From Fr. Randolpf Calvo of Holy Name Parish in Deerfield, CT: Is There Something More to the Feast of the Presentation?

This liturgical observance is based on Luke 2:22-23. Luke is a Gentile author and his record of the Jewish rites associated with the birth of Jesus are somewhat muddled. These are not customs Luke is personally familiar with as he writes his Gospel. This is clear in the conflation of the presentation of Jesus account, which should have occurred one month after His birth (Numbers 18:16), with that of Mary’s purification on the 40th day after giving birth to a male child (Leviticus 12:2-4), which is the basis of Luke 2:24, and which is also the basis of much of the confusion associated with this account. Even so, they are reported more for theological purpose than historical, and in this they become more profound in what they convey. We are not seeing what happened, but we glimpse why it happened.

For example, when the angel Gabriel announces to Mary that she will be the mother of Jesus, —the Son of the Most High,— (Luke 1:32) she is at first confused by the pronouncement, but then in faith responds, —‘Let it be with me according to your word.’— (Luke 1:38) Mary then gives beautiful expression to her feelings in what the church has come to refer to as the Magnificat. This passage is found in your Bibles at Luke 1:46-55. If you go to your Bibles, you may find there a footnote directing you to 1 Samuel 2:1-10. It is very possible that Mary gave expression to her wonderment and glorified God because of all the events we associate with the Annunciation, but that she expressed them in words so similar to those of Hannah in similar circumstance is more likely for theological purpose than for historical record.

Luke has reached back into the Holy Scriptures of his day to help give expression to the mystery of God’s dramatic role in the birth of Jesus. Hannah was barren and her son Samuel was born only through the intervention of God. In response to Samuel’s miraculous birth, Hannah offers her prayer of joyous praise. When Luke imitates unabashedly these words in the Magnificat, his intention is to connect the two events in the mind of the reader. Anyone familiar with the Holy Scriptures would have realized immediately the connection between the two and that the actual words were not meant to be historically accurate. They were meant to be theologically profound.

Luke continues this theme from the Annunciation to that of Jesus’ presentation at the Temple, which has its parallel when Hannah presents her son Samuel at the Lord’s sanctuary at Shiloh (1 Samuel 1:21-28). Hannah fulfills her promise to God. The young child Samuel is presented at the sanctuary with the mother’s words: —‘I have lent him to the Lord; as long as he lives, he is given to the Lord.’— (1 Samuel 1:28) This prepares Luke’s readers to think of Jesus in the same way, as one whose life is given over completely to God.

Still with Jesus’ presentation in mind, at Luke 2:23 the Evangelist refers to the Mosaic Law of the firstborn male child. According to Exodus 13:2,15 and Numbers 18:15-16, such a child would be redeemed by a payment of five sanctuary shekels. Luke makes no mention of this payment. Instead, he tells the story of the presentation at the Temple, a custom about which absolutely nothing is mentioned in the Old Testament. Since Luke makes reference to the tradition of the redemption of the firstborn male at Luke 2:23, he would also have known about the monetary equivalent. When Luke instead speaks of the presentation, it is because Jesus is already at birth —the Son of the Most High.— Jesus need not be redeemed by the sanctuary shekels because He already belongs to God, He already is God.

Luke’s account of Jesus’ presentation speaks amply of Jesus’ coming life of dedicated service to God and as God’s Son. The historical record of this event is confounded in Luke’s account, but its truth remains unambiguous. The story is not imaginary. It is most likely based on an actual remembrance that Jesus’ family performed the standard Jewish rituals following the birth of a child, but neither is its purpose to merely record history. There is something more. Its truth is in its purpose and meaning. This is why it is gospel-proclamation, and this is its real literal truth.