A Christmas Reprise

02-02-2020Weekly Reflection

The Church’s celebration three weeks ago of the Baptism of the Lord signaled the “official” end of the Christmas season. Today’s feast of the Presentation of the Lord seems to extend the Incarnation celebration a bit longer. In fact, some have called this feast a “second Epiphany.”

The first reading recalls the anticipation of Advent, as Malachi writes, “Lo, I am sending my messenger to prepare the way before me.” The reading from Hebrews reminds us of the Incarnation, proclaiming that Jesus had a “share” in our own “blood and flesh.” The Gospel finds the infant Jesus on his first visit to Jerusalem and his human parents once again surprised and in awe over the events surrounding his birth.

In the simplicity of the manger, in the grandeur of the temple, in the domesticity of Nazareth, Jesus comes. May we come to know him and so be filled with “wisdom” and the “favor of God.”