The Presentation of Mary is based not on Scripture, but on the Protoevangelium of James, a document that is not accepted as revealed, written about AD 145. Some may object to having a non-canonical source for a liturgical celebration, but its heritage is ancient, going all the way back to AD 543 with the dedication of the Basilica of St. Mary the New under Emperor Justinian I in Jerusalem. It was introduced into the Latin Church in the 14th century. Bl. Pope Paul VI reaffirmed in his Apostolic Exhortation, Maria cultus, “For the Right Ordering and Development of Devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary,” that some feasts “apart from their apocryphal content, present lofty and exemplary values and carry on venerable traditions having their origin especially in the East” (para. 8).
This is true of the Presentation of Mary, which is about the tradition of how “Mary as a small child was presented to the Lord by her parents in the Temple.” This matters because it shows how Mary was dedicated to God from the very beginning of her life. This continues the chain of events in Mary’s life beginning with her Immaculate Conception, leading to the Annunciation and birth of Christ. Mary is the disciple above all others. She shows us how to live our lives by her selfless devotion to God.
We are called to be disciples. We are called to be holy. We are called to the Kingdom of God. We can best give ourselves over to Jesus by following Mary’s example. We were taught as children to love Jesus. We are the children of God and the children of Mary. Let us invoke Mary to pray for us “now, and at the hour of our death. Amen.”
It is rare when a pupil outshines the teacher, but that is the case with today’s saint. However, St. Albert the Great was the teacher and his pupil was St. Thomas Aquinas. St. Albert was a German Dominican. The Dominicans were great preachers and great scholars and St. Albert was among the greatest. He founded the University of Cologne in German, was made bishop of Regensburg, taught in universities, wrote prolifically (His collected works number thirty-eight volumes!), and had an encyclopedic knowledge on numerous topics, including the natural sciences. When he was canonized he was named the patron saint of natural scientists.
There is much fuss and commotion now-a-days about the supposed incompatibility of science and faith. Some say that science can explain everything. Some say that faith doesn’t need science. Both statements are wrong. The natural sciences are human efforts to discover the truths of the universe, which was made by God. Faith does not tell us the details of how the universe works, it tells us that God has a plan for us and that the created universe is a part of that plan. Science is a gift from God that helps us work out the amazing wonder of the universe. Physics, chemistry, biology, geology, botany, and more are awe-inspiring disciplines both in themselves and what they can tell us of the awe-inspiring creation of God!
St. Albert the Great knew the complementarity of science and faith. He wrote, “The aim of natural philosophy (science) is not simply to accept the statements of others, but to investigate the causes that are at work in nature.” He knew that the ultimate cause of nature was God. His great student, St. Thomas developed that in his understanding of God as the “uncaused cause” of all that is.
