With these words from the psalm, the liturgy of today's feast greets Jesus, born in Bethlehem, as he crosses the threshold of the temple in Jerusalem for the first time. Forty days after his birth, Mary and Joseph take him to the temple, to fulfil the law of Moses: "Every first-born male shall be holy to the Lord" (Lk 2:23; cf. Ex 13:2, 11).

The evangelist Luke emphasises that Jesus' parents are faithful to the law of the Lord, which advised the presentation of the newborn and prescribed the purification of the mother. However, it is not on these rites that the word of God intends to draw our attention, but on the mystery of the temple that today welcomes the one whom the old Covenant promised and the prophets awaited.

For him the temple was destined. The day was to come when he would enter it as "the angel of the covenant" (cf. Ml 3:1) and reveal himself as "the light to enlighten the nations and the glory of the people (of God), Israel" (Lk 2:32).

2. Today's feast is like a great anticipation: it anticipates Easter. In the liturgical texts and signs, in fact, we glimpse, almost in a solemn messianic announcement, what is to be fulfilled at the end of Jesus' mission in the mystery of his Passover. All those present in the temple of Jerusalem find themselves to be almost unconscious witnesses of the foretaste of the Passover of the New Covenant, of an event that is now at hand in the mysterious Child, an event that will give new meaning to everything.

The doors of the sanctuary open to the wondrous king, who "is here for the ruin and resurrection of many in Israel, a sign of contradiction" (Lk 2:34).

At the moment, nothing reveals his kingship. That forty-day-old infant is a normal child, the son of poor parents. Those closest to him know that he was born in a stable near Bethlehem. They remember the heavenly songs and the visit of the shepherds, but how can they think, even those closest to them, even Mary and Joseph, that this child - according to the words of the Letter to the Hebrews - is destined to take care of Abraham's offspring, the only high priest before God to atone for the sins of the world (cf. Heb 2:16-17)?

In fact, the presentation of this child in the temple, as one of the first-born sons of the families of Israel, is precisely a sign of this; it is the announcement of all the experiences, sufferings and trials to which he himself will undergo in order to come to the aid of mankind, to those men whom life very often puts to the test.

It will be he, the merciful, unique and eternal Priest of God's new and unchanging Covenant with humanity, who will reveal divine mercy. He, the revealer of the Father, who "so loved the world" (Jn 3:16). He light, the light that illuminates every man, in the succession of the various stages of history.

But, again for this reason, in every age Christ becomes "a sign of contradiction" (Lk 2:34). Mary, who today, as a young mother, carries him in her arms, will become, in a singular way, a sharer in his sufferings: the Virgin's soul will be pierced by a sword, and her suffering together with the Redeemer will serve to bring truth into the hearts of men (cf. Lk 2:35).

3. The temple of Jerusalem thus becomes the theatre of the messianic event. After the night of Bethlehem, here is the first eloquent manifestation of the mystery of the divine Christmas. It is a revelation that comes as if from the depths of the Old Covenant.

For who is Simeon, whose words inspired by the Holy Spirit resound under the vault of the temple in Jerusalem? He is one of those who "waited for the comfort of Israel", whose expectation was filled with unwavering faith (cf. Lk 2:25). Simeon lived with the certainty that he would not die before he saw the Lord's Messiah: a certainty coming from the Holy Spirit (cf. Lk 2:26).

And who is Anna, daughter of Phanuel? An elderly widow, called by the Gospel "prophetess", who never left the temple and served God with fasting and prayers day and night (cf. Lk 2:36-37).

4. The characters, who take part in the event commemorated today, are all included in a great symbol: the symbol of the temple, the temple of Jerusalem, built by Solomon, whose pinnacles indicate the ways of prayer for every generation of Israel. The sanctuary is indeed the crowning point of the people's journey through the desert towards the Promised Land, and expresses a great expectation. The whole of today's liturgy speaks of this expectation.

The destiny of the temple in Jerusalem, in fact, does not end with representing the Old Covenant. Its true meaning from the beginning was the expectation of the Messiah: the temple, built by men for the glory of the true God, would have to give way to another temple, which God himself would build there, in Jerusalem.

Today, he comes to the temple who says he will fulfil its destiny and must 'rebuild' it. One day, while teaching in the temple, Jesus would say that that building built by human hands, already destroyed by invaders and rebuilt, would be destroyed again, but that destruction would mark the beginning of an indestructible temple. The disciples, after his resurrection, understood that he called his body a "temple" (cf. Jn 2:20-21).

5. Today, then, dear friends, we are experiencing a singular revelation of the mystery of the temple, which is one: Christ himself. The sanctuary, even this Basilica, must not so much serve worship as holiness. Everything to do with blessing, especially the dedication of sacred buildings, even in the New Covenant, expresses the holiness of God, who gives himself to man in Jesus and the Holy Spirit.

God's sanctifying work touches temples made by the hand of man, but its most appropriate space is man himself. The consecration of buildings, though architecturally magnificent, is a symbol of the sanctification that man draws from God through Christ. Through Christ, every person, man or woman, is called to become a living temple in the Holy Spirit: a temple in which God truly dwells. Of such a spiritual temple Jesus spoke in his conversation with the Samaritan woman, revealing who are the true worshippers of God, those who give glory to him "in spirit and in truth" (cf. Jn 4:23-24).

6. Dearly beloved, St Peter's Basilica is gladdened today by your presence, dear Brothers and Sisters, who, coming from so many different communities, represent the world of consecrated persons. It is a beautiful tradition that it is you who form the holy assembly in this solemn celebration of Christ "Light of the Gentiles". In your hands you carry burning candles, in your hearts you carry the light of Christ, spiritually united with all your consecrated brothers and sisters in every corner of the earth: you constitute the irreplaceable and priceless treasure of the Church.

The history of Christianity confirms the value of your religious vocation: especially linked to you, down through the centuries, is the spread of the saving power of the Gospel among peoples and nations, on the European continent and then in the New World, in Africa and the Far East.

We wish to remember this especially this year, during which the assembly of the Synod of Bishops dedicated to consecrated life in the Church will be held. We must remember it in order to give glory to the Lord and to pray that such an important vocation, together with the vocation to family life, will not be stifled in any way in our time, nor even in the now approaching third millennium.

7. Today's Eucharistic Celebration brings together consecrated persons working in Rome, but in mind and heart we join with the members of Orders, Religious Congregations and Secular Institutes, scattered throughout the world, those especially who bear a special witness to Christ, paying for it with enormous sacrifices, not excluding at times martyrdom. With special affection I think of the men and women Religious present in the regions of the former Yugoslavia and in the other territories of the world, victims of an absurd fratricidal violence.

In greeting you, I also greet the other representatives of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, the Cardinal Prefect, the Secretary and all the collaborators. This is your common feast.

May Christ the light of the world be glorified in you, dear Sisters and Brothers! May Christ, the sign of contradiction for this world, be glorified. In him man lives: in him everyone becomes the glory of God, as St Irenaeus teaches (cf. St Irenaeus, Adversus haereses, 4, 20, 7). You are the epiphany of this truth. That is why you are so loved in the Church and why you spread great hope in humanity. Today, in a special way, we beseech the Lord that the evangelical leaven of your vocation may reach more and more hearts of young men and women and impel them to consecrate themselves unreservedly to the service of the Kingdom.

I say this thinking also of the others present who have come for the Wednesday General Audience. Certainly, many of them know consecrated persons, they realise the price of this personal consecration in the Church, they owe so much to the nuns, to the religious brothers who work in clinics, in schools, in the different environments of each people of the world, across the whole earth. I would like to invite these guests at our general audience today, dedicated to religious life, to pray for all the consecrated persons of the world, to pray for vocations. Perhaps this prayer will awaken some vocations in the hearts of young people.

8. Together with Mary and Joseph we go today on a spiritual pilgrimage to the temple in Jerusalem, the city of the great meeting. And with the Liturgy we say: "Arise, ye ancient doors . . .". Those who belong to the lineage of Abraham's faith find there a common point of reference. Everyone wants it to become a significant centre of peace, so that - according to the prophetic word of Revelation - God may wipe away every tear from the eyes of men there (cf. Rev 21:4), and that wall, which has remained over the centuries as a remnant of Solomon's ancient temple, may cease to be the "wall of weeping", and become a place of peace and reconciliation for believers in the one true God.

We make a pilgrimage to that city today, in a special way, we who have drawn our whole life's inspiration from the mystery of Christ: a life unreservedly dedicated to the Kingdom of God. Our pilgrimage culminates in communion with the Body and Blood, which the eternal Son of God took for Himself by becoming man, in order to present Himself to the Father, in the flesh of His humanity, as a perfect spiritual sacrifice, and thus fulfil the Covenant God made with Abraham, our father in faith, and brought to perfection in Christ (cf. Rom 4:16).

The Bishop of Rome looks with love towards Jerusalem, from where his first Predecessor, Peter, left one day and came to Rome driven by the apostolic vocation. After him also the Apostle Paul.

At the end of the second millennium, the Successor of Peter bends his knees to those places sanctified by the presence of the living God. Wandering around the world, through cities, countries, continents, he remains in communion with the divine light that shone there, in the truly holy land two thousand years ago to enlighten the nations and peoples of the whole world to enlighten us, beloved.

[Pope John Paul II, homily 2 February 1994]