Dear St. Martin’s Parishioners,
This Sunday we celebrate the Feast of the Presentation, when Mary and Joseph presented Jesus in the Temple 40 days after his birth. This reminds me of a popular Hispanic custom in which very soon after birth, and before the baby’s baptism, parents bring their newborn to the church to present him or her to God. At St. Martin’s we do this during the offertory procession of Mass. The parents follow those bringing the bread and wine, and the priest takes the baby and turns towards the altar to do the presentation. During this time, I pray briefly, asking God to make of the child a great saint. The baby is then handed back to the parents, but something important has happened in those few seconds. The parents recognize that that their child belongs first and foremost to God, the giver of all life. When Mary and Joseph presented Jesus to the Father, it amounted to a total handing over, a complete offering of their child to God.
In a certain sense, we imitate Mary and Joseph—and the parents making presentations of their newborns—at every Mass. In the Mass we offer Jesus, and ourselves with him, to the Father as the perfect sacrifice of reconciliation. One of the prayers of the Divine Mercy chaplet highlights this reality: “Eternal Father, I offer you the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of your dearly beloved son, Our Lord, Jesus Christ.” Just as the parents receive their child back after presenting him or her to God, so the Father returns Christ to us, specifically through the gift of Holy Communion. May this Feast of the Presentation draw us more fully into the essential rhythm of the Mass: complete offering of Christ and ourselves to the Father and reception in return of he whom we have offered.
As I mentioned at some of the Masses last week, many of our parishioners are fearful of what could happen to them because of our current administration’s immigration policy. So far, we don’t know the specifics of the deportation policy. As your pastor, I urge you to be vigilant and informed, but do not fear. We must pray and advocate for the rights of immigrants and the unity of families. I plan to soon invite Mrs. Celia Rivas, an immigration lawyer with Catholic Charities, to address our congregation’s questions and concerns. Our immigrant population, whether documented or not, is an enormous blessing for our community. Let us continue to encourage and pray for one another, and in the words of St. Padre Pio, “pray, hope, and don’t worry.”
In Christ,
Fr. Dave
