The baby who purifies

Today’s first reading (Malachi 3:1-4) contains a prophecy that is fulfilled in a special, definitive way by today’s Feast of the Presentation of the Lord in the Temple:

And suddenly there will come to the temple
the LORD whom you seek...

But the prophecy is not all sweetness and light and cuddly kittens.

Yes, he is coming, says the LORD of hosts.
But who will endure the day of his coming?
And who can stand when he appears?
For he is like the refiner’s fire,
or like the fuller’s lye.
He will sit refining and purifying...

For some of us, the fearfulness of these verses is somewhat tempered by their familiarity from Handel’s Messiah, beginning with the dramatic basso recitative (“The Lord whom ye seek…”) , continuing with the alternately sad and frightening aria (“But who may abide…”), and ending with a fugal chorus (“And he shall purify…”).

We also may find it a bit strange that this fearful prophecy finds fulfillment in the arrival of a little baby: an event unnoticed except by a gifted few.

Of course, the prophecy is multilayered and so has been its fulfillment. It was not just the coming of the Lord to the Temple at the Presentation in which the prophecy was fulfilled: the prophecy finds fulfillment also in Christ’s suffering and death, which purifies us and enables us indeed to “offer due sacrifice to the Lord"; in his entry into the heavenly Sanctuary (cf Hebrews 9:24; 10:19; etc); and in his return at the end of time.

But there is another dimension that is worth mentioning here: on a very human level, it is not strange to think of a baby having a dramatically purifying effect.

Although there are tragic exceptions (we remember in our prayers that famous young mother hospitalized for psychiatric care this week), the birth of a child can have a powerfully purifying effect on the lives of the parents and others around them: patterns of irresponsibility may fall by the wayside, they may become focused on the good of another person and less on their own selfish desires, they may start thinking seriously about the Big Things of life, and they may even start going to Church again.

May the Lord Jesus Christ, the Child who came into the Temple and who would die for our sins, purify us with his grace, so that we may offer unto the Lord in our lives and in our prayers (and most especially in the Liturgy of the Eucharist) an offering of righteousness.