Joyful Mystery

Today marks 40 days out from Christmas, a hinge point in the calendar. (Not Ash Wednesday, as some might guess.) Today's feast of the Presentation of the Lord in the temple manifests the fidelity of his family to the law of the Covenant; Jesus participates in the alliance that had brought a people to be uniquely the Lord's.

But for God himself to show up in the flesh in his own house marks a transformative step forward as well; a stunning reversal which shows that now everything has changed. Our own new identity is revealed in this tiny baby. It is one of us, a human being, who comes in to be confirmed as being the Big Guy himself.

Each person baptized into Christ participates in today's mystery. Mary carries us in to present us to the Father, and in our new identity we are no longer strangers, alien to God, but his own beloved child whom he receives with favor.

Speaking of covenants and their renovation, this photo just came in from a friend living in San Giovanni Rotondo:



He writes:

"On the left side of the picture the rainbow starts at the church and friary of Santa Maria delle Grazie (Our Lady of Grace.) This is where Padre Pio lived for fifty years and where he received the stigmata; also it is where the remains of Padre Pio rests. The rainbow continues over the hospital that Padre Pio built called, The Home for the Relief of Suffering and then goes on to cover the town of San Giovanni Rotondo."

He adds: "This may have been just a coincidence, but I don't think so."