On this fourth Tuesday in the series of 15 Tuesdays in honor of our Holy Father St. Dominic, our reflection considers the obedience of Mary and Jesus in the Presentation in the Temple, and the importance of obedience for St. Dominic and for us.
If you are joining us after the beginning of the 15 Tuesdays, don’t worry! Fifteen weeks is a long time, and you can begin at any point to grow in love of God and devotion to St. Dominic through joining in.
Presentation and Purification: The Virtue of Obedience
The Mystery for the 4th Tuesday of St. Dominic is the double feast of the Presentation of the Infant Jesus and the Purification of the Blessed Virgin. The law of Moses required parents to “set apart to the Lord all that first opens the womb” (cf. Ex. 13:1-2, 11-16). To set apart is the same as consecrate, so the Jews were to set apart or consecrate all first-born sons. The parents then redeemed, or bought back their sons by the sacrifice of “a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons” (Lk. 2:24).
The Law precisely states, the first born that opened the womb. However, as the Church teaches, Christ was both miraculously conceived by the Holy Spirit and also born in a miraculous manner, and thus Our Lady remained a virgin at His birth as at His Conception. Strictly speaking, then, the Law did not apply to Christ. But in this mystery we see that Christ wished to do the Father’s Will in all things and so His parents brought Him to the Temple to fulfill the Law. As Jesus proclaimed later, He did not come to abolish the Law, but to fulfill it. This complete spirit of obedience is seen throughout the life of Christ.
Why this importance for the virtue of obedience, one might ask. For this we have to return to the Garden of Eden. God wanted mankind to be in a special relationship with Himself, and in order for this to happen, man had to obey one commandment of God. Through the instigation of the devil, however, man did not obey God and lost the gift of friendship. However, God promised them that in time, a Redeemer would come who would repair their loss and sin of disobedience and win back this grace for mankind. It is by obedience that Jesus saves us. Thus we can see how very important the virtue of obedience is. It is only by obedience that we can have a special relationship with God.
At the Presentation in the Temple, Mary and Joseph meet Simeon, whom the Gospel tells us lived in a state of intimacy with the Holy Spirit: “The Holy Spirit was upon him, and it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he should not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Christ” (Lk 2:25-26). It was by obeying the prompting of the Holy Spirit that Simeon came to the Temple, and that he was able to recognize Jesus as the Messiah. And it is Simeon who reveals that the mission of the Messiah will be accomplished only by obedient suffering.
We see in this mystery how Jesus is brought to the Temple by Mary, His mother. It is she who offers Him to the priest, it is she who receives the prophecy from Simeon. Now too, Our Lady continues this maternal role, and teaches us how to follow Jesus in His obedience to the Father.
And how do we see St. Dominic also living this life of obedience? We know that he valued obedience greatly. After his ordination to the priesthood he could have lived independently like most priests. Instead, he joined the Canons Regular at Osma, which meant he would always be under a superior, and thus living a life of continual obedience. Under obedience to his bishop he traveled through Europe on the King’s business. When he later went to Rome to get approval for his new Order, he obeyed the Pope who told him he had to use a Rule that was already written.
When St. Dominic founded his Order, he chose to include in our formula of Profession only the Vow of Obedience, which would include all else. This makes every Dominican to be someone who “belonged to someone else.” We no longer belong to ourselves, or can make decisions about ourselves. Even the habit that Dominicans wear symbolizes this “belonging to someone else,” that “Someone Else” being God. The more one unites himself to God in obedience, the more one’s soul soars towards God, the more it rests in God.
Peace is the tranquility of order, says St. Thomas. The disobedience of mankind destroyed that peace, but obedience restores the true order and gives us peace. Thus we read about St. Dominic that peace and joy radiated from him and filled those who met him with the same peace and joy. Like Our Lady and the Child Jesus, we too must strive to do always and everywhere the will of God, and thus, like St. Dominic, we may become instruments of peace and joy to all around us.
Additional Prayers
If you would like to observe this day with additional devotions, we have posted the following prayers in the past: