converted to the Lord Jesus and his Gospel. Our long history suggests four marks of true reformation and purification, and if we want to contribute to the ongoing reformation of the Church, then I suggest we seek to be purified by God’s grace through following these four paths. Our lives must be christocentric, ecclesial, scriptural, and sacramental.
To be christocentric means to have Christ at the center. At the center of every life. At the center of every marriage and family. At the center of every parish and diocese. And if Christ is the center of my life, then by his grace the very things I want begin to change, but this requires of me a decision to understand myself as a sinner in need of redemption and to accept Christ as the only Redeemer who can free me from my sins, raise me from the grave, and offer me a share in his divine glory and eternal life.
But having a christocentric life also requires us to live an ecclesial life, meaning a life in and with the Church. Too many people are tempted to say that, yes, they accept Christ as Lord and Savior, but they cannot abide the Church because it is filled with hypocrites. And of course the Church is filled with hypocrites; after all, where else would all us hypocrites go? Only the sick need a physician, and Christ Jesus came to heal us in his Church and make us a holy people to live as the light of the world. So there are and can be no solitary Christians, and it is a dangerous illusion to imagine that I can be with Christ without also being in his Church.
But life in the Church is made superficial or worse unless we reverence and obey the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments as the inspired Word of God which contains no errors in matters of salvation. There is no substitute in the life of any Christian for direct, personal knowledge of the Bible through regular reading, study, and prayer. Ignorance of the Scriptures is ignorance of Christ, and we cannot live a christocentric or ecclesial life apart from personal and frequent encounters with the written Word of God in which we meet the Eternal and Incarnate Word of God.
But even the Bible, indispensable as it is, is not sufficient for us to be friends of the Lord Jesus. We must also meet him in the seven sacraments or sacred mysteries of the New Covenant which he entrusted to his Church. The three sacraments of initiation are common to all: Baptism, Confirmation, and the Holy Eucharist. The two sacraments of healing are given as needed: Confession of sins, and Anointing of the Sick. And the two sacraments of service provide the basis of our relationships in Christ: Holy Matrimony and Holy Orders.
But consider Catholics who do not come to Mass regularly. Or Christians who do not serve those in need as their Baptism demands. Or spouses who are not faithful to their marriage vows. Or bishops, priests, or deacons who break the promises of their ordination. In all these ways, we can refuse to live a sacramental life, and that is a path away from Christ, away from his Church, and away from her Scriptures.
In the Temple, Mary was told by Simeon what the obedience of faith would bring her: a sword of sorrow. Following the Lord Jesus in the Way of the Cross always requires sacrificial love, but that Way is the only path to redemption, reformation, and purification and so is worth every sacrifice.
When our lives are christocentric, ecclesial, scriptural, and sacramental, then we are living evangelical lives — lives built on, with, and for the Gospel of Jesus Christ which is the power of God unto salvation for all who have faith. And in the service of helping us all live such lives and contribute to the Church’s reformation, I have two recommendations for everyone. First, we should go to Confession regularly, and second, we should pray the Liturgy of the Hours every day.
The sacrament of Penance and Reconciliation is Christ’s Easter gift to his Church, and it is the privileged means by which the grace of our Baptism is renewed in us whenever we fall into sin. After any mortal sin we must go to Confession before receiving Holy Communion again, and every Catholic must go at least once each year to remain in full communion with Christ and his Church. But going to Confession about once each month is the best means I know for keeping Christ at the center of my life.
And I mentioned already the three canticles from Luke that we pray every day in the Liturgy of the Hours, which is the Church’s official prayer and a way of uniting ourselves to other Christians all over the world who are lifting up the same prayer.
All religious men and women and all bishops, priests, and deacons promise to pray the Divine Office daily, but all Catholics are encouraged to join in this prayer, which is why here at Saint Mary’s we celebrate Vespers on many Sundays of the year.
The Liturgy of the Hours is an adaptation of the Jewish manner of prayer at the time of Christ’s life, and to the Psalms of David are added readings and canticles from the Bible and other texts from the Fathers of the Church. There are many ways to pray the Divine Office with printed books, apps for your phone, and online resources, so find one that suits you, and just start to pray.
There are seven liturgical Hours or designated times throughout the day, and the two most important are Morning and Evening Prayer, which take about ten minutes each when prayed alone. To these are added the Office of Readings, the little hours of Mid-morning, Mid-day, and Mid-afternoon Prayer, and the last hour of the day, Night Prayer. If you pray at all seven of these times, the total would come to about 40 minutes each day but be scattered throughout the day from early morning until bed time.
Friends, to be purified and reformed by God’s grace, we must have Christ at the center of our lives — our ecclesial, scriptural, and sacramental lives — and so every night let us join our voices to the words of holy Simeon who held the Messiah in his arms and cried out with joy:
Lord, now you let your servant go in peace; your word has been fulfilled. My own eyes have seen the salvation which you have prepared in the sight of every people, a light to reveal you to the nations and the glory of your people Israel:
The Lord Jesus Christ!
This is the text of my homily for 2 February 2025, the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord.
Fr Jay Scott Newman