21/11/2023

Today's Liturgical Feast celebrates the day Mary was dedicated to God in his Temple in Jerusalem. There is no record of this event in Holy Scripture but it is mentioned in noncanonical writing and tradition that has survived.

Mary is a created human being as are we all. We can say though, that she was there at the beginning with the Word, the first to be redeemed by the Cross for she was chosen to become the source of the humanity that was Jesus on Earth, in life, death and Resurrection. 

Eleazar was in his lifetime a teacher of the Law and became in his death one of the "Scribes and Pharisees" whose deeds become the teaching that we should follow rather than the hypocrisy condemned by Jesus. To join in the prevailing Hellenic culture was to deny God and to live life in praise of the pleasures of man. 

The words whispered to him by his contempories on the way to his execution are words of the ungodly which today are the great noise that is easier to choose and thus block our ears to avoid listening to the "still quiet voice" of our Saviour.

None of us can understand Father, Son and Holy Spirit for he is Evergreater. We see him in the action of individuals who are open to and obey his unseen presence. Our Father, however, knows each one of us and no matter how deeply we hide ourselves within  the "thousands that are ranged against me"  he can still find us, "for the Son of Man came to seek what was lost". 

Dear Lord, help me to live my life gladly in your presence. Let me sincerely know that my sins can be forgiven and that the moments when I feel that I am living in your will for me are the reality of my being. May Our Lady, your sinless Mother, Theotokos, help us to crush the serpents of evil that still threaten the holiness of her new-born children here on Earth and build up the hope that is the end of punishment for the Holy Souls.