Monday in the 34th Week of Ordinary Time, November 21, 2022

The Feast of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Luke 21, 1-4

When Jesus looked up he saw some wealthy people putting their offerings into the treasury and he noticed a poor widow putting in two small coins. He said, “I tell you truly, this poor widow put in more than all the rest; for those others have all made offerings from their surplus wealth, but she, from her poverty, has offered her whole livelihood.”

The Church commemorates on this day what has come down to us in tradition, that the Virgin Mary’s parents, Joachim and Anne, brought their little daughter to the Temple in Jerusalem and left her in the care of some women there to serve God.  They did this out of gratitude to God for granting them a child after many long years of marriage, and out of their belief that this child was meant to do great things for him.  The tradition comes down to us through one of the earliest sources of Christian tradition, the so-called Proto-Gospel of James.  The Feast arose in the East, and by the ninth century it had spread to southern Italy, and first was incorporated into the Roman calendar in the fifteenth century.

While this Feast does not now have proper readings assigned to it, the Gospel reading for this day in Ordinary Time that coincide with it (and are therefore used) reveals something of its mystery to us.  The reading is the familiar one of the Widow’s Mite.  The “poor widow” in the account can be understood as the Virgin Mary’s parents bringing their “all” to the Temple — to God.  She was their only child, and at their age they could hope for no more.  Her conception, after all had been a miracle.  They left her at the Temple in the care of women like the Prophetess Anna of whom St. Luke informs us (cf. Luke 2, 36-38).  We can also see this as a sign of how the Virgin Mary have herself to God throughout her life.  She gave her entire self to him, putting herself in the Temple treasury, that is, into a life of unstinting service for him.  

The First Reading for today’s Mass, Revelation 14, 1-3; 4-5, tells us that the elect will sing “a new hymn before the throne”, one which no one but the elect could learn.  St. John tells us that those who sing it are “the ones who follow the Lamb wherever he goes”.  The Virgin Mary sings a hymn in heaven which only she can sing because she dwells in heights only our eyes can follow due to her great virtue and faith.  She began this hymn here on earth, singing it in her heart will serving God.  May we profit by her prayers so that we may join the elect, those who are unblemished and without deceit.