Reflection on the Presentation of Our Lord given at the FNE Timber Wolves Winter Camp in New Jersey.
“For mine eyes have seen Thy salvation”. Sensitive to the Holy Spirit, St Simeon recognised the Lord: he saw God’s salvation in this ordinary-looking baby, in this poor Holy Family who could only afford two doves. For, though old, Simeon remained young at heart and his spiritual sight was acute and attuned to the Lord as the young are wont to be. Thus he could see the light: Christ is that light; he is God’s salvation.
As I came up on the train I watched the sunrise – not something I am able to do very often as I tend to be in the chapel at that time. And the beauty of the rising sun took my breath away. But I looked around me at my fellow travellers and they were immersed in their smart phones, lost in their own worlds and cares, and I wondered how they could be immune to this natural beauty. Perhaps it all seemed rather old to them; they’d become used to it and so, immune to its beauty. But for me, who’d never seen the sun rise over a frozen river before or seen mist rising over snowy fields, it was something new and beautiful and amazing. I felt like a child before these natural wonders, and I saw God’s work with the young eyes of a child.
As Scouts or Explorers we learn to see God’s beauty – the wonder of his creation – in the world (6th Law). All creation tells of God’s goodness, his beauty, his love. So, let us be sensitive to this beauty. As we come away from our usual places and our cities and busy lives and out into the wilderness, we come with young eyes in order to see again God’s work, God’s blessings, God’s salvation. We come in order to see God, and so to guide others to seek and find him.
One sadness we find as we grow up is that we lose our sense of wonder. So, children have a sense of wonder and awe; they like to ask questions. And this is right and good. For these questions are signs of the fundamental human quest for Truth and therefore they tell of the human heart’s longing for God. This too is what it means to be a Scout or Explorer: it means we seek Truth. And in contemplating the Truth we see what Man longs to see: salvation, we see the light as Simeon did. But to do this he must remain young, open to the wonder of creation.
As Catholics we need this youthful wonder and openness to God whenever we come to the Eucharist. For only those with child-like faith can believe and adore the Lord in our midst. For those without faith, whose eyes have grown old, who have taken things for granted and who are somehow immune to the beauty of God’s works, the Mass is just a ritual – often imperfectly and stutteringly done –and this is just a wafer bread and sweet wine. It is all rather ordinary and poor. But to those with faith, who are attuned to the Lord and his ways, and who are open to the prompting of the Holy Spirit, as St Simeon was, we see the Lord and his salvation. We can truly say at every Mass: “mine eyes have seen Thy salvation, Lord”.
And as we see the light of the world here in the Holy Eucharist so we, Explorers and Timber Wolves, Scouts and Wolf Cubs, must become a light in the world too. We’re called to shine a light in the darkness, in saddened lives, in lost souls; called to lead others to the Light; called to help others to see the beauty in creation and to become sensitive to God’s grace at work in the world. For he is at work to save us, and he is present in what looks so ordinary: in a poor family, a mere baby, a Wolf Cub or Timber Wolf boy, in a Scout or Explorer. And, above all, uniquely present in ordinary-looking Bread and Wine, now changed at the words of consecration into the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Christ, the “Light to enlighten the Nations”.
