Feast of the Presentation of the Lord
Mass at the Tomb of Blessed Miguel Pro
Parroquia de la Sagra Familia
Knights of Columbus Board Meeting, Mexico
February 2, 2023
Introduction
How skillfully the evangelist Luke captures the unfolding drama. Without fanfare, Joseph and Mary enter the Temple. Mary is holding the Child Jesus in her arms. After the ordeal of journeying to Bethlehem and her giving birth in a stable, Mary, with her spouse Joseph, have come to present their Son to the Lord. Without adverting to it, they fulfill Zephaniah’s prophecy, “Suddenly, there will come to the temple the Lord whom you seek.”
In the Temple, led there by the Spirit, was one who sought the Lord, a righteous and holy layman, named Simeon. He was part of the faithful remnant of Israel who looked to the Lord for deliverance. When he gazed at Jesus and held him in his arms, he gave God thanks and praise because he understood that his hopes were fulfilled – not merely his personal hopes but the hope of all Israel. With the customary rites, Jesus in his humanity had been dedicated to the Lord. Simeon, addressing Mary, foretells another consecration Jesus would undergo – a consecration, nay, a baptism in blood as he would offer his life to the Father for the salvation of the world. He would be “a sign of contradiction”, Simeon predicts, as he confides to Mary that her heart would be rent by “the sword of sorrow”. Thus would Jesus be “a light of revelation for the Gentiles and the glory of Israel.”
As we gaze on Jesus with the eyes of faith, let us share in the amazement of Mary and Joseph and the joy of Simeon. Let us give thanks for Jesus Christ, our Savior, the fulfillment of all hope: the hope planted in us at baptism and the hope of a suffering humanity.
A Way of Life Capable of Amazing the World
Pope Francis has chosen this beautiful feast day as the occasion to celebrate the World Day of Consecrated Life. Even as the Lord was consecrated in the Temple, so too the Church give thanks to those who consecrate their lives to Christ by the evangelical counsels, the vows, of chastity, poverty, and obedience. By adopting Christ’s own style of life and by making of their whole life a gift to the Lord and to the Church, they pursue “a transfigured way of life capable of amazing the world” (JP II). Not only do religious engage in an amazing array of apostolates, they are to bear witness to the presence of Christ in the world. They are to be bright lights shining in the darkness of a culture of death.
In the 16th century, one such consecrated religious stands out, St. Ignatius of Loyola, the founder of the Society of Jesus, a model of self-mastery, discernment, and zeal. Ignatius unleased a powerful new force in the life of the Church, a missionary impulse that reached to the ends of the earth. It was he who prayed, “Take, Lord, receive all my liberty and memory, my understanding & my whole will… give me only Thy love and Thy grace; with these I will be rich enough, and will have no more to desire…” That’s consecration!
Blessed Miguel Pro
Ignatius’ consecration to Christ in the 16th century inspired a young man born in Mexico in the late 19th century – a young man named Jose Ramon Miguel Augustin Pro. As he grew to manhood, the Church in his native land was under severe persecution. In 1914, as the grip of persecution tightened, he entered the Jesuits and began his lengthy preparation for the priesthood. When he could no longer do this in Mexico, because the Novitiate was attacked, he was sent Los Gatos in California, then to Granada in Spain for Philosophy. He did his Regency (teaching, apostolic work) in Nicaragua, and studied theology in Belgium where, in 1925, he was ordained to the priesthood. None of his family could attend, so after his ordination, he went to his room and laid out the photos of his family and blessed them. “How can I explain to you the sweet grace of the Holy Spirit that invades my poor miner’s soul with heavenly joys?” he asked.
His first assignment as a priest was in Belgium, where he ministered to miners, many of whom, at the time, were drawn to communism and anarchism. Miguel Pro was able to win them over to Christ, for he was witty and charismatic. In spite of hardship and illness, he was an irrepressibly cheerful person, truly radiating the joy of the Holy Spirit by whom he was wholly consecrated to Christ.
He returned to Mexico in 1926, just as the repressive government closed all houses of worship, and priests began to be hunted down as if they were criminals. That did not stop Father Miguel from celebrating Mass and providing the Sacraments to the many people who wanted them. His pastoral zeal and love caught the attention of the authorities, who falsely accused him of plotting to assassinate a general, Alvaro Obregon, at the time, the president-elect of Mexico. Though the charge was manifestly false, Father Miguel was imprisoned, and the next day he and his brother were shot to death by firing squad. Before his execution, he asked for a moment of prayer, and clutching his Rosary as the shots were fired, he exclaimed, “Viva, Cristo Rey!” Thereupon, Blessed Miguel Pro was consecrated again, this time by a baptism of blood, this time by reproducing the death of Christ. Thus, does he reign forever with Christ in the Kingdom of Heaven.
Conclusion
The death of Christ foretold by Simeon, witnessed and shared in by Mary, has been reproduced again and again through the centuries – by martyrs, consecrated women and men, holy priests, and lay men and women. The feast we celebrate, therefore, is not limited to the drama in the Temple but extends even to us, who, like Blessed Miguel, are part of the Knights of Columbus. Perhaps we are not called to undergo a consecration of blood, but we are called to give ourselves to the Lord, and to one another, and to the needy and the vulnerable … thus living out the consecration we received on the day of our Baptism, on the day we began to share in Christ’s Paschal Mystery.
By living the principles of the Order, may we too be presented before the Lord as a pleasing oblation, an everlasting sacrifice, a gift acceptable in his eyes. And may God bless us and keep us always in his love! Vivat Jesus!