NOTES for Luk 2:22-40
Joseph and Mary were truly devout people who kept the commandments, as can be seen from the way they observed the feasts and performed all the prescribed rites. At the appointed time they brought the infant Jesus to the Temple to “present Him to the Lord.” There they were met in turn by Simeon, a longtime guardian of Scripture who, despite the apparent absurdity of the prophecy about the Savior, continued to await its fulfillment. This faithfulness is rewarded by God: He shows them His salvation.
Is this not the same faithfulness that the Lord expects from us? The promise to make us children of light, which each person receives at baptism, begins over the years to seem like something unreal. Our baptismal garment becomes covered with the marks of the passions, so that it is already difficult to understand what it once looked like. Only faith that the promise God once gave us cannot be false enables us to experience anew our encounter with Him: faith in His love, which overcomes all things.