After the days of her Purification, according to the
Law of Moses, were accomplished, they carried
Him to Jerusalem, to present Him to the
Lord (St. Luke ii. 22)
Mary's Purification! How strangely the phrase
sounds in our ears! What purification could be
needed for her, who was the pattern and model
of all purity? Yet Mary remained retired for forty
days after the birth of her Son, and then went up
to the Temple as if to be purified. Why was this?
It was because she loved obedience to the law,
even at the chance of being misunderstood; she
sought no exemption from its precepts.
But she had another reason for her purification.
She was to take part in her Son's work of
Redemption, and therefore had to share His
reproach. He chose the road of contempt--He
was circumcised as if a sinner; and Mary's joy was
to tread the same path with Him.
Mary presented her Divine Son in the
Temple: renewing on that day her consent to the
Sacrifice of His Life for the sins of the world. She
saw with agonizing presentiment all that He had
to suffer, dimly at first and vaguely, but none the
less painfully; yet joyfully, she made the sacrifice.
She spared not her own Son, but delivered Him
up for us all.
Joy, joy, the Mother comes,
And in her arms she brings
The Light of all the world,
The Christ, the King of kings.