The feast of Presentation<\/p>\n\n\n\n
February 2, 2020<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Luke 2:22-40<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If we are given a chance to choose\nour parents, what kind of parents will be our choice? Perhaps, some will prefer\nbillionaire parents so that we can sing like Bruno Mars, \u201cI wanna be a\nbillionaire\u2026 Buy all of the things I never had\u2026 I wanna be on the cover of\nForbes magazine, and Smiling next to Oprah and the Queen.\u201d Perhaps some of us\nwant to become the children of a king. So, royal blood is flowing through our\nvein, and people call us as a prince, princess, or royal highness. Perhaps, we\nwant to be born from Korean megastars, because we want to become the prettiest\nor the most handsome. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Yet, if we ask the same question to\nthe Lord, what would be His choice? The choice is obvious, Joseph and Mary.\nBut, why? Joseph and Mary are not wealthy, and even poor. They can only\nafford turtle dove, the offering of the poor. Indeed, Joseph is the descendant\nof King David, but in reality, he is a humble carpenter from the unknown\nvillage, Nazareth. I do believe that Joseph is handsome and Mary is beautiful!\nFrom here, we can deduce that richness, fame, and physical beauty as God\u2019s\ncriteria for His parents. So, what is it?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If we look closer into today\u2019s\nGospel and some other verses, we may discover the best character of Joseph and\nMary as a couple and parents are their love and fidelity to God. Mary and\nJoseph know well the Law of God, and they are faithfully observing His Law. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Today\u2019s feast is traditionally\ncalled the Presentation. Jesus is presented and consecrated to God in the\nTemple. Why do Joseph and Mary offer Jesus in the Temple? Because they are\naware of the Jewish Law that any firstborn shall be consecrated to the Lord\nbecause they belong to the Lord [see Exo 13:2]. The feast of Presentation is\nalso called the feast of the Purification of Mary. She is purified not because\nshe is sinful, but because, according to the Mosaic Law, any woman who gives\nbirth will be ritually unclean or unfit for the worship. She has to undergo 40\ndays of purification period, and at the end of the period, she offers a\nsacrifice to the priest [Lev 12:1-8]. From the Gospel of Matthew, Joseph is\ndescribed as \u201cthe righteous man.\u201d This means that Joseph is not only\nwell-versed in Mosaic Law, but he is faithfully observing them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Jesus does not concern Himself with\nHis parents\u2019 economic condition, social status, or physical appearance. Jesus\nis looking for whether His parents love God, whether His parents know and\nobserve God\u2019s law, and whether His parents have faith in God. Why are these\ncharacteristics crucial for Jesus\u2019 parents? Because Jesus understands the best\ninheritance parents can give to their children is faith, because money can only\nprovide you with security in this life, but faith will bring us to heaven. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The primary duty of parents is not\nmerely to provide food, shelter, and clothing, not only send their children to\nschools and not only bring them to the doctors when they are sick but primarily\nto walk with them to heaven. Like Mary and Joseph present Jesus to God, we are\nalso offering our children to God. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Valentinus Bayuhadi Ruseno, OP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The feast of Presentation
\nFebruary 2, 2020
\nLuke 2:22-40<\/p>\n
If we are given a chance to choose our parents, what kind of parents will be our choice? Perhaps, some will prefer billionaire parents so that we can sing like Bruno Mars, \u201cI wanna be a billionaire\u2026 Buy all of the things I never had\u2026 I wanna be on the cover of Forbes magazine, and Smiling next to Oprah and the Queen.\u201d Perhaps some of us want to become the children of a king. So, royal blood is flowing through our vein, and people call us as a prince, princess, or royal highness. Perhaps, we want to be born from Korean megastars, because we want to become the prettiest or the most handsome. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[57,58],"class_list":["post-9167","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-renungan","tag-english","tag-sunday-reflection"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lubukhati.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9167","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lubukhati.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lubukhati.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lubukhati.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lubukhati.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9167"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lubukhati.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9167\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9168,"href":"https:\/\/lubukhati.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9167\/revisions\/9168"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lubukhati.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9167"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lubukhati.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9167"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lubukhati.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9167"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}