Saturday in the 33rd Week in Ordinary Time, November 21, 2020

The Feast of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Revelation 11:4-12

I, John, heard a voice from heaven speak to me: Here are my two witnesses: These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of the earth. If anyone wants to harm them, fire comes out of their mouths and devours their enemies. In this way, anyone wanting to harm them is sure to be slain. They have the power to close up the sky so that no rain can fall during the time of their prophesying. They also have power to turn water into blood and to afflict the earth with any plague as often as they wish. When they have finished their testimony, the beast that comes up from the abyss will wage war against them and conquer them and kill them. Their corpses will lie in the main street of the great city, which has the symbolic names “Sodom” and “Egypt,” where indeed their Lord was crucified. Those from every people, tribe, tongue, and nation will gaze on their corpses for three and a half days, and they will not allow their corpses to be buried. The inhabitants of the earth will gloat over them and be glad and exchange gifts because these two prophets tormented the inhabitants of the earth. But after the three and a half days, a breath of life from God entered them. When they stood on their feet, great fear fell on those who saw them. Then they heard a loud voice from heaven say to them, “Come up here.” So they went up to heaven in a cloud as their enemies looked on.

The third vision, which concerns the preaching of the Church, continues in this reading.

“Here are my two witnesses: These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of the earth.”  Nearly all early commentators on these passages, such as Andrew of Caesarea in the east and Bede in the west, identify the two witnesses as Elijah and Enoch, from a version of the Latin text of Malachi 4, 5, that translates as, “Behold, I shall send to you Enoch and Elijah, that they may convert the hearts of the parents to their children, and the hearts of the children to their parents.” There is no reference to Enoch in the the Malachi text in the Vulgate, though an intriguing reference to him exists in Sirach 44, 16.  This identification was taken for granted by the early Middle Ages.  Interestingly, Alcuin notes that the very early commentator Victorinus, whose work has come down to us only incompletely, identified the witnesses as Elijah and Jeremiah though he himself favored Enoch as the second witness.  Why Elijah and Enoch?  Because according to the Scriptures, both men were “caught up” to heaven without dying.  Now, since every human must die, this being “caught up” suggests that their work on earth was not yet completed but that they were being saved to do it at a later time when their great righteousness would be necessary.  When they had completed their work, then they would die.  The Venerable Bede also sees the “lampstands” as the Church, under the aspect of the two Testaments — the Old and New: “This is the Church with an unfailing supply of oil (cf. Matthew 25, 1-12), which shines forth to all the world.”

“If anyone wants to harm them, fire comes out of their mouths and devours their enemies. In this way, anyone wanting to harm them is sure to be slain.”  The Church is protected inasmuch as one who strikes it is struck in turn, in reciprocal fashion.  “He who lives by the sword dies by the sword” (Matthew 26, 52).  “They have the power to close up the sky so that no rain can fall during the time of their prophesying.”  While this passage ought to be understood in terms of the natural world, Bede offers a complementary interpretation: this is to be understood “spiritually, as well, for when heaven is ‘closed’,  no ‘rain’ may fall — that is, that no blessing from the Church may fall upon the sterile earth.”  The next verse may remind us of Moses and the plagues inflicted upon Egypt through him: “They also have power to turn water into blood and to afflict the earth with any plague as often as they wish.”  God inflicted the plagues against Egypt in order to force the Egyptians to release his people.  Here, the Church is shown capable of afflicting the earth in order to gain the conversion of sinners in captivity to the devil.

“When they have finished their testimony, the beast that comes up from the abyss will wage war against them and conquer them and kill them.”  The time of the teaching of the “two lampstands” is said by Bede and others to take place before the final and most terrible persecution of the Church.  Here we see that though the Church is powerful inasmuch as it is the Body of Christ, many members of the Church will be killed by the enemies of God.  Of course, these verses also pertain to the two witnesses themselves.  “Their corpses will lie in the main street of the great city, which has the symbolic names ‘Sodom’ and ‘Egypt,’ where indeed their Lord was crucified.”  Literally, this means that their corpses will lie within Jerusalem, where the Lord was killed.  But we can also understand this as within the world given up to darkness and vice.  At the time John received these visions, Jerusalem was no longer considered the holy city, even by Jewish Christians, for it was there that the Lord was betrayed and killed and where the Apostles and the early Church were persecuted, as in the martyrdom of St. Stephen.

“Those from every people, tribe, tongue, and nation will gaze on their corpses for three and a half days, and they will not allow their corpses to be buried.”  All the wicked of the world will rejoice in the death and silencing of Christians. The wicked will strive to prevent the worship of God even to the extent of trying to keep Christians from burying and praying for the souls of the dead.  “The inhabitants of the earth will gloat over them and be glad and exchange gifts because these two prophets tormented the inhabitants of the earth.”  The wicked present themselves as strong and even “autonomous”, and uninterested in anyone else’s opinion, but in fact they are very sensitive to the slightest perceived criticism.  They show their sensitivity by telling people not to “judge” them — in fact, their consciences judge them and they continuously feel the sting of this: “There they have trembled for fear, where there was no fear” (Psalm 52, 6 in the Douay Rheims translation).  

“But after the three and a half days, a breath of life from God entered them.”  The number “three and a half” comes up a number of times in the Book of Revelation.  Perhaps this refers to a tradition in the Apostolic era that the Lord’s public life extended for three and a half years (or, “more than three years”) and that he rose from the dead three and a half days (“more than three days”) after he died.  When the number is applied to the just, it shows that they follow in the footsteps of the Lord; when applied to the wicked, it shows that evil is simply a travesty of good.  The number, therefore, need not be understood literally, but as a sign.  “When they stood on their feet, great fear fell on those who saw them.”  God vindicates the martyred Christians, and they rise in the Resurrection of Christ.  Bede points out that fear came upon not merely the wicked but upon all who saw them.

“Then they heard a loud voice from heaven say to them, ‘Come up here.’ So they went up to heaven in a cloud as their enemies looked on.”  God’s purpose of this sign of vindication is both to reward the just and to warn the wicked to repent.  Just as in the plagues the Egyptians were given ten opportunities by Moses to let God’s people go, so the wicked throughout their lives are given many chances to turn away from sin.  Some do and persevere; some do, but do not persevere; and some, like Pharaoh, become more hardened in their sin.  All this comes through their free will.  Meanwhile, the just who remain on earth, having survived this persecution (which is still not the worst that is to come), are strengthened in their faith and hope of heaven.

The Book of Revelation tells us that this is what is supposed to happen.  Even the persecutions are incorporated in God’s plan of salvation for those who love him and cling to him.  We are continuously reminded in the book that the normal state of the Church is one of persecution, of defections, and of wonderful conversions (as Saul of Tarsus).  Those who grow anxious or even panic when signs of the darkness of this world reassert themselves in and against the Church must pray harder for the strengthening of their faith, and those who are strong in it must help those who are struggling, as the Lord Jesus did not let Peter sink into the depths of the sea but reached out his hand and pulled him back aboard the boat, where he could be safe.

Today we celebrate the Feast of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin in the Temple when she was a very young girl.  The basis for this feast is found in the early Christian document called the Protoevangelium of James, which purports to tell the story of Mary’s conception, birth, her betrothal to Joseph, and the Birth of her Son.  We honor Mary on this day for her perfect dedication to God in every moment of her life.  There was nor will there ever be a woman like this in our world.  Every thought, word, and act served God, and for her this was the most natural thing in the world.  We ask her prayers that we may receive the grace to serve the Lord in all that we do.

The Collect Prayer for this feast from the 1962 Missal:

“O God, by Whose will the blessed Mary, ever Virgin, the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit, was on this day presented in the temple, grant, we beseech You, that by her intercession we may be found worthy to be brought into the temple of Your glory.  Through Christ our Lord.”