Giving Everything Back to God
Mary and Joseph took Jesus up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord, just as it is written in the law of the Lord, Every male that opens the womb shall be consecrated to the Lord,
and to offer the sacrifice of a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons, in accordance with the dictate in the law of the Lord.
4th SUN ORDINARY TIME – PRESENTATION IN THE TEMPLE
Joseph and Mary presented the child Jesus in the temple in order to buy back from God their firstborn male son. Since they were poor, they just offered a pair of turtle doves.
Why does God own every firstborn male son that his parents had to buy him back from God? The answer goes back to the time of Moses.
At the last of the ten plagues God sent Egypt, the angel of death passed at night killing all first-born male sons of the land from humans to animals. Only the Hebrews’ first-born sons were spared because of the blood of the sacrificial lamb smeared on the lintel of every house. Since then God owned every first born male son of the Hebrews.
Whenever a priest would celebrate his priestly jubilee more often than not, he would say that God is the reason why he remained a priest in spite of his many failures, faults and weaknesses. If God were not there in his life, he would not have lasted long in the ministry. As St. Paul says in his letter “Everything is grace” 1 Corinthians 15:10.
Rightly the monk said, “Lord, what can I give you which did not come from you? What else do you need if you already have everything? My sins perhaps I could give you since only those came from me.”
Everything we have comes from God. Let us always then be thankful. Seek His grace. Promise to be faithful.
