Readings: Mal 3.1 to 4 / Ps 23 / Heb 2.14-18 / Lk 2.22 to 40
LIGHT THE ARMS
The liturgy of today's feast opens with a striking skylight, a highly symbolic gesture, which introduces the Eucharistic celebration. All the faithful are asked to take a candle in her hands, then go in procession into the church to keep "arms" (Lk 2.28) light, a symbol par excellence of the manifestation of God is a simple ritual, but full of meaning. Exactly forty days after Christmas, the community of believers, please note that "the true light" (Jn 1:9) - come into the world through the flesh of Jesus Christ - not only needs to be accepted but returned in order to become light "that enlightens every man" (1.9), place of salvation for all. It is an act that wants to imitate the attitude of Mary, a virgin who was able to open my arms to the inroads of God in her young womb, never considered this election a "privilege" (Phil 2:6), but a service take up the most extreme consequences: "And to you too a sword will pierce your soul "(Lk 2:35). The gospel portrays the mother of God just like that, when he and Joseph went to the temple to offer her first-born as a gift, "sacred to the Lord" (2:23), according to "what is required by law of the Lord" (2.24 ). In this act of recognition and restitution, the church recognizes the essential core of its mission in the world accept and offer the Savior of the world that redeems the story going through the temple of our fragile humanity.
It is no coincidence that on this day the Church's side of the gift of memory consecrated life, uninterrupted experience of many men and women who, in a life given as and along with that of all the brothers and sisters in humanity, expressing the desire for a radical commitment to the kingdom of God and offered to others as a sign that "can and should effectively all members of the Church to carry out with zeal the duties of Christian life" ( LG , 44). We know that the consecrated life does not arise primarily in connection with the hierarchical structure of the Church, "however, belongs inseparably to his life and holiness" (LG 44). Hence, it is like a torch that reminds the Church not so much what it should do, because what they are continually called to be, before and beyond any role of two open arms that welcome the light of God's revelation and at the same time, offer the world through the witness of a life inspired by the logic of the Beatitudes. This will keep alive the memory that the "glory of Israel" (Lk 2:32) is the "salvation" (2:30) God's offer to "all peoples" (2.31), since the "Christ" has decided to have "in common" with our humanity, "the blood and flesh" (Hebrews 2:14). For this he is able to "come to help those who are tempted" (2:18) and to free us all, "subject to slavery all their life" (2:15).
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