2 February 2027 · Syro-Malankara Rite
Open in the Daily Word appAlso: Latin Rite · Syro-Malabar Rite · മലയാളം
“Master, now you are dismissing your servant in peace, according to your word; for my eyes have seen your salvation.” Luke 2:29–30
Forty days after his birth, Mary and Joseph bring the Child to the Temple “to present him to the Lord”, as the Law required for every firstborn son, and they offer the sacrifice of the poor: “a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons” (Leviticus 12:8). The Lord of the Temple enters his own house, carried in his mother's arms. Malachi had promised: “the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple” (Malachi 3:1).
There an old man, Simeon, “righteous and devout, looking forward to the consolation of Israel”, takes the Child in his arms and praises God: “Master, now you are dismissing your servant in peace, according to your word; for my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel.” A whole life of waiting is fulfilled in one embrace.
Then Simeon says to Mary: “This child is destined for the falling and the rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be opposed… and a sword will pierce your own soul too.” Joy and sorrow meet at the Temple door. The Child presented today will offer himself on the Cross. Hebrews says: Christ “entered once for all into the Holy Place, not with the blood of goats and calves, but with his own blood, thus obtaining eternal redemption.”
Mayaltho comes just before the Great Fast. It teaches us to present our lives to God, as Mary and Joseph presented Jesus; to wait faithfully like Simeon and Anna; and to welcome Christ, the light of the nations, into our arms and our hearts.
Theme: “The Lord comes to his Temple.”
Forty days after his birth, Mary and Joseph bring Jesus to the Temple. There two elderly people, Simeon and Anna, recognise him. The Lord whom Israel sought has come to his house.
“If she cannot afford a sheep, she shall take two turtledoves or two pigeons, one for a burnt offering and the other for a sin offering.” Leviticus 12:8
“They offered a sacrifice according to what is stated in the law of the Lord, “a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons.”” Luke 2:24
Apply: Offer yourself, your family and your work at the altar today, however small it seems.
“The Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple.” Malachi 3:1
“Master, now you are dismissing your servant in peace, according to your word; for my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel.” Luke 2:29–32
Apply: Honour the elderly in your family and parish; listen to their faith.
“He will become a sanctuary, a stone one strikes against; for both houses of Israel he will become a rock one stumbles over.” Isaiah 8:14
“This child is destined for the falling and the rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be opposed so that the inner thoughts of many will be revealed—and a sword will pierce your own soul too.” Luke 2:34–35
Apply: Ask Mary for courage to remain faithful to Christ when it costs you.
The Light of the nations entered the Temple in the arms of his mother.
Let us receive him as Simeon did, and let our lives be an offering in his house.
Take-home resolution: Pray Simeon's song (Luke 2:29–32) each night before sleep this week.
Dear brothers and sisters, forty days after Yaldo, Mary and Joseph carry the Child to the Temple in Jerusalem. They come to present him to the Lord, as the Law of Moses required, and they offer two young pigeons, the offering of poor families. The Lord of the Temple enters his own house, carried in his mother's arms.
An old man is waiting there: Simeon, righteous and devout, who had been promised that he would not die before seeing the Messiah. He takes the Child in his arms and sings: “Now, Lord, you are letting your servant go in peace, for my eyes have seen your salvation.” A whole lifetime of prayer is rewarded in one moment. And the old prophetess Anna gives thanks and speaks of the Child to everyone.
But Simeon also says to Mary: “A sword will pierce your own soul too.” The Child presented today will one day offer himself on the Cross. Hebrews tells us that Christ entered the true Holy Place with his own blood, obtaining eternal redemption. The joy of Christmas already carries the shadow of the Cross.
On Sunday the Great Fast begins. Let us do what Mary and Joseph did: present ourselves to God, our families, our work, our whole life. Let us learn from Simeon and Anna to wait for the Lord faithfully. And every time we receive Holy Communion, let us say with Simeon: “My eyes have seen your salvation.” Amen.
Children, when Jesus was a tiny baby, Mary and Joseph took him to the big Temple to give him to God.
An old man called Simeon was there. He had waited all his life to see the Saviour. He held baby Jesus in his arms and said: “Now I am happy; I have seen God's salvation!”
When you receive Jesus or pray to him, you can be happy like Simeon. Let's say: “Jesus, you are my light!”
Lord God, your Son was presented in the Temple and received by Simeon and Anna. Accept the offering of our lives; let us wait for you with their faith and welcome you with their joy, and let your Christ be the light of our homes and of all nations. Amen.
Mayaltho, the Entrance of our Lord into the Temple, falls on the fortieth day from Yaldo, counting the feast itself. A poor young couple climb to Jerusalem to do what the Law asks, and with them the Lord enters his own house, carried in his mother's arms. “The Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple” (Malachi 3:1).
The lectionary is rich today. The Old Testament lessons give the law of offerings without blemish (Leviticus 22:17–25: “to be acceptable it must be perfect”, 22:21), the anointing of David at Hebron (2 Samuel 5:1–5), and the promise that “a shoot shall come out from the stump of Jesse” (Isaiah 11:1). In Acts, Paul stands before the governor Felix and confesses his hope in the resurrection (Acts 24:14–21). The Evening Gospel tells the whole scene in the Temple (Luke 2:22–35), and the Gospel of the Holy Qurbono takes up its opening verses (Luke 2:22–24).
Three readings are studied here. Leviticus gives the law that brought Mary and Joseph to the Temple. Hebrews shows the true sanctuary that the Child will one day enter. Luke, studied as one passage with the Evening Gospel, shows the meeting at the door. The key words of this feast are offering, entrance and light.
Setting.
Of the Old Testament lessons this one stands closest to the Gospel: it is the very law Luke has in mind. Leviticus 11–15 sets out what made a person ritually clean or unclean, that is, fit or not fit to come near the sanctuary. Chapter 12 is a short law for a mother after childbirth.
This is the language of worship, not of guilt. Israel treated the great mysteries of life and death, above all blood, as things that set a person apart for a time. The first blessing of Scripture is “Be fruitful and multiply” (Genesis 1:28), and nothing in this chapter calls birth a sin.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“Her time of blood purification shall be thirty-three days; she shall not touch any holy thing, or come into the sanctuary, until the days of her purification are completed.” (12:4)
The aim of the waiting is the return. The law looks forward to the day the mother comes back to the sanctuary and stands before God again.
“If she cannot afford a sheep, she shall take two turtledoves or two pigeons,” (12:8)
A small verse of great mercy. God's law makes room for the poor, and the poor woman's offering is received as fully as a rich woman's. Luke will quote exactly this provision for Mary. She did not bring a lamb.
How the Church reads it.
St Paul writes that God sent his Son “born of a woman, born under the law” (Galatians 4:4). Mary and Joseph keep this law to the letter. The Second Vatican Council notes that when Mary presented her Son in the Temple she made “the offering of the poor” (Lumen Gentium 57). Preachers have long remarked that the mother who brought two birds was carrying the Lamb in her arms.
Setting.
Our lectionary reads this as an “Epistle of St Paul”, following the old custom of receiving Hebrews with his letters, though the letter itself does not name its author. It calls itself a “word of exhortation” (13:22). It seems to be a sermon for Christians, perhaps of Jewish background, who had grown tired.
Just before this passage the writer has described the earthly tent and the Day of Atonement, when the high priest entered the inner room once a year with blood (9:1–10; Leviticus 16). Today's verses set Christ's entry beside it. On this feast the Child enters the Temple of stone, carried by others. Hebrews looks ahead to the day he will enter the true sanctuary by his own act.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“But when Christ came as a high priest of the good things that have come,” (9:11)
A note on the text. Some of the oldest manuscripts read “the good things that have come”, which the NRSV follows. Many others, and the Latin Vulgate, read “the good things to come”, which the Malayalam POC follows. Both are true to the faith: in Christ the good things have come, and their fullness is still ahead.
“he entered once for all into the Holy Place, not with the blood of goats and calves, but with his own blood, thus obtaining eternal redemption.” (9:12)
The Child on whose behalf two birds are offered today is himself the offering to come. The parents' gift at the Temple door points to the gift he will make when he has grown.
“how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to worship the living God!” (9:14)
Ritual purity touched the body, as this verse's neighbour says (v. 13). Christ reaches the conscience. The goal is not only that we be clean, but that we may worship.
How the Church reads it.
The Catechism teaches that Christ entered heaven itself as our high priest (CCC 662), and that the Eucharist makes present the one sacrifice of the Cross and does not add another (CCC 1366–1367). St John Chrysostom, preaching on Hebrews, says that we do not offer another sacrifice each day but always the same one (in substance). So each Holy Qurbono is an entrance: with Christ the Church goes in where he has gone.
Setting.
Luke opens and closes his infancy story in the Temple (1:5–23; 2:41–51), and he shows a family obedient to the Law; he mentions the Law five times in this chapter (2:22, 23, 24, 27, 39). He brings two laws together. A mother was to be purified (Leviticus 12). A firstborn son belonged to the Lord (Exodus 13:2) and was to be redeemed (Numbers 18:15–16). Luke mentions no payment. Instead he says that they came “to present him to the Lord”, which recalls Hannah bringing Samuel to the sanctuary (1 Samuel 1:24–28).
The Gospel of the day, vv. 22–24, gives the family's obedience; the Evening Gospel continues with the meeting. The people who meet here are not the powerful. Simeon holds no office that Luke mentions. He is known only for his waiting.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“they brought him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord” (2:22)
The child is already the Lord's, and they bring him there in obedience. Every Christian parent at a font does something similar: a child who belongs to God is given back to God.
“and they offered a sacrifice according to what is stated in the law of the Lord, “a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons.”” (2:24)
This is the provision of Leviticus 12:8 for those who could not afford a lamb. Luke, without any comment, shows us the economic state of the Holy Family.
““Master, now you are dismissing your servant in peace, according to your word;” (2:29)
The long wait ends in peace, because the promise has been kept. The song weaves together phrases from the second part of Isaiah, which spoke to the exiles.
“for my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel.”” (2:30–32)
Simeon is looking at a baby, and he speaks of all the peoples. Isaiah's servant is “a light to the nations” (Isaiah 49:6). The two halves of the verse belong together: the light for the Gentiles does not take away the glory of Israel.
“and a sword will pierce your own soul too.”” (2:35)
The first shadow of the Cross in Luke falls on the mother. Joy and sorrow stand at the same door of the Temple.
How the Church reads it.
The Catechism says the Presentation shows Jesus to be the firstborn Son who belongs to the Lord. In Simeon and Anna all Israel comes to meet its Saviour, and the sword foretold for Mary announces Christ's one offering on the Cross (CCC 529). Jesus was presented in the Temple forty days after his birth, and he always kept a deep respect for it (CCC 583). The feast was already kept solemnly in Jerusalem in the fourth century, as the pilgrim Egeria records. St Sophronius of Jerusalem invites all the faithful to go out with lights to meet the Lord and to embrace him as Simeon did (in substance).
Did Mary need to be purified?
No. The Church believes that Mary was preserved from all sin (CCC 411, 493), and that Christ's birth did not diminish her virginal integrity but sanctified it (CCC 499). Ritual uncleanness in any case was not a sin. She kept the law as her Son did, for he too was “born under the law” (Galatians 4:4). A small detail of the text: the Greek of Luke 2:22 says “their purification”, while the Latin Vulgate says “her purification”. Scholars explain this in different ways. Luke may be thinking of the whole family going up together.
Why did the law set a longer time after the birth of a daughter?
Leviticus does not say. Jewish and Christian interpreters have offered various reasons, and none is certain. We should not read a lower dignity into it: the same offering is asked for a son or a daughter (12:6), and Scripture says from its first page that man and woman alike are made in the image of God (Genesis 1:27; CCC 369).
What is the sword that pierces Mary's soul?
Some early writers, Origen among them, thought of a moment of doubt at the Cross. The settled reading of the Church is sorrow: Mary stands by the Cross and shares in her Son's suffering (John 19:25–27). The Catechism reads Simeon's word as announcing Christ's perfect offering on the Cross (CCC 529), and the Council speaks of her uniting herself with his sacrifice (Lumen Gentium 58).
The Syriac name Mayaltho means entrance, and the feast looks to the Lord himself: he comes in, and his people go out to meet him. St Ephrem, in his Homily on our Lord, calls Simeon a priest and sees a surprising exchange: Simeon thought he was presenting the child to God, while it was the child who was presenting Simeon to his Lord (in substance). Mayaltho stands at the threshold of the Great Fast. Before we set out on the long road to Qyomtho, we are shown where the road ends, in the arms of a God who keeps his word. In the Holy Qurbono we too receive him, and we may go in peace.