By Clement Harrold

January 30, 2026

February 2nd marks the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord and the traditional end of the Christmas season. Our account of the Presentation comes from St. Luke’s Gospel, and it’s a scene that many of us are familiar with from the joyful mysteries of the rosary.

Yet for some of us, the Presentation is not an easy scene to pray with. Sure, it’s nice to see Simeon and Anna interacting with the Holy Family, and there’s that curious line about a sword that will one day pierce Mary’s heart.

But what is the deeper meaning of this passage? What is it supposed to teach us, exactly? It turns out the answer is: quite a lot! Here we’ll focus on three important spiritual lessons.

First Lesson: Preparing for a Peaceful Death

Catholics who pray night prayer, also known as compline, are accustomed to reciting the canticle of Simeon, which is known by its Latin title Nunc dimittis (“Now you dismiss”). The Church gives us this canticle every day before bed because of the connection between night prayer and preparing for death. Every time we go to sleep, we are reminded of our mortality and of our hope in the life to come.

Simeon’s beautiful words reassure us that we should not be overly afraid in the face of death. We are told that this holy man had been assured by the Holy Spirit that “he should not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Christ” (Luke 2:26). And when he finally encountered the Christ Child whom he had awaited for so many years, Simeon rejoiced in the knowledge that his earthly pilgrimage was drawing to a close: “Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word” (Luke 2:29).

The Church Father Origen offered a beautiful reflection on how Simeon’s prayer is applicable to our own lives:

Hence he also says to him, “Now you dismiss your servant, Lord, in peace. For, as long as I did not hold Christ, as long as my arms did not enfold him, I was imprisoned and unable to escape from my bonds.” This is true not only of Simeon but of the whole human race. Anyone who departs from this world, anyone who is released from prison and the house of those in chains, to go forth and reign, should take Jesus in his hands. He should enfold him with his arms and fully grasp him in his bosom. Then he will be able to go in joy where he longs to go. (Homilies on the Gospel of Luke, 15.1-3)
 

Second Lesson: Holy Waiting

In more ways than one, the Presentation serves as a kind of paean to the theological virtue of hope. Mary and Joseph have hope that their humble observance of the law will contribute to the salvation of God’s people.

Simeon, who was for so many years “looking for the consolation of Israel” (Luke 2:25), has hope that God remains faithful to His promises. Anna has hope that her waiting is not in vain; and when her hope is realized she is quick to share her joy with “all who were looking for the redemption of Jerusalem” (Luke 2:38).

Even the earlier hopes of Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist, reach a certain climax in this episode. As Fr. Pablo Gadenz shows in his commentary, Luke depicts the Presentation as taking place roughly seventy weeks after the angel Gabriel first appeared to Zechariah with “good news” (Luke 1:19) about the coming Messiah. This is the same Gabriel whom readers of the book of Daniel will recognize as the one who prophesied that God would one day “anoint a most holy place” (Dan 9:24) after a period of seventy weeks.

Throughout the Second Temple period, Israel clung to the hope that God would one day return to dwell among His people: “the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple” (Mal 3:1). Now, with the coming of the Christ Child—“a Savior, who is Christ the Lord” (Luke 2:11)—those hopes are definitively fulfilled.

The Presentation is thus a dramatic reminder that, even after many centuries, God has not forgotten His beloved Israel. In this scene, Israel is represented by Anna, the 84-year-old prophetess, as Fr. Gadenz explains:

[I]f Mary represents Israel as virgin, Anna represents Israel primarily as widow (“eighty-four” equals twelve times seven—i.e., the number of Israel’s tribes times the number of perfection). Isaiah’s prophecy is being fulfilled: “The reproach of your widowhood no longer remember. / For your husband is your Maker; / the LORD of hosts is his name, / Your redeemer, the Holy One of Israel” (Isa 54:4–5; see 62:4–5, 12). Isaiah is portraying the Lord God as Israel’s bridegroom redeemer—that is, the kinsman who redeems a childless widow by marrying her (see Ruth 4:5–6, 14). Anna speaks about Jesus to those longing for the redemption of Jerusalem. Jesus is this awaited redeemer of the people (see Luke 1:68), and he refers to himself later as the “bridegroom” (5:34). (p. 72)

This provides encouragement to us during those seasons of life when we are called to wait upon the Lord. Our God is intimately aware of all the things that bind, perplex, and sadden us; and He sends us His Son to deliver us from those burdens: “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light” (Isaiah 9:2).
 

Third Lesson: Glory Through Suffering

A third spiritual lesson from the Presentation in the Temple can be summed up in St. Paul’s pregnant line: “and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him” (Rom 8:17).

The Christ Child whom Simeon holds in his arms is the glory not only of Old Covenant Israel, but also of the new Israel, which is the Church. And yet, Simeon, inspired by the Holy Spirit, warns Israel—both old and new—that sharing her head’s suffering is a prerequisite for enjoying His glory. As Simeon explains to Mary, who is both the mother and model of the Church:

Behold, this child is set for the fall and rising of many in Israel,
and for a sign that is spoken against
(and a sword will pierce through your own soul also),
that thoughts out of many hearts may be revealed. (Luke 2:34-35)

St. John Damascene provides a commentary on this passage which builds on the traditional view that Our Lady did not experience labor pains:

However, this blessed one, who had been found worthy of gifts surpassing nature, did at the time of the passion suffer the pangs which she had escaped at childbirth. When she saw him put to death as a criminal—the man she knew to be God when she gave birth to him—her heart was torn from maternal compassion and she was rent by her thoughts as by a sword. This is the meaning of “and a sword will pierce through your own soul.” But her grief gave way to the joy of the resurrection, the resurrection which proclaimed him to be God who had died in the flesh. (Orthodox Faith, 4.14)

Simeon’s language of a sword piercing the soul foreshadows the way in which Mary, on Calvary, becomes like the mother whom Jesus describes in John’s Gospel: “When a woman is in travail she has sorrow, because her hour has come; but when she is delivered of the child, she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a child is born into the world” (John 16:21).

While these words apply to Our Lady in a particular and preeminent way, they are also intended for every Christian. Every Christian is called to unite his or her sufferings to the sufferings of Christ on the Cross. For in every age, it is the Cross—the archetypal “sign that is spoken against”—that offers both light to the nations and glory to God’s people Israel. 

 

Further Reading

The Deeper Meaning of the Presentation in the Temple