If We Have the Eyes to See

We are left to ask ourselves, as we look at our own lives, what do we hear? What do we see? Do we truly experience Jesus Christ in our midst, living in the Temple of our soul? Does His presence affect us? Do we know He is the source of our peace and the promise of our redemption? Even if we encounter Him with nothing more than the faith of an infant.

Do we truly experience Jesus Christ in our midst, living in the Temple of our soul?

And when the time came for their purification according to the law of Moses, they brought him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord
-Luke 2:22

This event recorded in the Gospel of Luke is traditionally referred to as the Presentation of the Lord.

Joseph and Mary fulfilled the Jewish Law by presenting their newborn child in the Temple to be dedicated to God. What is most striking about Jesus’ arrival is the profound and even prophetic insight of two people who were in the Temple that day.

The first is Simeon. Simeon was an old man who spent his days praying and worshipping in the Temple. These longs hours in the presence of God apparently gave Simeon great spiritual wisdom and insight; the Holy Spirit dwelt within him in a powerful way.

Now there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon, and this man was righteous and devout, looking for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him.
-Luke 2:25

Simeon was aware the promised Savior would one day come to the Temple. When Jesus arrived with His parents, Simeon was one of the first people to recognize who He was, even though Christ was merely a baby.

The other person able to discern the truth about the baby Jesus was the woman Anna. Anna likewise spent her later years praying, fasting and worshipping in the Temple. Indeed, according to Scripture, she was there continuously.

And there was a prophetess, Anna, the daughter of Phan′u-el, of the tribe of Asher; she was of a great age, having lived with her husband seven years from her virginity, ³⁷and as a widow till she was eighty-four. She did not depart from the temple, worshiping with fasting and prayer night and day. ³⁸And coming up at that very hour she gave thanks to God, and spoke of him to all who were looking for the redemption of Jerusalem.
Luke 2:36-38

What is so striking about Simeon and Anna is how they are the only two people, of all those at the Temple that day, who actually knew Jesus was their Savior. The reason for this seems clear from St. Luke’s words, they were both people of prayer, and they were filled with the Holy Spirit.

All the other people crowding the Temple that day are unaware they are in the presence of the Savior of the World. They are not able to see. Indeed, later in his Gospel, when writing about Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem, Luke reveals the condition of these individuals through Jesus’ own words. The Lord laments the suffering that would later befall Israel when He says:

…you did not know the time of your visitation.
Luke 19:44b

The blindness of so many at the Temple that day is similar to the condition of those Jesus describes in His explanation of the Parable of the Sower.

You shall indeed hear but never understand,
    and you shall indeed see but never perceive.
¹⁵For this people’s heart has grown dull,
    and their ears are heavy of hearing,
    and their eyes they have closed,
lest they should perceive with their eyes,
    and hear with their ears,
and understand with their heart,
    and turn for me to heal them.
-Matthew 13:15

We may not be able to spend our entire day praying and worshipping in the building we call our Church, but we can all hold the presence of Jesus in our hearts throughout the entire day. He is always present to us, but we must make ourselves present to Him. We do not create this encounter; we only sit in the Temple in prayer and wait for Him. Then we will hear His words speaking to us and saying…

But blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear.
-Matthew 13:16

God Bless

Image credit: “Presentation of Christ in the Temple” (detail) | Hans Holbein the Elder, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

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