"A bit of fragrance always clings to the hand that gives the rose." - Chinese proverb
I started off the day with the morning community mass on this the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord and then spent most of the morning in the office catching up on things and preparing for next week's meeting and retreat.
I had another dentist appointment this afternoon and my root canal is now finished. In a week or so, I'll be going to another dentist to have a crown put on that tooth.
The Maryknoll China Teachers are arriving in Hong Kong these days. They'll be having a weekend retreat before heading off to visit different parts of Asia.
On my quick trip to the mainland earlier this week, I was able to get together with 20 some students and former students of Jilin Medical College. They are all working or doing internships 实习 in Zhejiang Province. It was great to see all of them and I really appreciated their making time to have dinner with me.
With Grace, Angie, Michelle and Cathy, who are all graduates of the Nursing college.
With some of the fifth year seniors from the nursing college who are doing their internships 实习 in Hangzhou.
Today’s gospel and some comments
When the time came for their purification according to the law of Moses, they brought him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord (as it is written in the law of the Lord, "Every firstborn male shall be designated as holy to the Lord"), and they offered a sacrifice according to what is stated in the law of the Lord, "a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons." Now there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon; this man was righteous and devout, looking forward to the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit rested on him. It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord's Messiah. Guided by the Spirit, Simeon came into the temple; and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for him what was customary under the law, Simeon took him in his arms and praised God, saying,
"Master, now you are dismissing your servant
in peace, according to your word;
for my eyes have seen your salvation,
which you have prepared in the presence of all peoples,
a light for revelation to the Gentiles
and for glory to your people Israel."
And the child's father and mother were amazed at what was being said about him. Then Simeon blessed them and said to his mother Mary, "This child is destined for the falling and the rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be opposed so that the inner thoughts of many will be revealed – and a sword will pierce your own soul too."
There was also a prophet, Anna the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was of a great age, having lived with her husband seven years after her marriage, then as a widow to the age of eighty-four. She never left the temple but worshipped there with fasting and prayer night and day. At that moment she came, and began to praise God and to speak about the child to all who were looking for the redemption of Jerusalem.
When they had finished everything required by the law of the Lord, they returned to Galilee, to their own town of Nazareth. The child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom; and the favour of God was upon him. Luke 2:22-40
"The child's father and mother were amazed at what was being said about him." This shows that they had no hindsight; they thought of themselves in every way as normal people. This is their connection with us. Had they thought themselves special from birth, they would be as distant from us as a royal family. But we see them following the ordinary custom of presenting the child in the Temple, and their offering is the offering of the poor.
When something is actually happening we have no hindsight on it. Of course we see things more clearly with hindsight; hindsight is always 20/20, as someone said. But in a way it can be a false light. It judges people in the light of events that they could not have known about; it allows them no future, no development, because we see their future already present in everything they do and say. It flattens out their life like a sheet of paper on which everything is visible simultaneously.
It was the hindsight of the Resurrection, of course, that enabled the disciples to see the life of Jesus in a new light. But this new light of faith did not and was never meant to nullify his earthly life
It is our family that makes and keeps us human. We were welded into it before we were born; it is our anchor in human history. Scholars believe that the gospel accounts (in Matthew and Luke) of Jesus' childhood were not in the original form of the gospels but were added on at an early stage because they were needed to keep the story of Jesus anchored in this life.
In the West we now tend to think of the family as the 'nuclear family': father, mother and child. Then we project this onto the family of Jesus. But an Eastern family, even to this day, comprises a hundred people or more (this is how Jesus managed to get lost in the Temple). In today’s first reading, Abram complained to God of having no children. Then “God brought him outside and said, ‘Look toward heaven and count the stars, if you are able to count them…. So shall your descendants be.’" Nothing nuclear.
Jesus too was part of an extended family. But that physical family was tiny compared to the spiritual family of disciples through the ages and through the whole world. We all have our part in extending it. Every time we extend a hand to a neighbor or a stranger we are extending that great family. With legitimate hindsight we can see his spiritual family continuing to extend till it includes the whole world.
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