Today’s liturgy represents and brings up to date a “mystery” of the life of Christ: in the Temple, the religious heart of the Jewish nation, in which animals were continually sacrificed to be offered to God, he makes his first entrance, humble and modest, He who, according to the prophecy of Malachi, must “sit as a refiner and purifier” (Mal 3:3), in particular those people consecrated to the worship and service of God. The Psalmist, foreseeing this coming, exclaims full of enthusiasm, addressing the Temple itself: “Lift up your heads, O gates! / and be lifted up, ancient doors! / that the King of glory may come in. / Who is the King of glory? / The Lord, strong and mighty, / the Lord, mighty in battle! / … The Lord of hosts, he is the King of glory!” (Ps 24:7-10). But the “king of glory” is now a tiny newborn, just forty days old, who is brought to the Temple to be offered to God, as prescribed by the law of Moses. Who is this newborn child in reality? The answer to this question, fundamental for the history of the world and of humanity, is given prophetically by the elderly Simeon who, holding the child in his arms, sees and senses God’s “salvation” in him, the “a light for revelation to the Gentiles”, the “glory” of the people of Israel, the “fall and rising of many in Israel”, the “sign that is spoken against”. All of this is that child who, despite being the “king of glory”, the “Lord of the Temple”, enters it for the first time, in silence, in concealment and in the fragility of human nature. (Saint John Paul II - Homily, 2 February 1981)