Gospel (Lk 19,41-44) - At that time, when Jesus was near Jerusalem, at the sight of the city he wept over it, saying: «If only you too had understood, on this day, what leads to peace! But now it has been hidden from your eyes. For you the days will come when your enemies will surround you with trenches, besiege you and press you in on all sides; they will destroy you and your children within you and will not leave one stone upon another in you, because you did not recognize the time in which you were visited."

The commentary on the Gospel by Monsignor Vincenzo Paglia

Memory of the Presentation of Mary in the temple. This feast, born in Jerusalem and also celebrated in the East, recalls both the ancient temple and the offering to the The feast of the Presentation of Mary in the temple is linked to the dedication of the church of Santa Maria Nuova built near the temple of Jerusalem in year 453. Mary, the Theotókos (Mother of God), is the true temple in which the only sacrifice pleasing to God is offered. With this memory we welcome the tradition of the apocryphal Protoevangelium of James which narrates the consecration to God of Mary as a teenager. The evangelist Matthew brings us an evangelical scene that can remind us of the urgency of placing ourselves at the school of Jesus. It is a page that may seem harsh towards the Mother of Jesus, in truth it is the path that Mary has always followed. It is said that Jesus is in a house and many are crowded around him to listen to him. When his relatives arrive, with his mother, they send for him. The relatives "are outside", writes the evangelist, obviously giving an indication that is not just spatial. Only those who "are inside" and listen to his word, says Jesus, are his true family. The Christian community is always born from listening to the Word of God, and lives by listening to it. And we must all be careful not to fall into the temptation of being "relatives" of Jesus, that is, of thinking that we no longer need to gather around him to listen to him, almost as if access to him is "natural" and taken for granted. In short, it is not enough to be part of the group of Christians to find salvation. Every day we need to enter "inside" the community to listen to the Gospel as the Church communicates it. The example of Mary, taken to the temple, is a precious indication for all Christian communities to be a school of communion and love. And this is also decisive for Christian families to commit themselves to communicating the faith to their children from an early age so that they too, like Jesus, grow in "wisdom, age and grace".