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December 31, 2023Something special about today’s feast is that we celebrate relationships. Ordinarily, we recall and are inspired by the life of a saint, a Marian apparition, a Christological event, or something alike. But today is about the relationship of the Second Person of the Holy Trinity Incarnate with His Mother and foster father. As human beings, we are highly relational creatures. That is no accident but a reflection of the life of the Holy Trinity in whose image and likeness we are made. We are made for relationship. The omnipotent Second Person became weak and dependent upon His earthly parents. If God Himself became so weak to be an example of our nature, are we not to be dependent on each other? Fathers are none less than a reflection of our Heavenly Father, and mothers a reflection of Mary, the Mother of God. Joseph reminds us that the role of being a parent is God-given.
Simeon may be a character we could associate ourselves with and aspire to be in today’s Gospel: faithful, righteous, devout, and filled with the Holy Spirit. The Holy Trinity promised that he should not see death before he had seen the Christ of the Lord. Is this not what we long for? Simeon held our Savior in his arms—the same Savior who destroyed death so that we may see Him. Just as the Holy Trinity is an eternal communion of love, the Son has promised us that, by faith in Him, we may live to see our Creator. We long to be created participants of the eternal life of love and to see the Father through and with the Son as our Father. Mary and Joseph now enjoy this vision and intercede for us, together with their Son, that we may join them. Today, as we recall the first anniversary of the death of Pope Benedict XVI, may we resonate his final words, longing to join the Holy Family in the beatific vision: “Lord, I love you!”
[click here for the readings of the day]