February 2: Jesus introduces himself to the world
by Mario Carrera
Faith is joy sung with the musical notes of the life of those who believe. Pope Francis, at the end of the Year of Faith, gave the Church the tools of joy with the Apostolic Exhortation which begins with these words: «The joy of the Gospel fills the hearts and entire lives of those who encounter Jesus ». Whoever approaches Jesus feels this joy welling up in their soul which makes room in the interior emptiness and erases the sadness of a life without enlightening hopes.
The month of February begins with an announcement of joy for two elderly people who had the desire to be able to see the Messiah. There are two old men who stood guard at the doors of the temple to indicate the presence of the Messiah in a human creature. Old Simeon feels full of days after taking the son of God made man into his arms. Desire flowed into the sea of reality. There was also a woman missing, the old Anna, who becomes a prophet and model of the heralds of God's presence in human life. The evangelist says: «Anna, daughter of Phanuel... also began to praise God and spoke about the child to those who were waiting for redemption». Just as at the dawn of the Resurrection it will be a young woman who announces the victory of life over death in the darkness of a tomb, so at the first flowering of redemption with the birth of Jesus, it is an elderly woman who announces the dawn of redemption. Praise and words constitute the sound of the announcement of faith which becomes gratitude, gaze, word, communion and joy of the eyes. Both the old Simeon and the elderly Anna prayed many times with the words of the book of Proverbs: «O God, I ask you two things, do not deny them to me before I die: keep falsehood and lies far from me, do not give me poverty or wealth, but let me have the necessary food, so that, once satisfied, I do not deny you and say: "Who is the Lord?", or, reduced to poverty, I do not steal and profane the name of my God". It is the supplication to God to preserve in us a soul as clear as the splendor of truth and the necessary, sufficient to live so as not to fall into discouragement and fraudulent actions. That morning at the presentation of Jesus at the temple in Jerusalem, two sentinels of the Absolute were present: Simeon and Anna. It was an eagerly awaited appointment. Finally they saw in the Child, brought to the temple by Joseph and Mary, the silent invitation of God who called them to feel a humble and gentle presence like a child, but with a future of salvation full of light to "enlighten the people". Anna and Simeone were not people parched with old age. The "light" brought to the temple by those two young spouses struck the tired eyes of the old Simeon, who exploded into a hymn of joy: finally his eyes were filled with light and he could now cut off the moorings to set sail towards the eternity. He warns that the parable of earthly life has come to an end; his sunset is not a drama, but overlooks the frontier of a dawn: "my eyes have seen salvation". A smile had blossomed on his lips. The solemnity of the Presentation of Jesus in the temple invites us to pray that even our sunset may be clothed in the lights of dawn.