My dear brothers and
sisters,
The feast of the Presentation we celebrate today is not unlike the sacrament of confirmation which all of you have just
received. Our Lord was taken to the temple by His parents and presented to His
Father, as were you; He was consecrated to God, as the law of Moses required of
every first born, and through the process that began at your baptism, and
concluded in confirmation, so have you been. Indeed, like Our Lord, you are now
confirmed also in His triple office, of priest, prophet, and king.
There is another
similarity between the feast we celebrate today, and the sacrament of
confirmation, and this is the presence of the Holy Spirit. In the Gospel
reading today we hear that the Holy Spirit was upon Simeon, and that “He came
in the Spirit into the temple,” in other words, dear brothers and sisters, he
was possessed by the Holy Spirit. You too, beloved, are possessed by the Holy
Spirit, you belong now to Him and it must be your desire to do His bidding.
What is it to be
possessed by the Holy Spirit. We can turn to the Fathers of the Church for a
little help here, who speak of two kinds of fire; the fire of purification, and
the fire of burning. Through confirmation and possession by the Holy Spirit,
you are now subjected to the fire of purification, as we hear in the first
reading today from the prophet Malachi;
For he is like the refiner’s fire,
or like the fuller’s lye.
He will sit refining and purifying silver,
and he will purify the sons of Levi,
Refining them like gold or like silver
that they may offer due sacrifice to the LORD.
Through the rest of
your life, but especially in times of trial, you must remember that you are
being purified so that you “may offer due sacrifice to the Lord”. Confirmed in the Holy Spirit, and constantly
purified, you are also given the gift of being able to see the world not simply
through material eyes, you can now see the world through spiritual eyes; you
can see what is denied to other people. Even more importantly, however, once in
the Spirit, you are worthy enough to become like Christ. You are all, other
Christs!
Who is this Christ? We
are given one insight into His character in the psalm we just heard:
Who is this king of glory?
The LORD, strong and mighty,
the LORD, mighty in battle.
And who is Our Lord
doing battle with? Saint Paul in his
letter to the Hebrews which we just read tells us that he was born so that:
that through death he might destroy the one
who has the power of death, that is, the Devil,
and free those who through fear of death
had been subject to slavery all their life.
In confirmation, my
dear brothers and sisters, you have pledged yourselves to offer support in
Christ’s battle with the Devil. All of you will do battle with the Devil, and,
“With the power of the Spirit” you will be “strong and mighty” and “mighty in
battle.” You are called to do battle like Christ, and like Him, you will
triumph.
However, to triumph,
and to fully reap the power of the Holy Spirit, and to be in the Spirit, you
will have to be righteous and devout, keeping your eyes always on His law. If
you do this, then at the end of your life, after you have spent a lifetime
doing battle with the Devil, you will be able to make your own the words of
Simeon in the Temple, as he held the Lord in his hand, the words of our Holy
Mother Church at the end of every day:
Now, Master, you may let your servant go
in peace, according to your word,
for my eyes have seen your salvation,
which you prepared in the sight of all
the peoples:
a light for revelation to the Gentiles,
and glory for your people Israel.
May God bless and be
with you, now and always.
(This homily was first preached to a group of newly confirmed parishioners of Ambarnath, at the mission station of Dapada, Silvassa on 2 Feb 2025.)
