Prophet Malachi envisioned the coming of the Lord in the Temple as a profound act of purification. Acting as refiner's fire, He will purify not only the priestly Levites but also the offerings of the people. God will rectify what man has defiled. For some gave the distorted image of Jesus as human, but not as God. Some even claim that Jesus was an angel. Today's Hebrews reading is quite clear, "For it was not the angels that He took to Himself; He took to Himself descent from Abraham." (Heb 2:16)

Forty days after the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem, His parents brought Him as their first born son to be presented in the Temple in Jerusalem. It was a two-fold event. Besides it being a "buying back" from God a son, it is also the Jewish practice of purifying the mother after childbirth. Jesus, as a descent from Abraham and a Jew, went through this ritual process of human life. He charges it with new meaning. To save us, God has offered Himself to us. Jesus is real and human, and Simeon saw the Christ of the Lord in the Temple that day. So did Anna. We profess with deep faith that Jesus Christ is both God and man. Today, we contemplate Jesus as a vulnerable baby held in the arms of His parents and of complete strangers in the Temple. God has placed Himself at our hands, pure, gentle and vulnerable.