THE PRESENTATION OF MARY AT THE TEMPLE IN JERUSALEM BY HER PARENTS JOACHIM AND ANNA.
.
Commemorated in many churches today Novemeber 21.
It is a very simple event, a child is brought to the temple for
blessing. But it is felt as a juxtaposition ,a seeing together ,of
the temple built of stone , of the structure, and of the temple
which is the human person. Fr Alexander Schmemann put it this
way ...
"The meaning of all these events, words and recollections
is simple: from now on man himself becomes the temple.
No stone temple, no altar, but man -- his soul, body and
life -- is the sacred and divine heart of the world, its "Holy
of holies." One temple, Mary -- living and human -- is led
into a temple made of stone, and from within brings to
completion its significance and meaning.
With this event religion, and life even more so, undergoes
a complete shift in balance. What now enters the world
is a teaching that puts nothing higher than man, for God
Himself takes on human form to reveal man's vocation
and meaning as divine. From this moment onward man
is free.
Nothing stands over him, for the very world is his as a
gift from God to fulfill his divine destiny."
A FURTHER NOTE
Fr Schmemann's words may seem a little inflated in
an intellectual/symbolic building up of a simple thing
(in a more contemporary way than older times would add
on legendary elements to a story) but
consider within does one not feel ones inner space as a
sort of temple and within it may there not be an original
fragile yet also enduring core of an original purity of
being and purpose and then looking out one sees this
unique person one is as present to a larger world of
persons and beings to a whole outer world which is also
a temple? Of the available images I like this one from a
stained glass which seems to reflect this moment of
presence of temple within temple in its simplicity and
truth.
.
Commemorated in many churches today Novemeber 21.
It is a very simple event, a child is brought to the temple for
blessing. But it is felt as a juxtaposition ,a seeing together ,of
the temple built of stone , of the structure, and of the temple
which is the human person. Fr Alexander Schmemann put it this
way ...
"The meaning of all these events, words and recollections
is simple: from now on man himself becomes the temple.
No stone temple, no altar, but man -- his soul, body and
life -- is the sacred and divine heart of the world, its "Holy
of holies." One temple, Mary -- living and human -- is led
into a temple made of stone, and from within brings to
completion its significance and meaning.
With this event religion, and life even more so, undergoes
a complete shift in balance. What now enters the world
is a teaching that puts nothing higher than man, for God
Himself takes on human form to reveal man's vocation
and meaning as divine. From this moment onward man
is free.
Nothing stands over him, for the very world is his as a
gift from God to fulfill his divine destiny."
A FURTHER NOTE
Fr Schmemann's words may seem a little inflated in
an intellectual/symbolic building up of a simple thing
(in a more contemporary way than older times would add
on legendary elements to a story) but
consider within does one not feel ones inner space as a
sort of temple and within it may there not be an original
fragile yet also enduring core of an original purity of
being and purpose and then looking out one sees this
unique person one is as present to a larger world of
persons and beings to a whole outer world which is also
a temple? Of the available images I like this one from a
stained glass which seems to reflect this moment of
presence of temple within temple in its simplicity and
truth.
.