Today’s feast celebrates Mary’s presentation in the temple by her parents Anna and Joachim. It is a feast of Mary’s offering to God, one which she will fulfill and bring to fruition with her Fiat to the angel Gabriel years later. Mary’s presentation and life embody today’s Gospel of the poor widow, about whom Christ says “she, from her poverty, has offered her whole livelihood.” At her Presentation, Mary’s life is offered to the Lord, and as a child, she was only able to offer her poverty of soul and being as she was. The Lord used this small gift and prepared a home for himself, a new ark within which to dwell.
Today’s feast and Gospel are a spiritual balm against the pervasiveness of comparison and deprecation of our gifts, lives, or talents in God’s service. Our Lord does not commend the most lavish, ornate, or flashy gifts offered to God, rather, God commends the offerings that come from our poverty with a sincere heart. Outwardly, Mary being offered to the temple was a very poor gift indeed, but it was this poor gift that God transformed into something incredible through his grace and plan. Let us be inspired to offer ourselves, especially if we feel we are so small in that offering, and let us offer ourselves with a total and sincere heart like Mary trusting that God will use us within his plan for our good and the good of the Church.