 Transcribe. Family Theatre presents Anne Blythe, Jeff Chandler, and William Lundigan. Family Theatre's only purpose is to bring to everyone's attention a practice that must become an important part of our lives if we are to win peace for ourselves, peace for our families, and peace for the world. Family Theatre urges you to pray, pray together as a family. As part of its special holiday program, the mutual network in cooperation with Family Theatre and the Catholic Daughters of America bring you a half-hour dramatization of the presentation of the Christ Child in the Temple according to the law of Moses 40 days after his birth, starring Anne Blythe as Mary and Jeff Chandler as the narrator. William Lundigan will be your host. Do you complain, my child, that there is little to meditate upon commemorating the day that Joseph and I brought Jesus for the first time to the Temple? Yes, child, I know you realize it was an event worthy of remembrance and I have seen many of you devoutly celebrating this feast, the feast of the purification. Yet compared to his birth, for instance, this seems, does it not, less colorful or more remote or as your dramatist would say, a kind of anticlimax following the mighty nativity? It did not seem so to us. We shall have fine weather for our journey, Mary, much different from our last. Oh, my little one, my firstborn shall be presented to the Lord, the first begotten of God to be presented in his own temple. Oh, yes, beloved, oh, Joseph, this shall be a marvel to me as long as I am on earth. He cries in hungers like any other child, and yet behind this helplessness is omnipotence, behind those baby eyes all knowledge of heaven and earth. Tomorrow, thou lamkin of God, thou holy one, we shall go into the house of the Lord, thy father. For at that time we yet dwelt in Bethlehem, for no longer in the stable where he had been born. The Magi from the east had come and gone, but so far my enemy had not put it into the heart of Herod to seek my beloved. Jerusalem was still safe for us, and as you know, Jerusalem in terms of your miles is less than 15 from Bethlehem. Oh, there, let me help you up, Mary. I'll hold the child. Do not fear, I won't drop him. Now, put your hand on my shoulder. That's it. Our mode of travel was not a chariot or a motor vehicle, but the faithful donkey which had come with us from Nazareth. And the journey took hours rather than moments. But by contrast to our last when we had arrived fatigued and drenched with rain and could find no room in any house, this day was pleasant. Yep, yep. Come along. And with my small Jesus nestling in my arms and Joseph trudging beside us so patiently, I felt in my heart a great and possessing peace. I knew she was happy, for when we had cleared the town of Bethlehem and were alone, the three of us and the donkey, why she sang. She sang to the babe in her arms, and then her canticle which begins, my soul doth magnify the Lord. And I said to myself, who art thou, Joseph, son of Jacob, that he who made the heavens hath made thee custodian of his very family? For concerning the babe, does she not share parenthood with God himself? It was well to go to the temple, and the time had come. Generations upon generations earlier the Lord had commanded us through Moses. Sanctify unto me every firstborn that openedeth the womb among the children of Israel, as well of men as of beasts, for they are mine. And also he had said, If a woman bear a man child, she shall be unclean for seven days, and on the eighth day the infant shall be circumcised. But she shall remain three and thirty days until her purification. She shall touch no holy thing. Neither shall she enter into the sanctuary until the days of her purification be fulfilled. It was well to go to the temple, and the time had come. And yet I pondered the words, she shall touch no holy thing. And my glance fell on the holy one of Israel in her arms. And I said to Mary, Mary, I have been considering. Where the do we go? Why to the temple? For the days of purification are now accomplished. But it is the temple which ought to be purified by you. Joseph, it becomes us to fulfill the law and all justice. Truly this woman was the reflection and echo of her son, the morning star which appears before the son, the ark of the covenant, bearing within her the holy of holies, the son. What wonder then that she spoke so like her son? We arrived then at the tomb of Rachel, where we stopped and prayed. There was little to see, no great basilica, just twelve stones engraven with the names of our tribes, and more crudely, of generations of pious wayfarers. I have said that until then we had no knowledge of the design of herring to murder prematurely, my son. Yet we recalled, when we paused to pray, the words of our prophet Jeremiah's. Our voice was heard in Rahmal, weeping and loud lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children. And she would not be comforted, because they are no more. Until then and for some days to come, the words were but a prophecy. Nor could we guess how soon they would be fulfilled. But this was the first shadow of the day. For as we left the valley of Refiam, we rested beneath an olive tree, barren and it seemed somehow evil. An accountably fear gripped my heart, as if the cold breath of evil, perhaps the future sins of men, had enveloped my beloved, my firstborn. But this was the tree from which they fashioned the cross. Let us go, Joseph. You are pale, trembling. Yes, of course, let us go. Let me help you, Mary. Our spirits revived when we saw Jerusalem. Jerusalem, builded as a city that is compact together. And I cried, praise the Lord, O Jerusalem, praise thy God, O Sion. First, as you know, it was needful that I provide a gift for sacrifice. For it was written, sanctify unto me every firstborn. And again, when thy son shall ask thee tomorrow, saying, What is this? Thou shalt answer him, with a strong hand did the Lord bring us forth out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. For when Pharaoh would not let us go, the Lord slew every firstborn of the Egyptians, from the firstborn of man to the firstborn of beasts. Therefore I sacrificed to the Lord all of the male sex, and the firstborn of my sons I redeemed. Now to dedicate, or rather redeem to the Lord, a child, the price of redemption had been a lamb. But by God's grace we were poor, and ours was no longer a pastoral nation. And hence we were allowed to bring just two young turtle doves. Having procured the offering, I tethered the donkey, and we made our way at last to the temple. Strictly speaking, the temple proper consisted of the Holy of Holies and the Holy Place. Outside of this was a great altar whence comes the description of the death of the priest Zacharias, who was slain between the temple and the altar. And the altar was in the court of the priests. But there were many courts and enclosures, and the whole was popularly called the temple. That temple which our Jesus, now on his first visit and carried in Mary's arms, but bright-eyed and not asleep, would see so often, and say much concerning in his later life. We made our way through the court of the Gentiles. There were many who admired the babe, and I remember there were some Greek children who wanted to give him grapes. He always loved children, as well after he was grown as when he was a child himself. For he had been a child himself. Thus we passed along Solomon's porch, though Solomon's temple had been destroyed, and this one was largely the work of Herod, and through the Shushan gate which brought us into the Krel. But the temple was not to endure longer than another 73 years. Yet no one, not even the Romans, dreamed of that on this day. And now we entered through the beautiful Corinthian gate to the court of the women called the Azareth Nashim, and straight to the 15 steps leading to the court of the priests with the altar and the holy place beyond. It was at the top of these steps that the ceremony took place. One of the Levites on duty summoned the priest. It was my business to take the infant in my arms and climb the steps as if I had been his father indeed. Hold him thus, Joseph. Yes, I will be careful. Mary, peace be to you. Why Anna, oh I'm so glad. Wait, Joseph. This is Anna, the daughter of Fanuel, one of my tutors here in the temple when I was a child. Peace, friend Anna. And what a child you were, why you are yet but a child. Here, let me see your firstborn. Let me hold him. She remains here day and night fasting and praying. She's done so for 80 years. I have heard of her. This is the Messiah foretold by the prophets. Little does the priest guess, or this Levite, who it is that sanctifies the temple this day. I pray you, say nothing for now. The priest is ready, friend. You will go up those stairs. I'll carry your doves. Here is the child. This is the last. That was the last, though I knew not what she meant at the moment. But perhaps I knew, but realized not in the ecstasy of holding the divine infant in my arms, and in the weight of my responsibility. For this was the lamb without spot, the final sacrifice. Yet I ought to have understood the significance, the theme for meditation for all of you, his later brethren. For I was redeeming him who redeemed all, presenting him to the Lord, according to our law memorial of our deliverance from Egypt. Buying him back, as it were, with a token offering of turtle doves. I was well versed in the law and knew why the Lord had demanded the presentation or redemption of only the firstborn. He might indeed have required the presentation of each and all, for all are his. But the firstborn, as chief of the family, represented all his brethren. The firstborn of a family stood for all his brethren. But are you not his brothers and sisters? Are you not through his baptism the adopted sons of God? And am I not your mother? Thus he offered himself not for one family, but for a greater spiritual family. He, firstborn of the faithful, presents himself as head of a mystical body. It was at that moment, my child, that he adopted you and each of you as his brethren. The ceremony accomplished, I descended the stairway. I was about to restore the infant to the arms of his mother when I beheld... Simeon! Give me the child. Now, O Lord, dismiss thy servant in peace according to thy word. For mine eyes have beheld thy salvation which thou hast prepared before the sight of all nations. A light to the revelation of the Gentiles and the glory of thy people is real. You are his mother. I am his mother. O blessings, blessings upon your child. King Redeemer, the Holy One, expected for ages. For the Lord had promised me I should not shut my eyes in death until I had seen the promised Son of Man. Now, Lord, dismiss thy servant in peace. For your blessing, Holy Prophet, we thank you. Nay, nay, I will restore the child to her who bore him. Guard him well. Oh, we will guard him and cherish him and adore him. Guard him well, I say. For behold, this child is destined for the doom and the salvation of many, of many in Israel. And he is set for a sign, a sign that shall be contradicted. And thou, mother of this child, thine own soul, a sword shall pierce. From that hour I was never without suffering, yet Seminy had begun for me. For I understood from Simeon's words that somewhere, someday, be it far or near violent men, blind instruments of perhaps of your sins, my child, would wrench him from me, would harm and slay my beloved, my innocent one, my baby. How did I know, when I gave the infant of the Simeon, that I was Abraham and he, Jesus, the new Isaac? But Simeon knew, and he knew that as the world receives Jesus through Mary, the world must go back to the Father through Jesus and through Mary. And he knew, I think, that this presentation, which had become in my time a matter of form, was the truth, the sacrifice, and that our Jesus was a victim. Years later, after my passing, he became the final victim, the last, as Anna had said. Types and figures would, henceforth, vanish. There would be no more bullocks or lambs, but only the one lamb that Mary, on that day, had held in her arms. The sacrifice of which those others of Abel, of Noah, of Abraham, of Melchizedek, were but dim foreshadowings and imperfect symbols, and which would have no meaning or validity without the ultimate sacrifice of the cross. On that day, a bear six weeks after the Savior's birth, Mary became the mother of Sorrows, a maiden mother, not more than 16 years old. At that moment, Mary, the daughter of Abraham, was exalted above the head and father of her people, for she also sacrificed her son upon the altar of the Lord. But with this difference, her son was divine. She had the sad assurance that her sacrifice would be accepted, and she was a mother. This is Bill Lundigan. In offering the story of the presentation of Christ in the temple some 40 days after his birth, family theater would like to extend to all its listeners its sincere good wishes for a happy and joyful and prosperous and above all, peaceful new year. And remind us all that the family that prays together stays together and that a world at prayer will be a world at peace. More things are wrought by prayer than this world dreams of. William Lundigan was your host. The script was written by Fred Nevelo Jr. with music composed and conducted by Harry Zimmerman and was directed for family theater by Joseph F. Mansfield. This series of family theater broadcasts is made possible by the thousands of you who feel the need for this type program, by the mutual network which has responded to this need and by the hundreds of stars of stage screen and radio who give so unselfishly of their time and talent to appear on our family theater stage. To them and to you our humble thanks. This is George Crowell expressing the wish of family theater that the blessing of God may be upon you and your home and inviting you to be with us next week when family theater will present the finding in the temple starring Anne Blythe and Jeff Chandler. Join us, won't you? Family Theater is broadcast throughout the world and originated transcribed in the Hollywood studios and the world's largest network, the Mutual Broad Testing System.