Quia misericordiam volui, et non sacrificium;
et scientiam Dei plus quam holocausta.

For I desire mercy, not sacrifice,
and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.

Hos 6:6; Mt 9:13 and Mt 12:7

The Holy Church, on this feast day dedicated to the Purification of the Virgin Mary and the Presentation of Our Lord in the Temple, offers for our meditation two examples of OBEDIENCE and SACRIFICE, of which the Divine Redeemer and His Most Holy Mother are models. Allow me, therefore, dear faithful, to explore with you these aspects of great importance for our sanctification.

The rites of purification for women after childbirth (Lev 12) and the presentation of the firstborn male (Ex 13:2; 12-15; Num 18:15-16) were prescribed by the Old Testament, which was still in force at that time of Our Lord’s Birth. These rites would cease with the Sacrifice of the Cross, giving way to the new and eternal Covenant, sealed in the Blood of the Immaculate Lamb. “Let the old document give way to the new rite.” Antiquum documentum novo cedat ritui.

But what purification could She possibly need, She whom the Most Holy Trinity deigned to preserve from original sin in view of the Incarnation of the Eternal Word of the Father? To what presentation would God Himself, made man, have to submit? None. Yet both Our Lord and Our Lady wished to show obedience to the precepts of the Mosaic Law, just as would happen on the day of the Lord’s Baptism in the waters of the Jordan. The Divine Master also on that day became a living example of obedience so that we, who truly need to be reborn in the purifying washing of the Sacred Font, might see in Him a model of humility. The same Sacrifice that He accomplished on Golgotha and mystically anticipated in the Last Supper follows the Jewish rituals, which were a figure of this. In the allegorical or typological interpretation of the Holy Scriptures that the Holy Fathers and the Magisterium propose to us, the Old Testament is an anticipation (τύπος) of what the New Testament accomplishes (ἀντίτυπον), so that the former pedagogically prepares (Gal 3:24) for the Advent of Emmanuel: Vetus in novo patet; novus in vetere latet (Saint Augustine) – The old is revealed in the new; the new is hidden in the old. This aspect is very important, because it shows us how the reality and historicity of the Incarnation and Redemption accomplished by Our Lord were already providentially prefigured in equally historical persons or events of the Old Covenant. In this we have confirmation of how the entire history of salvation revolves around Christ – omnia per ipsum facta sunt (Jn 1:3) – and how in Him – and only in Him – everything finds its proper place in the divine κόσμος (Eph 1:10).

We must therefore read the precepts of the Old Law as foreshadowing of what the New Law accomplishes in Christ. The obedience of the Lord and His Blessed Mother to those ritual precepts gives them a meaning they would otherwise lack, for those precepts are like a ray of light appearing from behind the clouds, while their acts of obedience represent the sunlight in all its dazzling splendor. Simeon and Anna, in turn, are figures of Adam and Eve, who recognize the restoration by the new Adam and the new Eve of the divine order broken by our First Parents.

Obedience is the means by which we can prepare ourselves for sacrifice as the via regia of our own holiness. The sequela Christi – following Christ – consists, in fact, in following the Lord on the Cross in order to then triumph with Him in the eternal glory of Heaven. This is the obedience of Our Lord and His Mother: obedience to a destiny of suffering that is not meaningless, but on the contrary constitutes that militia Christiana that unites us to the Passion of Christ, making us participants, as living members of the Mystical Body, in the redemptive sufferings of its Head and the co-redemptive sufferings of the Blessed Virgin. Obedience and sacrifice are therefore the signum cui contradicetur (Lk 2:34), a sign that constitutes the discrimen between the children of God and the children of the world. And to you also – says Simeon to the Mother of the Lord – a sword will pierce your soul, so that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed (Lk 2:36). To you also: with these words the old man recognizes the role of Co-redemptrix of the Regina Crucis, who, by virtue of her co-suffering also becomes the Mediatrix of all Graces, the treasurer of the merits of Our Lord Jesus Christ, and the administratress of Divine Mercy.

Nunc dimittis servum tuum, Domine. Now thou dost dismiss thy servant, O Lord. In the Canticle of Simeon – which the Church recites daily in the Office of Compline – we find that serene and trusting joy of one who, after a lifetime of waiting, sees the divine promise fulfilled that he would not see death before he had held the promised Messiah in his arms: Responsum acceperat a Spiritu Sancto, non visurum se mortem, nisi prius videret Christum Domini (Lk 2:26).

We embrace the Prophet Simeon’s faith in the word of the Lord, which is the word of truth. We too have been granted the grace of not seeing death without first knowing the Redeemer, without having been able to welcome Him into our hearts in the Sacrament of the Altar, without having embraced Him in the Eucharistic Sacrifice. But we too, who follow the precepts of the new and eternal Covenant, are asked to present ourselves in the temple; to offer ourselves, to immolate ourselves, to sacrifice ourselves. To allow our souls to be pierced by that sword that, through suffering, severs our ties with the world, with the desires of the flesh, with human respect, so that we may be conformed to Christ, the New Adam, and to Mary, the New Eve.

Ecce positus est hic in ruinam et in resurrectionem multorum in Israël (Lk 2:34). He is here for the fall and resurrection of many in Israel: a fall that is fulfilled in becoming blind to the Light for the revelation to the Gentiles, in not bending the knee to Him who represents the glory of His people Israel (Lk 2:32). A resurrection that crowns the living Faith, animated by the Charity of those who, like Simeon, have known how to await the salvation prepared before all peoples (Lk 2:31). For to all who have received this Light, has been given the power to become children of God, to those who believe in his name, who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God (Jn 1:12-13). Let us therefore make ourselves worthy of this inheritance: Dominus pars hereditatis meæ et calicis mei: tu es qui restitues hereditatem meam mihi (Ps 16:5). The Lord is my portion of inheritance and my cup: You are the one who restores my inheritance to me. And so may it be.

+ Carlo Maria Viganò, Archbishop

February 2, 2026
In Purificatione B.M.V.