“We celebrate the feast of the presentation of Jesus. As an infant he was brought to the temple and presented to the Lord offering to the Lord his whole life and Mary and Joseph throughout their lives offered themselves to God, to His will to whatever he wanted of them and now they presented their son, Jesus Christ. His offering will be fulfilled of course on Calvary, but this whole thing started back at the time of the Exodus when the children of Israel were spared the temple from the Angel of death by smearing the blood of the sacrificed lamb on their doorpost. The blood of the lamb saved them from death a harbinger of Jesus who’s blood as the lamb of God saves us from death. So it was after that then that every first born male was consecrated to the Lord because the first born male was saved that night from death and Jesus then as the first born male of the children, he is consecrated to God and must be bought back, redeemed and so they offer a sacrifice of turtle doves which was the offering of the poor offered then to almighty God to bring him back to their home. Now you and I are also called to offer ourselves to God, but we are the offering today offering our lives offering our works offering our thoughts, our attitudes to God to the service of his Kingdom to His will that is our calling today and we have so many many opportunities in this parish to offer ourselves and to be of service to almighty God and certainly we see the young people here today and their role of service, but all of us as adults we are called also to serve to give of our lives to almighty God and in this parish there are so many opportunities just look in the bulletin, there’s something for everyone something for everyone in order to give praise and glory to God in service of his people and what an honor that is! Think of it. We are the body of Christ and we bring Christ into the world by our actions, by our attitudes and our service and so we are honored to do that and we encounter Jesus Christ. Every time we help someone every time we feed the poor everytime we touch the sick and bring them some cheer every time we reach out to those who are hurting those who are lonely those who are bereaved we see Jesus Christ. He said whatever you do to the least of my brothers and sisters you do unto me. What an honor it is for us to do this.
I have a story that goes back to World War II. Just after the Allied forces had invaded Normandy an Italian went into this little French town and they found this Church that had been bombed out. It was just an empty shell, but they bivouacked there that night and a couple soldiers explored the church and they found a stature of the sacred heart of Jesus, a beautiful statue, but the bombing had left it into 8 pieces and so they decided they were going to put the statue together. They found some glue that was used for the repair of the pews and they glued the pieces back together and put the statue on its stand. The only problem was they couldn’t find the hands of the statue. They must have been pulverized or been blown far away, but they could not find the hands and so one of the soldiers took a piece of paper and wrote on it, ‘I have no other hands but yours.’ And that is the truth my friends. Jesus needs you and me to teach to heal to feed to help and he relies upon us because he has no other hands but yours and mine.
I have a little prayer that I entitled, No Other Hands.
Jesus works through you and me
As once the multitude he fed
He feeds others through our care
Through us he multiplies the bread
Jesus needs your hands and mine
As once he healed the lame
He touches wounds again today
When we touch other’s pain
Jesus’ truth and light still shine
In your truth and your strong word
Others hear through you his truth
As from his mouth once others heard
So give yourself to Jesus’ work
Without your love the world grows worse
Feed and heal and teach for him
He has no other hands but yours”