Presentation of Mary
One
Today, November 21st, we celebrate the presentation of Mary in the Temple in Jerusalem.
Sacred Tradition, handed down by the Liturgy, tells us Mary was born in Jerusalem and at a young age was brought by her parents, Joachim and Anne to the Temple to be educated. We call this the “Presentation of Mary in the Temple.”
This is different from the presentation of Jesus when Mary and Joseph presented him in the Temple forty days after his birth at Christmas.
Why is it important to remember this event of Mary entering the Temple, and what does it matter to us?
Two
We are the Temple of God
St. Paul tells us that by faith and Baptism we have become Temples of God. In 1 Corinthians he writes, “Didn't you realize that you were God's temple and that the Spirit of God was living within you?”
At Baptism, the Holy Spirit enters our soul to conceive and begin to form Jesus in us. But, the Holy Spirit does not do this alone. The Spirit conceives and forms Jesus within us through Mary.
St. Louis de Montfort, St. Maximilian Kolbe, and the Catholic Church at Vatican II and in the Catechism teach that, just as the Holy Spirit and Mary formed Jesus in her womb, likewise, the Holy Spirit and Mary form Jesus in you.
So, it is not just the Holy Spirit that comes into our soul at Baptism, but also Mary because it is always the Holy Spirit and Mary who form Jesus. So, Mary’s entrance to the Temple in Jerusalem foreshadows her entrance into the temple of our soul at Baptism, that by the power of the Holy Spirit, she might conceive and form Jesus within us.
Three
St. Louis de Montfort explains the benefit of knowing the role of Mary and developing a relationship with her.
In True Devotion to Mary, Montfort reminds us that the Holy Spirit became fruitful through Mary. It was with her, in her, and of her that the Spirit produced Jesus Christ and will continue to form Christ in souls until the end of time. As I said, the Holy Spirit and Mary formed Jesus in her womb, and the Holy Spirit and Mary form Jesus in you.
“For this reason,” Montfort writes, “the more he finds Mary his dear and inseparable spouse in a soul the more powerful and effective he becomes in producing Jesus Christ in that soul and that soul in Jesus Christ.”
So the more we invite Mary into the temple of our soul the more the Holy Spirit will form Jesus in us.
Four
Mary living in the Temple of our soul?
You may be used to the idea that Jesus and the Holy Spirit live in the temple of your soul, but the idea of Mary living in your soul might be very new or even seem wrong.
Jesus wants to give His life to us through the Mass and the Sacraments, but because of our pride and sin and vices, we have a hard time receiving. So, the Holy Spirit comes to help us in our weakness. The Spirit comes into our soul to receive and form Jesus within us. And the Spirit does this with and through Mary.
St. Louis de Montfort, in his little book The Secret of Mary, gives an analogy to explain. If a sculptor wants to make a perfect image of a person, he basically has two options, get a block of marble or wood and then set to work with hammer and chisel. The other way is to make a mold and then pour the molten liquid into it.
Montfort writes, “Mary is…the living mold of God. In her alone the God-man was formed in his human nature…In her alone, by the grace of Jesus Christ, we are made god-like as far as human nature is capable. A sculptor can make a statue in one of two ways: By using his skill, strength, experience and good tools to produce a statue out of hard, shapeless matter; The second way is by making cast of it in a mold. The first way is long and involved and open to all sorts of accidents. It only needs a faulty stroke of the chisel or hammer to ruin the whole work. The second is quick, easy, straightforward, almost effortless and inexpensive, but the mold must be perfect and true to life and the material must… offer no resistance. Mary is the great Mold of God, fashioned by the Holy Spirit…to fashion through grace men who are like God…Everyone who casts himself into it and allows himself to be molded will acquire every feature of Jesus Christ, with little pain or effort, as befits our weak human condition.”
Five
The Material Must offer no resistance
For the mold to work, St. Louis de Montfort tells us the mold must be perfect, and the material must offer no resistance. Well, the Mold, the Holy Spirit and Mary, is perfect, there is no problem there. But the material must offer no resistance, the material must conform itself to the mold for the process to work.
So what can we do to be more receptive to the work of the Holy Spirit and Mary so they may form us in the likeness of Jesus?
Three things: First, consecrate yourself to Mary, invite Mary into the Temple of your soul so that she and the Holy Spirit can receive Jesus in you. Second, live in imitation of Jesus as he was a little boy growing up under her care. Develop a personal relationship with Mary. Talk with her, listen to her in your heart, and try to do what she inspires within you. That is what Jesus did.
Third, let Mary educate you. We need to meditate on the word of God in the School of Mary which is the Rosary every day. St. John Paul II writes, “The Rosary mystically transports us to Mary's side as she is busy watching over the human growth of Christ in the home of Nazareth. This enables her to train us and to mold us with the same care, until Christ is “fully formed” in us.” (cf. Gal 4:19).