Yesterday, on February 2nd, as a Church we celebrated the
feast of the Presentation of the Lord, a beautiful feast where Mary and Joseph
present God the Son to God the Father. We also celebrated the World Day for
Consecrated Life.
In the
scripture we heard at Mass yesterday we have the famous Simeon, who was told by the
Lord he would not see death until he had seen the Christ. Upon seeing the
Christ Child he proclaims what is now called the canticle of Simeon,
"Lord, now you let your servant go in peace; your word has been
fulfilled..." These beautiful words
which we pray in the Liturgy of the Hours at Night Prayer have a profound
meaning for us in our daily horarium. At the end of our day we become a type of
Simeon. Before we lay our heads to rest or, in other words, allow the current
day to "die," we proclaim these same words. It is a very
Christocentric way to end the day because, in fact, though we may not think
about it in sorts, by proclaiming this canticle with Simeon we are reviewing
our day, doing a final examen, and proclaiming the Lord's words have been
fulfilled in us. That doesn't mean all of everyday is perfect, and if it wasn't
that you can't pray this prayer, but it is a small kind of recognition of the
Lord's great work within our own hearts and our movement of response to Him.
In his homily yesterday morning, Pope Francis reflected
on this feast and on consecrated life, "Dear Brothers and Sisters, in the
light of this Gospel scene, let us look to consecrated life as an encounter
with Christ: it is He who comes to us, led by Mary and Joseph, and we go
towards Him guided by the Holy Spirit. But the centre is Him. He moves
everything, He draws us to the Temple, to the Church, where we can meet Him,
recognize Him, welcome Him, embrace Him.
Jesus comes to us in the Church through the foundational charism of an
Institute: it is nice to think of our vocation in this way! Our encounter with
Christ took its shape in the Church through the charism of one of its
witnesses. This always amazes us and makes us give thanks. And in the consecrated life we live the
encounter between the young and the old, between observation and prophecy.
Let’s not see these as two opposing realities! Let us rather allow the Holy
Spirit to animate both of them, and a sign of this is joy: the joy of
observing, of walking within a rule of life; the joy of being led by the
Spirit, never unyielding, never closed, always open to voice of God that
speaks, that opens, that leads us and invites us to go towards the horizon. It's good for the elderly to communicate
their wisdom to the young; and is good for the young people to gather this
wealth of experience and wisdom, and to carry it forward, not so as to store it
in a museum, but to bring it forward addressing the challenges of life, to carry
it forward for the sake of respective religious orders and of the whole
Church. May the grace of this mystery,
the mystery of the Encounter, enlighten us and comfort us in our journey.
Amen."
Luke 2:29-32 "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."
