Every year on February 14, Armenian Christians observe a very meaningful day on our church calendar: the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord to the Temple.
It arrives 40 days after our celebration of Christ’s nativity on January 6, when the church re-lives the profound joy of those who first witnessed Jesus’ birth: from the shepherds, to the wise men, to the angels in heaven.
By contrast, the Feast of the Presentation tells a much quieter story: about the passage from generation to generation; about the joy felt by two elderly people when they witness new life; and about the hope for tomorrow, which God’s promise inspires in humankind.
The setting for the story is the great Temple in Jerusalem, and the occasion is the presentation of the newborn Jesus in the House of God. This was a ritual that every pious Hebrew would perform, 40 days after the birth of a child. In essence, parents would present their baby before the holy altar—so the child could know God, and God would know the child.
It would have been one of the first, formal acts of religious upbringing in the child’s life. And for the parents, it was a promise that they would not neglect to nourish their child with the knowledge of God.
Blessed Are the Pure of Heart
Among the milling crowd, Joseph and Mary did not want to draw attention to themselves as they entered the Temple. But someone did notice them: a devout man named Simeon, who had been promised by God that he would not see death before he had seen the Savior.
Now, looking upon the infant Jesus, Simeon realized that he was seeing the thing for which he had hoped and prayed all his years. This was, in fact, the completion of his life. “Now I can die in peace, Lord,” he sang, “because I have seen your salvation” (Lk 2:29-32).
Simeon was soon joined by a woman named Anna. She was 84 years old, the Gospel says, and had lived most of her life as a widow—certainly not an easy life, then or now. And yet Anna, like Simeon, felt joy in her heart that day, and knew she would go to her grave happy, having witnessed the world’s redemption in the eyes of a newborn child.
Both Simeon and Anna knew they would never live to see Christ’s mission fulfilled. And yet, they were happy just to know that the future would be a time of new optimism and hope—and that others would benefit from our Lord’s presence on earth.
It is a rare thing to encounter such purity of heart. The Gospel says that Joseph and Mary—who had already seen many miraculous things—could only “marvel” at the scene unfolding on their son’s presentation day. And we can imagine, perhaps, that as they went on their way, they understood more deeply that they were carrying the weight of the world in a precious bundle of swaddling clothes.
Indeed, years later, when Jesus Himself was grown to manhood and embarking on His ministry, He would offer a special blessing on the pure in heart: “Blessed are the pure of heart,” He said. “For they shall see God” (Mt 5:8).
How wonderful to think that this blessing was literally fulfilled—and in a most unexpected way—for Simeon and Anna.
A Story for the Generations
This story of Christ’s Presentation holds a special meaning for the community of faithful in the Armenian Church. It speaks in different ways to children, parents, and grandparents—all of whom can see their roles in life represented in the story (Lk 2:22-40).
It is, in the first place, a story about a religious obligation that ought to be familiar to us. For we too, as Christians, bring our newborn sons and daughters to the sanctuary of God, for the sacrament of Baptism. In that sacrament, the parents present their child to the church, to be welcomed into the Body of Christ, and dedicated to our Lord, so the child can receive the gift of salvation and eternal life.
A child’s baptism is therefore an extraordinary moment of joy—and that message should be imparted to children when they are old enough to understand it. They should learn that their parents and grandparents, aunts and uncles, older brothers and sisters and cousins—all looked upon them with love and happiness, and felt hope in their hearts, and optimism for the future.
And children should know that God, too, was with them during their Baptism, calling them to live a life of goodness and godliness; a life close to our Lord Jesus Christ, and close to the church He gave us. Indeed, the connection between their own earliest experience, and that of the infant Jesus, is one of the most beautiful lessons children can receive from the story of Christ’s Presentation.
For parents, Presentation Day recalls the important decision they made when they brought their child into the church for Baptism. By doing so, they affirmed that children need more than food, shelter, and clothing in this life. They need to be nourished, protected, and clothed under the loving eyes of God, and in the life-giving embrace of our church. Indeed, every time parents bring their children to church, they are fulfilling the promise they made at Baptism, to give their children a complete life, where they know God, and God knows them.
Finally, to the elder members of the church community—especially those reflecting on life’s completion—the story of Christ’s Presentation is a call to make sure that the church is always a welcoming home for the young. As the elders Simeon and Anna showed when they held the infant Jesus, having the youth among us brings out all the purity in our hearts: our loving wish that others will live and benefit, long after we are gone.
May we all know such purity of heart when the time comes. And may we thereby be blessed, as our Lord Jesus promised, to see God.
Above: Detail from “The Presentation of Jesus in the Temple” (1631) by Rembrandt van Rijn.
— Christopher H. Zakian