Joyous feast!
Today’s feast is a feast of liminality. For one, it stands on the threshold between Christmastide and Lent. Christ still appears to us as a newborn Child, just as he did at his Nativity, but the lingering joy of the holy birth is blended with tragic foreboding as Simeon, having pronounced his canticle of light and peace, follows it with prophecies of the Savior’s Passion.
This feast also stands at the threshold between the Old Covenant and the New: St. Joseph, bearing his two doves, fulfills the Old Covenant, even while Christ, presented in the temple as an offering to the Father, foreshadows the New Covenant that he will author on the Cross with his own precious Blood.
Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, presented in the temple and met by Simeon and Anna for our salvation, have mercy on us! Amen.