The Presentation of Mary

"He noticed a poor widow putting in two small coins...this poor widow...has offered her whole livelihood." Lk: 21: 2-4

The Feast of the Presentation of Mary is one that emerged from the imaginations and questions of the early church.  Knowing that Mary had to play a significant role in salvation history and anxious to demonstrate how she could have been a virgin in a world so committed to motherhood, the early church, especially in the East, began to celebrate the Presentation of Mary, a feast which suggested that Mary had been promised to God by her parents when she was only three years old.  From the time she was three, therefore, she would have been educated in the Torah and had the time and help to prepare herself to be the Theotokos, the mother of God.

Although 21st century people would not "play with history" in this way, our ancestors in faith often created scenarios that helped them understand the mysteries of faith.  Because their secular counterparts did the same thing with its kings and emperors, no one questioned this method.  Midrash, or the filling in of the untold story, as I have written before, was common in the ancient world and completely acceptable.  The church needed to explain Mary's knowledge of the scriptures and her total openness to God's will.  Thus, from the perspective of the early church, we can understand why some of the saints lived such exemplary lives and impacted their contemporaries in profound ways.

The same is true for the widow mentioned in today's Gospel.  How a woman without any means of support, could let go of the little she had to honor God is a powerful story of  faith.  Only the pure grace of God could help someone who had lost everything to act out of a faith so deep that it startles us even today.  So given to security and good stewardship, we often think of the the total abandonment of Mary and the widow who gives everything she has to the temple as exceptions, but they are not.  All of us are called to let go of everything that gives us security in order to demonstrate to the world that God is all powerful and will take care of us.  This does mean that we shouldn't be prudent with what we do have. It does mean that we should not cling to our possessions, our health, our property or our lives.

The feast of the Presentation of Mary asks all of us to examine our attitudes, our religious practices and our lifestyle.  It does not demand that we be foolish, but challenges us to trust God completely.

Today, made a simple examination of conscience.  Are you clinging to someone or something that does belong to you?