Reflection for the Presentation of Our Lord Jesus Christ in the Temple - 2nd February 2023
I always find Epiphanytide a restless season – after the silence and awe of Christmas night the stories of the adult Jesus burst upon us with signs and wonders. God has come in glory and we see that glory in the person of Jesus, affirmed by the miracles God worked through him.
At this feast of the Presentation of Jesus in the Temple, after all this restless energy we return to a moment of quiet, back with the infant Jesus. This is a reminder that even before he did anything his divine nature was visible to those with eyes to see. Many in the temple that day would have seen just another couple bringing their first-born son in accordance with the law. But Simeon and Anna knew him, two humble elderly people who dwelt deeply in God’s presence in the temple. The world was changed by this coming, the light to lighten the Gentiles, and to usher in a new age of God’s presence with all people. Jesus did not need to do anything, his simple presence shone with God’s light.
As I pondered this feast the phrase ‘Behold, today something greater than the temple is here’ kept coming back to me, a phrase that is used in one of our antiphons. I was struck by the way it was not ‘someone’ but ‘something’, what might this ‘something’ be? This is not just a person, Jesus, who has come but the kingdom that he ushers in, the kingdom within which the disciples and we also find our place. This saying of Jesus is found in the gospel of Matthew chapter 12 where he is answering those who condemn him for breaking the Sabbath. I consulted Eduard Schweizer’s commentary to see if I was being fanciful in seeing a gesture towards the kingdom, beyond the person of Jesus, and found my reading of this verse affirmed. Jesus is implying that the kingdom of God, embodied at that point in his disciples, is beyond any human institution, even the God-given temple where he dwelt in the midst of the people of Israel. Jesus was confronting human traditions that had accreted around the temple which blocked rather than opened up peoples’ access to God.
There is an important message here, particularly for those of us who are so visibly part of a venerable institution. As human beings we need institutions to function in any corporate manner but so easily these institutions can become idols, things that are fixed and then block the work of the Holy Spirit. The institution of this Abbey carries a precious tradition but we must be constantly open to how God is calling us to live out this tradition. The elders among us talk of huge change over the years that they have been here, and even I with my few years here have seen a lot of changes. I pray that that openness to change continues into the future, whatever that holds for us. The most important thing is for us to dwell deeply in God’s word with hearts open to the movement of the Spirit. Simeon and Anna did not know how God would come to save his people but perhaps precisely because they were outside the formal structures of the temple they were open to recognise this coming of God in the unexpected form of a baby born to a humble and ordinary family.
Once I started typing this conference yesterday I turned to my office book to ensure that I had remembered the antiphon correctly. In fact I found we sing ‘someone’ not ‘something’, which actually is not a translation of Matthew chapter 12 verse 6 that I could find in any of my digging. How odd I thought – but I then found that the literal translation is ‘I say to you that a greater than the temple is here’, leaving it hanging – a greater someone or a greater something? It is a particular modern affliction, that I know I suffer from, to want things precisely defined, either this or that. That way of thinking is very powerful and has its place but we also need to develop our capacity to hold ambiguity, to let multiple meanings be present. It is both someone and something that is here and we must hold both. As God’s kingdom is beyond any human institution so it is also beyond any human ability to define in words and concepts. Our language is important but can only point the way – ultimately we must fall into silence before God.
Which brings me back to this feast of the Presentation. We step back from the drama and activity of Epiphanytide to ponder the mystery of God’s coming to us. All our doings, our activities and institutions are put into perspective by the God who comes into his temple in the form of a child, a child who has not yet done anything but simply shines with the presence of God. That same God comes to dwell in each one of us, in the temple of our heart, to make us also lights to the world. May all that we do be grounded in God’s presence and guided by that light.
Mother Anne - 2nd February 2023