November 21: The Presentation of the Virgin Mary / La Presentación de la Virgen María

Many of the celebrations in honor of the Virgin Mary are squarely based on Gospel texts. St. Luke, for example, tells of her acceptance of God’s invitation to be the mother of the Savior at the Annunciation. We know of her maternity and of her faithfulness to her son, Jesus. St. John reports that she was found standing at the side of His Cross. But the Gospel writers tell us nothing about Mary’s early life. The inspired Word makes no mention of the event which we celebrate today, and each year, on November 21st: her Presentation in the Temple.

We do know, though, that she had parents, they were faithful to the Covenant of the Lord, they were members of the People of God, and they would have more than likely observed the Law of God, including presenting their daughter to the Lord in the Temple. We trust, then, that from her earliest childhood, Mary was completely dedicated and given over to God. 

Because of her dedication in this way, she was called by God to become a greater Temple than the magnificent Temple in Jerusalem. If that Temple in Jerusalem was the house of God, the place where God was believed to be present in a special way, Mary became the house of the Lord in an even greater way, because she carried the Lord in her womb until she give birth to Him. God came to dwell in her, through Jesus, because she was open to His presence from the earliest years of her life. She is the prime example of the group that Jesus refers to in the Gospel as “those who do the will of my Father in heaven.”

***

Hoy celebramos la memoria de la presentación de la Virgen María en el templo. Es un anticipo de aquella otra presentación, la de Jesús recién nacido, y que es también la purificación de María. Si hasta María, que no tenía pecado, tuvo la humildad de someterse al rito de purificación, ¿cuánto más nosotros, pecadores, no deberemos someternos con frecuencia a esa purificación a la que Jesús nos somete?

La verdad es que no hay ninguna indicación en las Escrituras de que María fuera presentada en el Templo. Pero esta piadosa leyenda quiere presentar algo muy real: Que sus padres fueron fieles miembros del Pueblo de Dios, obedientes a los prescritos de la Ley. Y que María siguió a su Hijo Jesús – que su mentalidad y actitud era la de Jesús. Y que, como su Hijo, ella estuvo enteramente ocupada en buscar en todo la voluntad de Dios. Ella fue una verdadera pariente de Jesús, también mental y espiritualmente, en el espíritu del Evangelio.