Following is the prepared text from Bishop Olmsted’s homily for Candlemas and those in Consecrated or Religious Life.
“ Jesus: A Sign of Contradiction”
January 29, 2021
“…and suddenly, there will come to the temple the Lord whom you seek” (Malachi 3:1).
At the moment that Mary and Joseph presented the Child Jesus in the Temple, the prophecy of Malachi (Mal 3:1f) was fulfilled, “De improviso entrará en el santuario el Senor, a quien ustedes buscan, el mensajero de la alianza a quien ustedes desean.”
My dear sons and daughters in Christ, our hearts were made to encounter Jesus. Our bodies and souls long to know, love and serve Him here on earth and to be happy with Him forever in heaven. St. Paul writes (1 Cor 6:19f), “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit…?” Our longing for Jesus, our desire to see His face, our desire to embrace Him in our heart—these feelings are not just figments of our imagination. No, God created us this way. As Augustine wrote, “You made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless ‘til they rest in You.” Psalm 84 describes it this way: “My soul is longing and yearning, is yearning for the courts of the Lord. My heart and my soul ring out their joy to God, the living God…” “Mi alma se consume y anhela los atrios del Señor, mi corazón y mi carne se alegran por el Dios vivo.”
Those words accurately describe Simeon, who trusted God’s promises and waited in hope for the day when suddenly the Lord would come into the Temple and Simeon would take Him with joy in his arms. When Simeon looked at the Baby Jesus, he was gazing on the face of God. Therefore St. John can write in His first Epistle, “See what love the Lord has bestowed on us in letting us be called children of God. Yet that is who we are!” However, for the Virgin Mother Mary, the Presentation of the Child Jesus in the Temple, while joyful, was even more a sorrowful mystery.
Queridos hermanos y hermanas in Cristo, la presentación del Nino Jesus en el templo es mas un misterio doloroso que un misterio gozoso. Es verdad que el viejo Simeón, con alegría, tomo’ a Jesus en sus brazos y alabo’ a Dios por cumplir su promesa, diciendo, “Ahora, Señor, según tu promesa, puedes dejar a tu siervo irse en paz, porque mis ojos han visto a tu Salvador, a quien has presentado ante todos los pueblos: luz para alumbrar a las naciones y gloria de tu pueblo Israel.” Pero, Simeón dijo a Maria, “Este niño …será una señal que muchos rechazaran… y esto va a ser para ti como una espada que atraviese tu propia alma.” En aquel momento, comienza el misterio del sufrimiento de la virgen Madre de Dios que llegara’ a su cumplimiento al pie de la Cruz.
My sons and daughters in Christ, you and I were made to know and love Jesus, in good times and in bad. In joy and in sorrow, He invites us to listen for His voice, to receive him in Holy Communion, and to embrace Him in our hearts.
On Christmas day, Mary and Joseph gazed with love and adoration at the Child Jesus lying in a manger and observed with wonder how the shepherds and then the Magi came to see and adore Him. Today, here are Mary and Joseph with the Child Jesus again, not at a manger but in the Temple in Jerusalem. Today, we are invited to receive our Lord and Savior, present now in the Eucharist under the forms of bread and wine, truly present with us because of His total gift to us at the Last Supper and His love even unto death on the Cross.
If we feel unworthy of His coming, let us recall that Jesus came for sinners, not the self-righteous; and that He invites us, in union with all your brothers and sisters, to say, “Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof; but only say the word and my soul shall be healed.” When we receive Holy Communion, let us realize with Simeon and Anna that we have just received “a light for revelation to the gentiles and the glory for [His] people Israel.”
At the same time, let us not overlook a disturbing dimension of the mystery of the Christ child that Simeon reveals to Mary: “this child is destined for the fall and rise of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be contradicted.” From the time He was born, Jesus was a sign of contradiction. He was feared by the powerful and scorned by the proud. Yet He was welcomed with joy by the poor and embraced by the meek and humble.
Jesus remains a sign of contradiction in our world today. The 20th century had more Christian martyrs than any previous one: from Maximilian Kolbe and Edith Stein in Nazi Germany to Miguel Pro and the Cristeros martyrs in Mexico, not to mention all the courageous martyrs for the faith in Vietnam, Russia, the Middle East, and many other places. It is impossible to ignore the coming of Jesus because, as St Paul says, “There is no other Name in the entire world by which we can be saved.” We either welcome and believe in Him, like Simeon and Anna, or we are at war with Him like Herod and the Pharisees.
His love is so great that He does not leave unchallenged our sinful habits. He confronts our pride and disturbs every troubled conscience so each person will be converted and live.
Pope Francis, in his Apostolic Exhortation “The Gospel of Joy,” writes about what should disturb you and me today. He says (#49), “If something should rightly disturb us and trouble our consciences, it is the fact that so many of our brothers and sisters are living without the strength, light and consolation born of friendship with Jesus Christ.” These words have special meaning for us who have the great honor of receiving Jesus today.
In everything we do, may we strive to see the face of Jesus in children and the elderly, the poor and the stranger. And may we rejoice to encounter Him here in the Eucharist and in the Sacrament of Reconciliation. Let us rejoice that Jesus is the light of our lives, the glory of Israel, and the Savior of the world.
