The Fifth Day in the Octave of Christmas
In the episode of the Presentation that we hear in today’s Gospel, there are several profoundly beautiful, significant things happening all at once. According to Jewish law, every first-born son had to be presented in the temple and redeemed. This was done in recognition of the fact that God spared the first-born sons of the Israelites in Egypt at the first Passover. As we recall, the central act of the Passover was the sacrifice of a lamb. The lamb’s blood was spread on the entry to the house and the family then had to roast and consume the lamb. Separately, also according to Jewish law, new mothers were to present a lamb and a turtle dove as offerings for ritual purification and a sin offering (OR a pair of turtle doves if the family was too poor to buy a lamb).
It’s worth noting that both Jesus and Mary were completely free of sin. They had no actual need to make the sin offering, but did so out of humility and willingly conformed themselves to the law. Just as impressively, all of these Gospel events can be contemplated in a new light when we recognize that Jesus Himself was the lamb that was to be sacrificed. While Mary and Joseph appeared to exercise the option for the poor in bringing a pair of turtledoves, they also presented the True Lamb, of which all others were merely prefigurements. This is the same Lamb by whose Blood we have all been redeemed and that we consume at each Mass as the graces of this true Passover are perpetually renewed.