Dear brothers and sisters, today, on this Feast of the Presentation of the Lord, the Gospel recounts how Simeon and Anna recognized and proclaimed Jesus as the Messiah in the Temple (cf. Lk 2:22-40). What unfolds before us is a meeting between two movements of love: that of God, who comes to save his people, and that of humanity, which awaits his coming with vigilant faith.

On the part of God, the fact that Jesus is presented as the son of a poor family within the grand setting of Jerusalem shows us how he offers himself to us with full respect for our freedom, fully sharing in our poverty. There is nothing coercive in his actions; there is only the disarming strength of his unarmed generosity. On the other hand, the expectation of humanity — specifically that of the people of Israel — finds full expression in two elderly people: Simeon and Anna. This moment represents the climax of a long history of salvation that stretches from the Garden of Eden to the courtyards of the Temple — a history marked by light and shadow, failure and renewal, yet always driven by a single, vital desire: to restore full communion between the Creator and his creatures. And so, just steps from the “Holy of Holies,” the Fountain of Light offers himself as a lamp to the world, and the Infinite gives himself to the finite in a way so humble that it almost passes unnoticed.

Today we celebrate the 30^th World Day of Consecrated Life with this scene in mind, recognizing it as an image of the mission of religious men and women in the Church and in the world. As Pope Francis exhorted, “‘Wake up the world,’ since the distinctive sign of consecrated life is prophecy” (Apostolic Letter to all Consecrated People, 21 November 2014, II, 2). Dear brothers and sisters, the Church asks you to be prophets — messengers who announce the presence of the Lord and prepare the way for him. Borrowing expressions from the prophet Malachi, whom we heard in the first reading, you are invited to become, through the generous “emptying” of yourselves for the Lord, braziers for the Refiner’s fire and vessels for the Fuller’s soap (cf. Mal 3:1-3). Through this offering, Christ — the one eternal messenger of the covenant, who remains present among humanity today — can melt and purify hearts with his love, grace and mercy. You are called to this mission above all through the sacrificial offering of your lives, rooted in prayer and in a readiness to be consumed by charity (cf. Dogmatic Constitution on the Church Lumen Gentium, 44).

Your founders and foundresses, docile to the action of the Holy Spirit, offer you wonderful models of how to fulfil this mandate faithfully and effectively.  Living in constant tension between earth and heaven, they allowed themselves to be guided with faith and courage. Setting out from the Eucharistic table, some were led to the silence of the cloister, others to the demands of the apostolate; some to the classrooms of schools, others to the destitution of the streets or the toil of the missions. This same faith moved them to return, time and again, humbly and wisely, to the foot of the Cross and to the Tabernacle, where they offered everything and discovered in God both the source and the goal of all their actions. Through the power of grace, they also embarked on perilous undertakings. They became a prayerful presence in hostile or indifferent environments; a generous hand and a friendly shoulder amid degradation and abandonment; and witnesses of peace and reconciliation in situations marked by violence and hatred. They were ready to bear the consequences of going against the current, becoming, in Christ, a “sign of contradiction” (Lk 2:34), sometimes even to the point of martyrdom.

Pope Benedict XVI wrote that “the interpretation of sacred Scripture would remain incomplete were it not to include listening to those who have truly lived the word of God” (Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation Verbum Domini, 48).  Today, we honor our brothers and sisters who have gone before us as protagonists of this “prophetic tradition, wherein the word of God sets the prophet’s very life at its service” (ibid., 49).  We do so above all by carrying forward their legacy.

Even today, through your profession of the evangelical counsels and the many works of charity you carry out, you are called to bear witness to God’s saving presence in history for all peoples (cf. Lk 2:30-31), even within a society in which false and reductive understandings of the human person increasingly widen the gap between faith and life. You are called to testify that the young, the elderly, the poor, the sick and the imprisoned hold a sacred place above all else on God’s altar and in his heart. At the same time, each of them is an inviolable sanctuary of God’s presence, before whom we must bend our knee, in order to encounter him, adore him and give him glory.

Evidence of this can be seen in the many “outposts of the Gospel” that your communities have established in a wide variety of challenging contexts, even in the midst of conflict. These communities do not abandon their people, nor do they flee; they remain, often stripped of all security, as a living reminder — more eloquent than words — of the inviolable sacredness of life in its most vulnerable conditions. Even where weapons roar and arrogance, self-interest and violence seem to prevail, their presence proclaims the words of Jesus: “Take care that you do not despise one of these little ones, for… in heaven their angels continually see the face of my Father” (Mt 18:10).

In this light, I would like to reflect on the prayer of the elderly Simeon, which we recite every day: “Now, Lord, you let your servant go in peace; your word has been fulfilled: my own eyes have seen your salvation” (Lk 2:29-30).  Consecrated life, in its serene detachment from all that is passing, reveals the inseparable bond between authentic care for earthly realities and a hope filled with love for what is eternal — those goods already chosen in this life as the final and definitive end, and thus capable of giving meaning to all else. Simeon recognized salvation in Jesus and stood free before both life and death. As a “righteous and devout” (Lk 2:25) man, together with Anna, who “never left the temple” (v. 37), he kept his gaze fixed on the promise of the world to come.

The Second Vatican Council reminds us that “the Church… will receive its perfection only in the glory of heaven… At that time, together with the human race, the universe itself… will be perfectly established in Christ” (Lumen Gentium, 48).  This prophetic vision concerns you as well: men and women firmly rooted in the realities of the present, yet “always attentive to the things that are above” (Roman Missal, Collect for the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary). Christ died and rose in order to “free those who all their lives were held in slavery by the fear of death” (Heb 2:15). Through your commitment to follow him more closely — sharing in his self-emptying and in his life in the Spirit (cf. Decree on the Appropriate Renewal of the Religious Life Perfectae Caritatis, 5) — you can show the world the way to overcome conflict, sowing fraternity through the freedom of those who love and forgive without measure.

Dear consecrated men and women, today the Church gives thanks to the Lord and to you for your presence. She encourages you to be leaven of peace and signs of hope wherever Providence may lead you. As we renew the offering of our lives to God upon the altar, we entrust your work to the intercession of Mary Most Holy, together with all your holy founders and foundresses.