Presentation of the Lord, February 2, 2025

From time to time I have heard people speak of what is called an elevator speech. I don't know if you've ever heard of that. If you are in some sort of group that is sponsoring a cause of some kind, for instance, the elevator speech is the way you summarize and distill your message to such a brief amount of time that you can give this speech during a journey in an elevator.

I don't think I've ever succeeded at this, mainly because the things that I care about I think require a lot of explanation. But it occurs to me that today's feast of the Presentation of the Lord gives us something close to an elevator speech about who Jesus is and what he came to do.

So we have this remarkable Gospel, a moment when Mary and Joseph are bringing the child Jesus, when he is 40 days old, to the Temple in Jerusalem.

And then we have the figure of Simeon. Simeon who has waited into old age so that he himself can gaze upon the consolation of Israel. He takes the infant Jesus in his arms, blessing God, and he offers a prayer which in the official daily prayer of the church we offer every night at night prayer. It is what you might call a prayer of submitting to our own limits and remembering that God is carrying out salvation. Simeon says, "Now, Master, you may let your servant go in peace. Your word has been fulfilled. My own eyes have seen your salvation which you prepared in the sight of all the peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and glory for your people Israel." We say this prayer when we are about to retire for the night, and it's saying, "Yes, I have my human limits and I have to go to sleep and someday I will die, but your salvation will be carried out." 

Then we have his words to Mary, and we have this image of the fall and rise of many in Israel. And I think it's good to connect this with what we heard in the first reading about purifying gold and silver. Now that to carry this out, the gold or the silver must reach a very, very high temperature. So it is, if we imagine ourselves in the place of gold or silver, we find this to be a real test, a true stress. And I believe we can say that when we think of the fall of people, that this fall is not permanent; that in the process of conversion, as God changes our hearts and makes us more alive to His very presence, as He does this, we find that we can be truly ourselves as God created us to be.

We also have the passage from Hebrews, from chapter 2 of that 13-chapter letter. And it is saying, and we cannot say this too many times, that the Son of God was absolutely pleased to enter into our existence, to take on our human flesh, to suffer for us so as to lift us up.

And there we have, I believe, the elements of an elevator speech. We know that the Son of God has been pleased to show mercy to the human family, and to do so by being completely one with us.