The following is a transcript of Bishop Caggiano’s Sunday homily, given February 2 at St. Augustine
My dear sisters and brothers in the Lord, today we gather to celebrate the feast of the presentation of the child Jesus in the temple. It is the traditional end to the season of Christmas. As we heard in the sacred scriptures, it was the fulfillment of the law. That is, recalling that in the plagues against Pharaoh in Egypt, when God’s people that was still in slavery, the last plague was the perishing of the first born among those in Egypt.
And so the Lord prescribed that the first born son and the first born male of all animals were to be offered to the Lord in recognition of that great sacrifice. And so Mary and Joseph come forward to do that. And of course, they are presenting the savior and the redeemer, the light of the world that’s come into its darkness. And so we bless candles. It’s a sign that that light dwells in you and me.
But the feast raises a very interesting question. Today, we hear in the gospel that they were prescribed in the law, it said you had to offer two turtle doves or a pigeon. But you see, my friends, that was the offering of the poor. The law also said that if someone could afford it, they were to offer a lamb, much more expensive than a pigeon. But the obligation was to offer offer the most you could to Yahweh.
And so I ask a question. 39 days before, the Holy Family was given three gifts, and one of them was gold. So what happened to that gold that was not available to buy the lamb? Why did Mary and Joseph choose a turtle dove or a pigeon, the offering of the poor?
And while scripture does not answer that question, I think it is safe to say, my friends, that there is only one reason why Our Lady and St. Joseph did not purchase one, and it’s simply because they no longer had the gold.
Our lady knew that everything in her life depended on her God. She and Joseph and her newborn child, as poor as they were, she knew that there were many more poor than they. It would not surprise us that she gave it away to those in their midst, those they met, those they encountered who needed it more than they. And they who are poor in the eyes of the world came to the temple with the greatest riches humanity has ever seen.
So as you and I gather on this feast, allow me to ask you, you and I who are ambassadors of the light, you and I who are come to this temple so that we can leave this temple and proclaim the light of Christ to the world. As the light gives itself away, so too you and I are to give ourselves away so that Christ can shine within us. We bring that gift that Simeon is reclaimed to everyone out there. Allow me to ask you a question as I ask it of myself. Is there gold in your life and mine? Something we consider so valuable and precious that we have not yet given it away?
The answer to that question may actually be startling. For as your spiritual Father, as I stand I do not stand before you as a man who is wealthy, but I must confess many times in my own life, I am tempted to hold the gold of my life, which I consider to be my most precious possession, which is my time, for I am pressed by many things. And there’s sometimes inside of me the desire to hold some of the time for myself or some of the time not in service of Christ.
And I’m reminded today that I am to give what is considered gold for the sake of Jesus. What is it in your life that you consider to be gold? To be perhaps a possession that is so valuable that you may be tempted to keep it for yourself rather than give it away to the light of the world.
Perhaps this week you and I can meditate and reflect on that, for the challenge is simply this. We are to bring the light of Christ and proclaim his love and mercy, his patience and forgiveness in the world. And that requires that you and I learn ever more, as Our Lady and Joseph did, to give ourselves away, to give everything away, so that we can hold in our arms and in our hearts the greatest gift we have, who is Jesus, the Lord. The world may not always welcome the light, but we are called to bring the light to that world. And let us do it as best we can for his honor and glory.