The Circumcision and the Presentation in the Temple

Continuing with Book I of Fouard's Life of Christ.

Luke vi. 21-38

What happened after the departure of the shepherds?  Were the emotions which the tail had excited lasting?  Did the citizens of Bethlehem make all haste to offer Mary that dwelling where the Magi were soon to find her?

The Circumcision. Rembrandt (1661) National gallery of Art, Washington.

The Gospel, while it notes this change of abode, does not tell either at what time or in what manner it was effected; certainly, to worldly eyes, there was nothing of distinction about his poor family of the Saviour; and therefore it is most probable that the attention, so suddenly attracted to them by the shepherds, was as promptly drawn away by the more exciting incidents of the Census-taking.  For, eight days later, when the Babe was to be circumcised, the same Evangelist, who tells us how great was the gathering on the same event happening in the life of John the Baptist, now simply remarks of Jesus: "On the eighth day He was circumcised."

Apparently it was Joseph who performed the sacred rite,1 and so shared the first drops of the Blood Divine.  The Christ, in order to fulfil all justice, was required to endure this humiliation, and bear in His body the stigma of the saints which He had taken upon Himself.  Yet He only underwent circumcision that He might set us free from its bondage, by substituting for it a purification more elevated, one wholly spiritual, that of the heart and of the heart’s evil desires.

It was the time for giving the Child His Name.  The Angel had apprised them by a heavenly mandate that he should be called Jesus, — a name that spoke of Salvation to the Jews, and recalled thoughts of their entrance into the promised land and of the return from Captivity.2  The sublimest of the titles of the Christ, — the Messiah,3 — only compasses in its meaning the Majesty of the Son of God, that Anointment by which he was consecrated King and Pontiff; the name Jesus signifies One who has loved us even to the dying for us; it bears in upon the heart with a profounder impress of love, a celestial sweetness, a secret relish of salvation, and a foretaste of our deliverance.

The Law commanded that this first-born should be presented in the Temple; as it is written: "Every male child that cometh from the mother's womb shall be consecrated to the Lord;" and it was necessary for Mary to be purified, since the Levitical canons declared every woman unclean after the birth of her offspring.  During forty days, if it were a son, eighty if a daughter, she was forbidden to approach the Sanctuary.  The custom among the mothers of Israel was to pass this time secluded in their homes until the day on which the expiatory sacrifice was to purify them.  They offered, then, a year-old lamb for a holocaust, and a turtle dove or a young pigeon for a Sin offering.  In kind consideration for the poor, the Law permitted them in place of the lamb which would have been too costly, to make presentations simply of two turtle doves or two young pigeons.  Such was the obligation to which the Virgin submitted herself, although she knew nothing of the common misfortunes of women in her stainless generation.

On the fortieth day following the Nativity "the time of their purification was accomplished." The sacred text extends the expiation entailed upon the mother so as to include Jesus also; for since the Law considered everything impure that had been touched by the woman during this period, the child she bore in her arms was excommunicated as much as the mother.  So Joseph and Mary went up to Jerusalem to consecrate Jesus to the Lord; the five shekels of the Sanctuary relieved Him of the obligation to remain as a Server for the altars, and the " Sacrifice of the Poor" was offered for the purification of them both.

"Now there was at this time in Jerusalem a just man, and one who feared God, named Simeon, who lived in expectation of the consolation of Israel.  The Holy Ghost was with him, and it had been revealed to him by this Spirit of God that he should not surely die, before he had seen the Christ of the Lord."

The terms of which Saint Luke makes use in speaking of this aged man indicate that he had in mind a distinguished personage, perhaps even the famous Scribe Rabban Simeon, son of Hillel.  Indeed there is a perfect resemblance in this sketch of his to the historical Simeon, — a similarity in age and residence, and equally high-sold his eel, with the same saintliness of life.  The Talmud, which expatiates complacently upon the grandparents and sons of Hillel, preserves an expressive silence as to Simeon; and this doubtless because it would gladly bury in oblivion a President of the Sanhedrin who celebrated the birth of Jesus, and who had thoughts anent the Messiah which differed very widely from those of his contemporaries, so widely in fact that the latter finally deposed him from the presidency of the Supreme Council.

Nunc dimittis... J-J Tissot.

At the moment when Mary and Joseph were approaching the Sanctuary that indwelling Spirit, moving within the old man's heart, was conducting him to the Temple.  There was nothing in their exterior to draw his gaze upon them, — a poor family making their Sin-offering, while in the arms of the mother there lay a little Child; and yet it was enough for him.  To the eyes of the Seer this Infant appeared, what indeed He was, the long expected Salvation, the Consolation which he had waited for so long, the one and only Object of his vow.  Simeon took Him into his arms, and in an ecstasy of the Divine Spirit he intoned this Can tickle: —

“Now has it come to pass, O Lord
that Thou dost deliver Thy servant:
according to thy word,
he will go in peace.
For mine eyes have seen Thy Salvation:
that Salvation which Thou hast prepared
in the face of all the nations:
even has a Light, which shall reveal Itself
unto the Gentiles
and the Glory of Israel, Thy people.”

Meanwhile " the father and the mother of the Child were filled with wonder at the things which he had spoken of Him and Simeon blessed Him;" but as his eyes fell upon Mary, he perceived in prophetic vision all that this Mother was to suffer.  Then, holding up the Babe before her,

"He Whom you now look upon," he said, "is for the ruin and the resurrection of many in Israel.  He shall be a Man rejected and denied.  As for you, a sword of sorrow shall pierce your soul."
Then, reverting to the Son of Mary and to the trials that awaited Him, he revealed what would ensue: "And thus," he added, " the thoughts which many hide in their hearts shall be revealed;" that is to say, in the Presence of the Christ, — He who was to be for the scandal and the scorn of this world, — before Him all secret thoughts should be unveiled.  He would distinguish in this way between those who dreamed of riches, glory, and temporal happiness as part of the coming of the Messiah, and those who, seeking Him for Himself, are prepared to welcome Him under whatever form he may appear.

Mary listened in silence to this menacing prediction.  Such as she appears to us now in the Temple, such she ever remains for the whole Gospel, — enveloped in her modesty, her heart at times flooded with joys which no language can express, but oftener resigned under the sword which even now tour this Mother's heart in expectation of the end.

"There was present also a Prophetess named Anna, daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Aser, of a very advanced age.  She had lived seven years with her husband since her virginity, and she had remained a widow up to her eighty-fourth year, never leaving the Temple, and serving God night and day in fasting and prayer." It was this zeal for the House of God which merited for her that she should find therein, and therein adore, her Saviour.  As she was coming into the Temple at that same moment, she recognized the Child, Whom Simeon had blest, rendered thanks to Heaven for unveiling to her eyes this Mystery, and praising the Lord her God, she spoke of Him to all those who awaited of redemption of Israel.

The Lord, the God praised by the Prophetess, is manifestly Jesus; to Anna, daughter of Phanuel, belongs, then, the signal honour of having first announced to Jerusalem the divinity of the Christ, which other most illustrious witnesses was soon to publish to the world.

Totus tuus ego sum 

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:
Ad Jesum per Mariam