Birth of Mary—Her Presentation in the Temple

Providence, which guides man along the path of virtue to the fulfillment of his vocation, had disposed that the very resolution which Joseph had formed in the secret of his heart, and had long maintained with perfect and constant self-abnegation—a resolution by which he believed himself to renounce all participation in the glories promised to the house of David, and to make himself a stranger, so to say, to that event which was to fill, not Israel alone, but the whole universe with joy,—was to be the very means of fitting him to stand, next to Mary, in the closest relationship to the Divine Redeemer of mankind. Several writers of high authority are of opinion that Joseph went to practice in Jerusalem the trade which he had learnt, in order to have constant access to the Temple and take part in its sacrifices. This is highly credible, and pious imaginations have loved to dwell upon the thought that, possibly, he may even have been employed in some portion of the work which Herod, in order to gratify the Jews and make himself a great name, had undertaken, namely, the enlargement and decoration of their Temple. Joseph, who was so well acquainted with the promises of God to His people, must have known how the prophets Aggeus and Malachias had foretold that the glory of this latter house was to exceed that of the former, for the Desired of all nations, the Lord Himself, was to honor it with His presence.¹ To take any share and contribute in any degree towards its adornment, and thus employ his labor and skill directly for the greater glory of God, would have been a privilege most dear to his heart.

That he did so is, of course, matter of pure conjecture; but it rises above the rank of a conjecture, and may be considered as almost certain that he would frequently see his holy relatives, Joachim and Anne, when they came up to keep the great feasts at Jerusalem; Anne, as we have shown on good authority, being probably the sister of Jacob and therefore Joseph’s aunt. For many years their marriage had remained unblest with any offspring, which was, as we know, considered by the Jews as more than a misfortune. Elizabeth’s exclamation, “Thus hath the Lord dealt with me in the days wherein He hath had regard to take away my reproach among men,”² would be sufficient proof, were such needed, that this was the general feeling. It pleased God to allow this affliction to weigh most heavily on this holy couple. Tradition tells us that having come up from Nazareth, where they dwelt, to keep the feast of the Dedication of the Temple,³ and having made their offering, while they were kneeling in devout prayer, a priest named Isaac, or, according to others, Isachar, sternly rebuked St. Joachim in presence of all the worshipers, for daring to present himself within the sacred precincts when the curse of God rested upon him, as shown in the sterility of his marriage. If the youthful Joseph was present on this occasion, or, at any rate, being in Jerusalem, was cognizant of the humiliation of which his pious relatives had been the object, how must his tender heart have grieved, and how he must have exerted himself to raise their drooping spirits! They returned to the mountains of Nazareth, but not without having both of them been favored with angelic consolation and the assurance that God had heard their prayers and accepted their oblation. Epiphanius tells us that Joachim was praying in the solitude of a mountain and Anne retired in her garden, when they each of them separately received this divine favor. Joachim and Anne, says the historian Ludolphus, in his Life of Jesus Christ, having for twenty years been without offspring, had both of them promised, if their prayer was heard, to dedicate the child which should be granted them to God.

And behold, Anne, miraculously healed of her sterility, conceived in her womb her who was to be the delight, the life, and the joy of the whole world. Here was the commencement of a series of unprecedented prodigies. As this infant was to be the daughter of the Eternal Father, Mother of the Divine Son, and spouse of the Holy Ghost, so her beautiful soul from the first instant of its creation and infusion into the body was, through the especial grace and privilege of God, and in regard of the merits of Jesus Christ His Son and the Redeemer of mankind, to be preserved free from all stain of original sin, and filled with every grace, gift, and perfection of which a human creature is capable.

The Virgin was born at Nazareth on the 8th of September, in the year of the world, as is supposed, 3986, and her happy nativity was the harbinger of joy to the whole universe. Her name, we cannot doubt, came from Heaven, and was revealed to Joachim, who gave it to her on the eighth day after her birth. “O name,” exclaims that devout adorer of the Infant Jesus, St. Anthony of Padua, “joy to the heart, honey in the mouth, sweetest music to the ear!”⁴ And St. John Damascene: “O happy couple, Joachim and Anne, what a debt of gratitude is due to you from every creature!”⁵ On the eighth day after her delivery, Anne, accompanied by her holy spouse, must have borne in her arms this most lovely babe to offer her to the Lord in the Temple, and perform, according to the law, the rite of her own purification. Scripture gives us no record of this act, but the devout mind loves to dwell upon it. For never before that day had so acceptable or pleasing an offering been made to the Most High. That sweet infant, but a few days old, was burning with the desire to consecrate herself entirely to God, that God whom she already knew so clearly and loved so ardently. For even in her mother’s womb Mary enjoyed the use of reason and of her free will.⁶ How could it be otherwise, since to John the Baptist this privilege was conceded, before he saw the light, in the sixth month of his existence? Her holy parents on their part, no doubt, renewed their promised consecration of the child which had been so miraculously given to them. According to a pious tradition, Anne possessed a flock on Mount Carmel and a house for its shepherds; and hither she and Joachim would often resort with their spotless infant. We can readily believe that it was here, on those heights of immemorial sanctity, that she, sweet child, who was one day to be invoked as Our Lady of Mount Carmel, besought her parents to fulfill their vow and allow her to go and enclose herself with other daughters of Sion in the House of the Lord.

It must have been a very painful sacrifice to this holy couple to part with their incomparable child, the joy and treasure of their life, but they loved God too much to refuse Him what He asked and what they had promised to Him. That the Virgin was three years old when she was presented in the Temple and devoted to the service of God is clear from the testimony of St. Evodius, successor of St. Peter in Antioch, as well as from that of St. Epiphanius, St. Jerome, St. Gregory Nazianzen, St. Basil, and many others. There is, in fact, a whole catena of tradition on the subject. It was in the month of November, when the Hebrews celebrate the solemn dedication of the Temple, that Joachim and Anne brought the infant Mary to give her to God. Without raising the objection of her tender age, or pleading for delay, they had at once acceded to the holy desire of their most innocent child. The sacrifice was willed by God, was pleasing to God: that was enough to cause them to bow their heads, and make the offering with all readiness of heart. What a beautiful example does Mary here present to the young, to follow without hesitation the voice of God calling them to a perfect life in the solitude of a cloister, without heeding for a moment the flattering allurements of the world; and what a splendid example do Joachim and Anne also offer to parents, not to oppose the religious vocation of their children, but to give them willingly to God, when it pleases Him to call them!

The presentation of Mary in the Temple is believed to have taken place in the year of the world 3989, and on the 21st of November, the day on which the Church celebrates the feast. The enclosure in which these young maidens had their abode was beside the Temple; that it was also attached to it we may gather from the Second Book of Machabees, chap. 3, v. 19, where it is said that the young virgins ran in consternation to Onias when they beheld Heliodorus rifling the sacred building. In memory of the abode of Mary in the Temple, the Emperor Justinian I. erected in the sixth century, on its southern side, a church which was called the Church of the Presentation.