Memory of the Mother of the Lord

Memorial of the Presentation of Mary at the Temple. This feast, born in Jerusalem and celebrated in both the East and the West, remembers both the ancient temple and how Mary offered her life to the Lord.

Reading of the Word of God

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

The Spirit of the Lord is upon you.
The child you shall bear will be holy.

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

Matthew 12,46-50

He was still speaking to the crowds when suddenly his mother and his brothers were standing outside and were anxious to have a word with him. But to the man who told him this Jesus replied, 'Who is my mother? Who are my brothers?' And stretching out his hand towards his disciples he said, 'Here are my mother and my brothers. Anyone who does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.'

 

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

Look down, O Lord, on your servants.
Be it unto us according to your word.

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

The feast of the Presentation of Mary at the temple is linked to the dedication of the church of Saint Mary built near the temple in Jerusalem in the year 453. Mary the Theotókos (Mother of God), is the true temple in which the only sacrifice pleasing to God is offered. This memory is connected to the tradition of the apocryphal proto-Gospel of James, which narrates the consecration of Mary to God as an adolescent. The evangelist Matthew reports a Gospel scene that can remind us of the urgency of placing ourselves at Jesus 'school. It is a passage that might seem harsh towards the Mother of Jesus, but in truth it is that path that Mary has always followed. We read that Jesus is in a house, and many people are gathered around him to listen to him. His relatives, with his mother, call for him. His relatives were "standing outside," the evangelist writes, referring to a distance which is not only spatial. Only those who "stand inside" and listen to his word, Jesus says, are his true family. The Christian community is always born from listening to the Word of God, and it lives by listening to it. And we all need to be careful not to fall into the temptation of being "relatives" of Jesus, that is, of thinking that we no longer need to gather around him and listen to him, as having access to him is "natural" and can be taken for granted. In short, it is not enough to belong to the group of Christians to be saved. We need to go "inside" the community every day to listen to the Gospel as the Church communicates it. We cannot be disciples once and for all! We need to listen to the Gospel every day and welcome it in our heart. The example of Mary brought to the temple is a precious sign of all Christian communities to be schools of communion and love. And it is also essential for Christian families to work to communicate the faith to their children, starting when they are little, so that, like Jesus, they can grow in "wisdom and in years, and in divine and human favour."