Editor's Letter - 2nd issue
The Feast of the Presentation of Lord Christ into the Temple centers on the mother presenting the son to the temple, to be received in God’s fold.
A lot of side stories and background information is not available to us. Was she forced? Was she following a social convention without caring? Did she really care, know, and deeply understand her son and God’s laws to know the right time?
These are questions that circle in my mind. As much as this great forgotten feast is about presenting Christ to the temple, another milestone in his salvific journey, I focus on the mother-son dynamic. I can't help but ask, what kind of relationship did the Theotokos Mary and Christ have? What did she see in him that prompted this?
Some apocryphal writings provide insight but I’m not looking for wondrous miracles or anomalous sayings for a 12-year old. I'm looking at this with the analytical eyes of a behavioral psychologist; I want to deconstruct and reconstruct this feast in terms of relationship, affection, awareness.
I wonder if Christ looked at his mother and felt disappointment, hate, disconnection, those feelings motherhood dares not to imagine. Did he, like young deacons shoved forward to be ordained, feel like he shouldn't be there? Did he say to himself, "I don’t even care but whatever will shut her up."
We know from Scripture that was not the case at all. February’s issue of Efmevi focuses around the events of the feast and issues that become apparent.
Midiane
Editor, Efmevi.
Comments are not available for the editor's letters.
