My Dear People,

The Holy Family goes up to Jerusalem to fulfill the prescriptions of the Law of Moses—the purification and then redemption or buying back of the first born. According to Leviticus 12:2-8, a woman who bore a child was considered unclean. The period of legal impurity ended, in the case of a mother of a male child, after forty days with a rite of purification. Even though Mary did not need purification because the child was from virginal birth; she chose to submit herself to the Law—although she was under no obligation to do so.

Also, Exodus 13:2, 12-13 indicated that every first-born male belongs to God and must be set apart for the Lord, that is, dedicated to the service of God. However, once divine worship was received by the tribe of Levi, the first born who did not belong to that tribe were not dedicated to God’s service, and to show that they continued to be God’s special property—a rite of redemption was performed.

It is important to note that in Egypt the first-born male was dedicated to a pagan god, and this was something that definitively had influenced the    Hebrews, since they lived there for so many years. The tenth plague was this: the angel of death passes over the houses of the Hebrews because they had sacrificed a lamb and put its blood on the door posts. However, the first-born males in Egypt all died. (They had been offered to a pagan god). For that reason, the first-born males among the       Hebrews had to be dedicated to God. One of the punishments for the Hebrews by the rule of Egypt was for the midwives to kill the male children when they were born. 

Of those dedicating their first born to God, the Law also laid down that the Israelites would offer in   sacrifice some lesser victims—for example, a lamb or, if they were very poor, a pair of doves or two pigeons. Our Lord, who “though he was rich,” yet for our sake, became poor, so that by his poverty we might become rich, chose to have a poor man’s offering made on his behalf. Mary and Joseph    offered to sacrifice two turtledoves.

Simeon, who is        described as a righteous and devout man, obedient to God’s will,      addresses himself to our Lord as a vassal or loyal servant who, having kept watch all his life in    expectation of the coming of his Lord, sees that this moment has now come, the moment that explains his whole life. When he takes the Child in his arms, he learns, not through any reasoning process but through a special grace from God, that this Child is the promised Messiah, the Consolation of Israel, the Light of the nations.

The canticle of Simeon highlights the fact that Christ brings redemption—something foretold in many Old Testament prophesies. It is easy to realize how extremely happy Simeon was—given that many patriarchs, prophets and kings of Israel had yearned to see the Messiah, yet did not see him, whereas he now held him in his arms. (LK. 10:24).

May you all have a Happy New Year.

Fr. Vincent Clemente