Faith and gratitude are at the heart of the feast of the Presentation of Mary. This ancient feast commemorates Mary’s presentation in the Temple by her parents, Anne and Joachim. As legend has it, Anne and Joachim were a childless couple who longed for a child. Their faith in God inspired their prayer for the gift of a child (see Protoevangelium of James). Soon after, Anne became pregnant with Mary, and after her birth, brought Mary to the Temple for consecration to God as an expression of gratitude. Although scripture does not record this event, there is ample evidence in the Old Testament that shows such consecration to God was common place (e.g. 1 Sam 2:22; Ex 8:38; 13:2; 13:13; Lk 2:22-24).
The presentation of Mary reveals two aspects of faith that we often overlook: connection and transformation. This event shows that faith connects us to each other and transforms our lives. We are all children of God and members of the same divine family. We therefore share a divine purpose of loving service to each other in imitation of Christ. For this reason, our connection through faith allows us to do more together than we can do alone. There is a touching story in Luke that illustrates this kind of faith in poignant detail.
The story is about a paralyzed man who wants to be healed, but is unable on his own to present himself to Jesus for that purpose. Coming to his aid is a group of friends from his faith community, who carry him to the roof and lower him down in front of Jesus. Neither the paralytic nor his friends ask anything of Jesus. Rather, with unspoken hope and trust, they simply take bold action in faith for their neighbor. They force their way through the crowd, up to the roof, and down into the presence of Jesus. Right away, Jesus acknowledges their combined show of faith and immediately heals the man in a complete sense—first from his sins and then from his paralysis (Lk 5:17-26).
Obviously, the paralytic had his own faith in the healing power of Jesus. Otherwise, he would not have sought his help. The man could not act alone, however. He needed others to help him realize the full expression of his faith. Those from his faith community who provided the needed assistance shared the same faith in Jesus. Otherwise, they would not have brought him to Jesus for healing.
This combined effort demonstrates that faith is more than a solo, private experience of God. This is true because “Christ is not simply the one in whom we believe...Christ is the one with whom we are united precisely in order to believe” (Lumen Fidei, 18, 22). By this definition, faith does not function in isolation. Faith by its nature is meant to be lived in and through a community of believers. Faith connects us to each other.
For this reason, faith is not a passive experience born of rational analysis and mere assent of mind and heart. Rather, faith finds expression in words and deeds based on the love of Christ. Faith transforms us. Because Christ lives in complete and constant union with the Father, Christ is the supreme manifestation of God’s love, and the one who makes God known to us (cf. Jn 1:18). As a result, when we live in union with Jesus, our faith allows us to see things as Christ sees them, with the eyes of love (1 Jn 4:7-9; LF 18).
Faith working through love inspires and motivates us to imitate the deeds of Jesus. In fact, Jesus declares that those who believe in him will do the works that he does and even greater ones (Jn 14:12). This is the transformative difference that faith can make in our lives. When we open our hearts to the faith and love offered by Jesus, we become his love in action. Faith and love working together then enlarge and expand our lives in ways that we could never achieve on our own (LF21).
St. Paul describes what happens when faith connects and transforms us when he says "It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. I live by faith in the Son of God who has loved me and given himself up for me” (Gal 2:20). In this same spirit and in honor of our Holy Mother’s presentation, we pray that our faith will always keep us connected to each other and transform our hearts into willing acts of love (Eph 3:17).
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