²² 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, NRSV)
There are numerous customs around the birthing of children throughout the world. The custom of parents presenting their children to their communities and dedicating their child to God is not isolated only to the Jewish and Christian religions. This custom is present in many cultures, religions, from the rain forests of the Amazon to the skyscrapers of modern cities. What compels us, as parents, to do this?
When Ruthie and I had our first children, it was vitally important for us to have our son, Andy, baptized soon after birth. If you asked me at that time why I did this, I would have told you that my motivation stemmed from two things: 1) when you grow up in a Catholic culture, that is what is expected from the Catholic parents of a newborn child; and, 2) fear of Limbo. Now while the teaching of Limbo, which said that an unbaptized child who dies would not go to heaven, has been declared by the Catholic Church a false and erroneous teaching, in times when infant mortality was very high, it was a major motivator for parents to have their infants baptized soon after birth. After having raised our four children, the youngest now thirty-six years old, I would say to you that the major motivator for having my children baptized, presented to God, is my love for them.
I remember having this discussion with God at the birth and baptisms of each of my children. “God, I will do my utmost to love, guide, and provide for the children you have given to Ruth and I to my dying breath. However, after they reach the age of eighteen years, I hand whatever control I have had over them to you. From that time onward, you must be the one who has primary care of them.”
This was a lesson I learned as I grew up in the home of my parents. While I lived with them to the time I married Ruthie, the choices I made from the age of eighteen became more independent from the choices of my parents. Yes, they continued to influence me, but I had reached the age when I had to make decisions on my own, and they allowed me, within reason, to make my own decisions, to direct my own life, even if it resulted in me making a mistake.
Ultimately, there will be a time in our life when we must hand our lives completely over to God. As we get older, the fact that we are not as much in control of our lives as we would like to think, becomes a very real, brutal fact. Why wait to dedicate the lives of our children to God till much later in life? It is far more loving for parents to dedicate the lives of their children into the loving care of God at the beginning of their children’s lives.
Secondly, at the baptism of my children, I didn’t dedicate their lives to the Catholic Church, or some other religious tradition. I dedicated their lives to God. This is an important distinction.
As a child of the sixties, with all its social unrest and violence, I became wary of all human institutions, including religious institutions. I learned that not all decisions made by human institutions were honorable and for the common good of all people. Greed and power was a major motivator behind many government, business, and, yes, even at times, religious decisions. The betrayal of trust perpetrated by what had once been considered trustworthy institutions was devastating, sowing a deep cynicism within me that still exists to this day. The words of Jeremiah came to my mind. “
“You fooled me, God, and I let myself be fooled. You were too strong for me, and you triumphed. All day long, I am an object of laughter. Everyone mocks me.” (Jeremiah 20:7)
So often, our trust in human institutions is so great that we think that they are divinely created by God. We make the mistake to think that when they speak, they speak for God. Only God can be God. Our Church traditions and institutions are not God, but offer us a way by which we are led to God. God does do wonderful work for people through the Catholic Church. In as much as our Church is run by humans, the Church will still disappoint us and betray us. Jesus was a devout Jew, and his religious authorities not only opposed his earthly ministry but were instrumental in his torture and violent death. This important lesson learned by the Catholic Church was such that the Church made the important step following Vatican II to teach that while Jesus, head of the Church, never sins, the human component of the Church can sin and is in need of conversion like all human beings.
When I was ordained to the permanent diaconate 25 years ago, I promised to Archbishop Roach that I would live a chaste life, I would live simply, and I would promise obedience to the Archbishop and his successors. However, I made it very clear, at least to myself, that while it was through and within the Archdiocese I did my ministry as a deacon, it was not the Archdiocese I served. I served God and the people in the communities to whom God entrusted me through the Archbishop.
Our lives and the lives of our children must always be directed to God!
³⁴ Then Simeon blessed them and said to his mother Mary, “This child is destined for the falling and the rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be opposed ³⁵ so that the inner thoughts of many will be revealed— and a sword will pierce your own soul too.” (Luke 2:34-35, NRSV)
This passage from Luke vividly paints for us the third, and final reason why it is important to dedicate and entrust our children at their birth to the loving care of God.
Imagine for a moment receiving the prophecy of Simeon at the birth of our children. What do you do with being told that your child would be the rise and fall of many human beings, would be opposed; and, that we, as parents of our child, would not only have our hearts broken but the pain would be so great that the sorrow of it all would kill us?
When I held my infant children in my arms, I wondered what come for them in their lives. What are the gifts they will possess, and what are the challenges they will have to face in their lives? What could I do to support them in their lives, to guide them in the good times and through the troubles they will have to face? I simply did not know, but I trusted in God to help me in my parenting, and to be there to help me love and help my children.
The lesson I have learned is simply this: In order to dedicate and entrust our children to God, we, as parents, must first dedicate and entrust our live to God.
Whether we like it or not, our lives are immersed in Divine Mystery. In order to navigate our lives through this Mystery, we must entrust our lives to God. We just can’t navigate through life by ourselves. We need help. If we do not, we will flail away ineffectually and grow bitter.
It is important for us to adopt the attitude of the psalmist in Psalm 131.
¹ O Lord, my heart is not lifted up, my eyes are not raised too high; I do not occupy myself with things too great and too marvelous for me. ² But I have calmed and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with its mother; my soul is like the weaned child that is with me. ³ O Israel, hope in the Lord from this time on and forevermore. (Psalm 131, NRSV)
So what does this Feast of the Presentation teach us today?
First, like Mary and Joseph, we need to entrust our children to the loving care of God. Second, while our Church traditions are important and we should form and raise our children within our Church traditions, it is to God, alone, that our children are entrusted. Third, in order to entrust the lives of our children to God, we must first entrust our lives as parents to God. We are incapable of raising our children, helping them develop the gifts with which they have been gifted, and support them through their troubles by ourselves. We need the loving parenting of God to assist us in the parenting of our children.
