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Bishop's Homily for the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord

February 2, 2025

Homily of the Most Reverend Larry Silva, Bishop of Honolulu
[St. Elizabeth Church, Aiea (World Day of Prayer for Consecrated Life)]

Mary and Joseph could not have been the only ones presenting their 40-day-old son in the Temple around that time. In a culture that greatly valued children, there were probably many couples who went up to Jerusalem to present their first-born sons, as was prescribed by the law of Moses. Yet Simeon and Anna picked out this one child and knew he was different from all the rest they had seen presented there over their many years in the Temple.  We are told that it was the Holy Spirit who revealed to them that Jesus was the light of the nations and the long-expected Messiah.

These two holy people saw what others did not see, because they were attuned to the Holy Spirit through their constant prayer.  When Jesus appeared there, they were drawn to him like a light shining in the darkness.

How do we recognize Jesus, the risen One, today? As we go about our daily lives in all their routine and normalcy, how is it that we come here and, when bread and wine are changed by the power of the Holy Spirit, we see the Body and Blood of Christ? How is that when we see someone who is hungry, thirsty, in need of clothing, sick or in prison, most see some unfortunate person, but we see Christ? It is by the power of the Holy Spirit that the Word of God allows us to see what others cannot see.

Jesus came to open the eyes of the blind, and even on the day of his Presentation in the Temple, most of the people in the crowd only saw a couple presenting their newborn son. But Anna and Simeon saw the fulfillment of the prophecy of Malachi that “suddenly the Lord would come to this Temple.”

As we celebrate this World Day of Prayer for Consecrated Life, we honor and thank God for our sisters and brothers who have been given a special glimpse of the light of Christ, who have been so taken with the light of his love that they have dedicated their entire lives to follow him in poverty, chastity and obedience. They have seen what Anna and Simeon saw and even more! They have experienced the risen Christ and have dedicated themselves to becoming the candles, if you will, that would be consumed themselves so that Christ’s light could shine on others.

They have shone the light of Jesus on their students, whose eyes have been opened, not only to the wonders of the world that God created, but to the joys of worshiping the true and living God who reveals himself in Jesus. They have led others in reaching out to the poor and the outcast, the sick and the suffering, because the Holy Spirit has given them the light to see not just poor and wretched human beings, but Christ himself in disguise.  And, like Anna and Simeon, they shine the light of Christ so that others, too, may see him and serve him.

At this very moment, there are people living in darkness and despair. Many of those who lost their homes in the Los Angeles wildfires are overwhelmed with the darkness of despair. Those who recently lost loved ones in the airplane and helicopter collision last week in Washington, DC are in the darkness of grief and anger. Some of our own neighbors who have no place to call home but a car or a freeway underpass can be so overwhelmed with darkness that they anesthetize themselves with alcohol or drugs. Many of our youth are so confused and conflicted with all that is going on in the dysfunctions of their families or of our culture that they see nothing but the bleak darkness of death. But we are here in this Temple of the Lord not only to see and celebrate the light of Christ that is in our midst, but to become the candles who bear his light to those outside this temple, so that Jesus can truly be the light of all nations and the glory of all people. Like our consecrated sisters and brothers, who took seriously the light they received at Baptism, we celebrate the gift they are to us, so that we may see the light they bear in all they are and all they do and allow ourselves to be ablaze with that same light.

We began this liturgy by carrying lighted candles into the church, because it is here that the Holy Spirit works on our sight. But he does this so that we can be the lighted candles that carry the light of Christ out of this church to our families, our neighborhoods, schools, and places of work, so that all may walk in the brilliance, the hope and the love of Christ our Light.