Today is a double-header, both the feast day of the Presentation of Our Lord Jesus Christ in the Temple and also the feast of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary. In the East, it is the feast of the Meeting of Our Lord with Simeon, also an appropriate appellation, as the three events are portrayed within in the confines of our text (Luke 2: 22-40). Saint Luke is a gentile and often misstates Jewish matters. Today is a good example, as he has Jesus and someone else, either Joseph or Mary, about to be "purified" with him. Not so. Jesus will be redeemed, Mary will be purified, and Joseph is just along for the ride..
Every male child born in Israel had to be dedicated to God in memory of the deliverance of the Israelites in the Egyptian saga, and bought back from God by the family through sacrifice. The requirement was not, as Luke states, two birds. The Law required a yearling lamb and one bird, except that the poor, like Mary and Joseph, could substitute a second bird for a lamb. If the child was also a first-born like Jesus, the family had to deliver five shekels to the priest in the Temple, something Luke also doesn't seem to know. In any event, Jesus is redeemed.
Mary, as a recent birthgiver, had to be purified. After a waiting period of forty days, the woman underwent a water rite of purification and, only then, could touch holy things and be restored to the worshipping community. The practice, with modification, continued into the Church. The 1928 Prayer still contained the rite for "Churching of Women," the rite of purification after childbirth! In the current book, that rite has been replaced with "Thanksgiving for the Birth or Adoption of a Child."
Any knowledgeable Catholic Christian will know that Jesus did not need to be redeemed and his Blessed Mother did not need to be purified. But here we see obedience to the requirements ot the Law as a family value for observant Jews. Likewise, we today are called on to be obedient to God's promptings in our own lives today.
The key part of today's story is the encounter with Simeon. When Mary places Jesus into Simeon's arms, two different dispensations meet and the elderly Simeon is ready to die, having seen the one who is to enlighten gentiles and be a blessing to Jews. And Jesus' nature is further proclaimed by the old prophetess Anna. That reminds me that we Christians ought to be grateful, as Saint Paul says, that we have been grafted onto the Vine of Israel, becoming a new people in a new covenant of love, mediated by Jesus and open to all..
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