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Melto D’Moronoyo: The entrance of our Lord to the Temple

Icon of the Entrance of the Lord to the Temple written by Fr Abdo Badwi. Photo: Supplied.

“Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord? And who shall stand in his holy place?” (Psalm 24:3)

The clean, the pure, the honest, and the sincere, the psalmist says. These people will certainly reap blessing and vindication, yet there is another much anticipated one who is to ascend the hill of the Lord (ie. temple mount) and stand in his holy place:

“Lift up your heads, O gates! and be lifted up, O ancient doors! that the King of glory may come in. Who is this King of glory? The Lord of hosts, he is the King of glory” (Psalm 24:9-10).

We see here that the Lord of hosts himself is the long-awaited one who is to ascend and “come in” the doors of the elevated city Jerusalem and the gates of its temple.

In the Syriac Maronite tradition, the feast commonly known as the “Presentation of Our Lord to the Temple” is called the ma’altho d’moran, literally meaning the “Ascent of the Lord’ or the ‘Entrance of the Lord.”

The dual meaning of Christ’s ma’altho fittingly points to this event as being a clear fulfilment of Psalm 24. It is the divine infant, Jesus, who in the arms of Mary and Joseph ascends the holy mountain of Jerusalem and enters its temple as the Lord of hosts and King of glory!

But what is so important about the Lord’s ascent and entry to the temple? After all, isn’t the temple already meant to be God’s dwelling place?

The fact of the matter is that until this point, the visible sign of God’s glorious presence—the glory cloud—had long departed from the temple (Ezekiel 10:18). The original temple, in fact, was destroyed shortly after the departure of God’s glory.

After the Babylonian exile, the temple was rebuilt, but the Lord’s glory cloud did not return as in former times. And so, God’s people were long anticipating the Lord’s return.

The prophets, however, prophesied a return of the divine presence that would exceed Israel’s longings.

In Ezekiel 43:1-5, the prophet beholds a vision where, at some future point, the glory of the Lord was to enter and fill the temple:

“As the glory of the Lord entered the temple by the gate facing east, the spirit lifted me up, and brought me into the inner court; and the glory of the Lord filled the temple” (Ezekiel 43:4).

Likewise, after the return from Babylonian exile, Malachi prophesied in a similar vein, saying that, in the future, before the day of judgement, the Lord himself was to enter the temple:

“…the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple. The messenger of the covenant in whom you delight – indeed, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts” (Malachi 3:1).

This deep yearning of God’s people for the return of the divine presence is the backdrop of the feast of the Entrance/Ascent of the Lord. In fact, the ma’altho d’moran is the event that simultaneously realises and transcends Israel’s hope and expectation.

Christ’s presence in the temple marks the moment when, after centuries, the Lord of Hosts re-enters his man-made abode. But in the infant Jesus, the Lord’s glory—the glory of the only—begotten Son—returns to God’s own dwelling place, in the vulnerability of a baby needing to be carried, and in the humble poverty of parents who could only afford a poor man’s sacrifice.

What a paradox! The child whose humanity is itself the perfect enclosure of God (the Temple par excellence), ascends to the temple in act of condescension, as a humble, poor child.

Why? So, guided by his enlightening light and example, we may emulate the Lord’s vulnerability, detachment, and humility, and so ascend with him to the spiritual heights of communion in his glorious presence.

This ascent to communion is beautifully epitomised in the celebration of the Holy Qurbono.

At the commencement of the liturgy, the priest stands with contrition at the foot of the altar chanting, “lbai-tokh a-lo-ho ‘eh-let,” meaning “I have entered your house, O God,” all while begging for forgiveness. The term translated as “entered” (‘eh-let) derives from the very root term, ‘alā, from which ma’altho derives. It too can be rendered “to go up,” or “to ascend.”

This ascent is not merely for the priest. Through the priest, we too are invited to humbly enter God’s dwelling place and to ascend into his holy presence.

Only now, we ascend from the earthly realm to enter and receive his true substantial presence, from which we go forth as sharers in his glory—as walking temples ourselves!

It is thus in our ascent from the earthly altar to the heavenly sanctuary where, like Simeon, we also behold our salvation in the Lord’s glorious presence, where our deepest hope finds fulfilment!

Dominic Altakchy is a seminarian of the Maronite Eparchy of Australia, New Zealand and Oceania.

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