Mother, son: examined.
This feast is about motherhood and sonship, the prototype for that relationship. I never wanted to be a deacon; I was shoved forward when the bishop came visiting. And for years, serving on the altar along with a gaggle of thuggish fellow psalti was not too different from schoolyard bullying.
I would look back at my parents and wonder, "Why am I here? Why did you do this?" 17 years on, I love hymns and the church and liturgical service. But I look back at them to ask those questions about other things. In an incarnational vein, did Christ go through this as well?
For a son to be opposed or separated from his mother is one of intense pain. The unthinkable happens. Could the child who once fed off his mother, in complete dependence and in the warmth of the womb, grow up to not being able to stand looking at her face at the dinner table? It's all too common in unbelieving families and not far from believing, Egyptian Orthodox families. People grow out of the prototype set at the temple and end up on opposite poles of the relational spectrum. Mother can't relate to son. Son longs to reach out to mother so he can begin to explain his pain through wounds and tears. Mother pains to verbalize her sense of betrayal, disappointment, or frustration with him.
And then in private moments, at the Cross, in dark rooms, in disparate corners of loud bars, sons drown their sorrows, flesh out their sorrows in difficult, chesty tears. Sons grab their heads with their hands, shake their heads, trying to make sense of an existence where you are totally unknowable to your mother. When sons get presented at the temple, we're presented to Christ , where we're surrouneded by bishops, priests and influential deacons. Our parents are nowhere in sight.
People replace the turtledoves with political influences, the dedication to God with the dedication to social flattery, and fulfilling Mosaic law, God's law, with fulfilling societal expectations.
Equating the presentation of Christ to a deacon being presenting for ordination is not conclusive; it's merely an immediate image that can be painted. But the behaviours, attitudes, and outcomes can be found in all other parts of the church. How many servants are sent through servants' training against their will and training?
It's a sad day whenever a child of God is presented to the temple for any other reason than being dedicated to God's new tabernacle. The sadness depens when the two parents who built the familial bonds that brought about this supposedly joyous occasion are not present. The child is cut off from his parents for that moment and most probably indefinitely. Another servant is sent through the system.
I look to the prototype of Mary and Jesus at the temple. Mother and son are standing in love, fulfilling God's law. And all I can do is look because this prototype is difficult to implement with the fallenness that is easily unleashed in human relationships.
A prototype defines boundaries and dimensions. It doesn't specify the type or quality of materials. It doesn't account for all possible worst-case scenarios.
Our hope is that when we come to implement the prototypes, we can use the materials and resources available to us, given our environments and backgrounds. We look to the prototype of Mary and Jesus at the temple, the Theotokos and the Logos and we see the boundaries set: limitless love and selfless giving. This continued till the very last moment on the Cross when Mosaic Law was completed and maximized into the New Law.
At least now we know the boundaries. Should we choose to use marshmallows or the granite of love, God imparts grace to hold together whatever mother and son choose to ultimately use.
