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Catechesis prepared by Pope Francis for the general audience of 26 February 2025
Illustration: Simeon the God-receiver by Alexei Yegorov, 1830s–40s
Cycle of Catechesis – Jubilee 2025. Jesus Christ our Hope. I.
The Infancy of Jesus. 7. “My eyes have seen your salvation” (Lk 2:30).
“The presentation of Jesus at the Temple”
Dear brothers and sisters,
Today we will contemplate the beauty of “Jesus Christ, our hope” (1 Timothy 1:1), in the mystery of His presentation at the Temple.
In the narratives of the childhood of Jesus, the Evangelist Luke shows us Mary and Joseph’s obedience to the Law of the Lord and to all its regulations.
In fact, in Israel there was no obligation to present the child at the Temple, but those who lived listening to the Word of the Law and wished to conform to it, considered it a valuable practice.
Thus, Hannah, the mother of the prophet Samuel, who was barren; had her prayer answered by God, and after giving birth to her son, she brought him to the Temple and offered him to the Lord forever. (1 Samual1:24-28 – 24 And when she had weaned him, she took him up with her, along with a three-year-old bull,[a] an ephah of flour, and a skin of wine; and she brought him to the house of the Lord at Shiloh; and the child was young. 25 Then they slew the bull, and they brought the child to Eli. 26 And she said, “Oh, my lord! As you live, my lord, I am the woman who was standing here in your presence, praying to the Lord. 27 For this child I prayed; and the Lord has granted me my petition which I made to him. 28 Therefore I have lent him to the Lord; as long as he lives, he is lent to the Lord.”).
Luke therefore recounts Jesus’ first act of worship, celebrated in the holy city of Jerusalem, which would be the destination of his entire itinerant ministry from the moment he made the firm decision to go up there (cf. Lk 9:51 – When the days drew near for him to be received up,[a] he set his face to go to Jerusalem), in order to fulfill his mission.
Mary and Joseph do not simply embed Jesus in a history of the family, the people, of the covenant with the Lord God. They cared for His growth and introduced Him to an atmosphere of faith and adoration. And they, too, gradually grow in their understanding of a vocation that surpasses them.
In the Temple, which is a “house of prayer” (Lk 19:46), the Holy Spirit breathes and speaks to the heart of an elderly man: Simeon, a member of the holy people of God trained in expectation and hope, who nurtures the desire for the fulfillment of God’s promises to Israel by through the prophets.
Simeon perceives in the Temple the presence of the Lord’s Anointed. He sees the light that shines in the midst of the peoples plunged “in darkness” (cf. Is 9:1 – in the latter time he will make glorious the way of the sea, the land beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations) and he goes to meet that Child who, as Isaiah prophesies, “is born to us”, He is the son who “is given to us”, the “Prince of Peace” (Is 9:6 – his name will be called “Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace).
Simeon embraced the child who, small and helpless, rested in his arms; but it is he who finds consolation and the fullness of his existence by holding him. He expresses this in a canticle full of heartfelt gratitude, which in the Church has become the prayer at the end of the day:
“Now, Master, you may let your servant go in peace, according to your word,
for my eyes have seen your salvation, which you prepared in sight of all the peoples,
a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and glory for your people Israel” (Lk 2:29-32).
Simeon sings the joy of those who have seen him, who have recognized him and are able to transmit to others the encounter with the Savior of Israel and of the nations. He is a witness of faith received as a gift and transmitted to others; he is a witness of the hope that does not disappoint; he is a witness of God’s love that fills the human heart with joy and peace.
Filled with this spiritual consolation, the elderly Simeon does not see death as an end, but as a fulfillment, a fullness; he awaits it like a “sister” that does not destroy but leads to the true life, which he has already foreseen and in which he believes.
On that day, Simeon was not the only one to see salvation incarnate in the child Jesus.
The same thing happens to Anna, a woman of more than eighty years, a widow, totally dedicated to the service of the temple and to prayer. In fact, when she saw the Child, Anne celebrated the God of Israel who had redeemed his people in this very Child, and she told others about him, generously spreading the prophetic word. The song of salvation of the two elders thus echoes the proclamation of the Jubilee for all people and for the world. In the temple of Jerusalem, hope is rekindled in heart because Christ our hope has entered it. Dear brothers and sisters, let us also imitate Simeon and Anna, those “pilgrims of hope” who have clear eyes capable of seeing beyond appearances, who are able to discern the presence of God in smallness, who know how to welcome God’s visit with joy and rekindle hope in the hearts of brothers and sis
