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Gospel: Matthew 12: 46-50
While Jesus was speaking to the crowds,
his mother and his brothers appeared outside,
wishing to speak with him.
Someone told him, “Your mother and your brothers are standing outside,
asking to speak with you.”
But he said in reply to the one who told him,
“Who is my mother?
Who are my brothers?”
And stretching out his hand toward his disciples, he said,
“Here are my mother and my brothers.
For whoever does the will of my heavenly Father
is my brother, and sister, and mother.”
The Gospel of the Lord.
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Today we celebrate the Presentation of the Virgin Mary, a feast that dates back to the 6th century.
While Mary’s presentation in the Temple is not recorded in the Gospels, many believe that her parents, Anne and Joachim, brought her to the Temple in Jerusalem around the age of three, consecrating her to the Lord.
Mary was their only child. Taking her on pilgrimage and offering her back to God was both an act of faith and thanksgiving.
Some years later, Mary will do the same as she and Joseph bring the Christ-child, wrapped in swaddling clothes, to the same Temple, also offering him to God.
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This feast teaches us three things.
First, Christians are called to be people of gratitude. We recognize that everything is from God and, ultimately, everyone belongs to God, even those we hold most precious in our lives.
Second, we are a pilgrim people. Pilgrims are on a journey; the ground we stand upon is neither our home nor our final destination. It’s merely a place of passage. We see this world – and all things in it – as passing, and act accordingly.
Occasionally, we also make smaller pilgrimages, like going up to Jerusalem (or, for some parishioners next February, Portugal!) to remind us of our true homeland, heaven.
Third, we are generous people. We give to God what belongs to God. In Anne and Joachim’s case, they offer their only daughter. Mary does the same with Christ.
We, too, should offer our lives in service to the Gospel.
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On this, her feast day, may Mary intercede for us that we’d be people of gratitude, pilgrimage, and generosity, recognizing that everything and everyone belongs to the Lord.
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Image credits: (1) Crossmap Blogs (2) Vatican News (3) Living Bulwark