We do not find in the Bible an account of Mary’s presentation to God as a young girl in the temple, which is commemorated annually Nov. 21. Yet there is a firm foundation for the existence of this event.
The Liturgy of the Hours, in its introduction to this memorial, states: “This Feast commemorates the dedication of the Church of St. Mary which was built in Jerusalem near the site of the Temple. With Christians of the East, the Latin Church also recalls on this day the tradition according to which Mary as a small child was presented to the Lord by her parents in the Temple.”
Our Lady belongs exclusively to God. The Presentation of Mary in the temple demonstrates this truth. Her Immaculate Conception some years earlier was crucial in defining her love for, and loyalty to, the Lord that never faded. And how her fervent parents, Sts. Joachim and Anne, must have supported Mary in her virtuous desire to be always for the Almighty.
In Divine Intimacy: Meditations on the Interior Life for Every Day of the Liturgical Year, Carmelite theologian Father Gabriel of St. Mary Magdalen writes: “Mary, who leaves her home and parents in her most tender years in order to live in the shadow of the Temple, speaks to us of detachment, of separation from the world, of complete dedication to the service of God, of virginal consecration to the Most High. After her, countless virginal souls will present themselves in the Temple to offer themselves to God, but no offering will be as pure, as total, as acceptable as Mary’s.”
The future Mother of God loved the Creator with the entirety of her Immaculate Heart, and she esteemed the divine law and wished to live it flawlessly. Her time in the temple would have been marked with prayer and instruction in the law of Moses. Mary pined for the Lord and all things connected to him. We can imagine her inspiring eagerness and alacrity in following God wherever he indicated.
And Mary’s total commitment to God was sincere and perpetual. Not for a moment did she retract or restrict her self-donation. She refused nothing to the Lord. All that he asked of her she did without hesitation or objection. In fact, she loved the divine will.
Our era is vastly different than that of 2,000 years ago. So much has changed externally. But “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.” (Heb 13:8) He stills calls his brothers and sisters to the spiritual perfection that he represents.
We admit that our allegiance to God, which is so different from Our Lady’s, becomes tepid and often wobbles. Father Gabriel, the great Thomistic theologian and spiritual director, continues: “How easily we take back the gift made to God! We take back our heart when we admit human affections; we take back our will when we refuse to submit to certain commands of obedience which mortify or contradict us; when we will not accept that which entails sacrifice, when we complain, protest or defend our rights. Yet the only true right of a soul consecrated to God is that of letting itself be used and consumed for his glory.”
What can we do? We turn to Mary, who was presented in the temple. Father Gabriel suggests the failproof remedy. “Let us ask Mary, presented in the temple, to take our poor offering into her maternal hands, to purify and complete it by her offering, so pure, so perfect; to include and hide it in hers, so great and so generous, that being thus purified and renewed, it may be agreeable to God.”
Msgr. Mangan is on the faculty of Mount St. Mary’s Seminary in Emmitsburg, Md.
