When properly celebrated this is one of the loveliest feasts of the year. I say "properly celebrated" because the full liturgy involves the blessing of candles and a procession of the congregation singing canticles and carrying lighted candles into the church. It is a festival of light echoing the song of Simeon and comes in the dark days of winter with the promise of spring and new life just round the corner. The links with Christ as the Light of the World - to be explicitly celebrated at the Easter Vigil - are clear.
A family celebration
It is, of course, primarily a feast of Jesus and of his Mother and foster father, Joseph. They are shown, like John the Baptist and his parents, carefully observing the requirements of the Law. Later on Jesus will frequently be seen observing the religious observances of his people. He would say that he did not come to abolish the Law but rather to bring it to fulfilment by giving emphasis to the inner spirit rather than just external observance.
The Lord visits his Temple
The Gospel reading centres round an incident in the life of Jesus, following his birth. The family go up from Nazareth to the Temple in Jerusalem. This was not absolutely prescribed and would have been surely difficult for many people to do. It was clearly something very fitting for the child Jesus. In Luke's gospel Jerusalem has a very special role as the place where the Paschal Mystery unfolds and where the mission of the Church to the world was launched.
Need for purification
In the thinking of the time, a mother needed to be purified after the birth (hence the older name of Purification of Our Lady for this feast). Even though this clearly did not apply to Mary, she complied with the legal requirement especially as the ritual also included the offering or presentation of the first-born son to the Lord. As part of the ritual, they were expected to offer sacrifice. In their case their offering could consist of a pair of turtle-doves or two young pigeons. These were the offerings of the poor. The rich could offer a sheep or even a whole ox.
An old man's hopes realised
There was just at that time in the Temple an elderly man called Simeon. He had apparently received a promise from God that he would not die until he had personally set eyes on the "Christ of the Lord". The 'Christ of the Lord' is the one whom God anoints. Anointing signifies being appointed king, as David was anointed by the prophet Samuel and made King of Israel. In Jesus' case he is anointed as the Messiah, the Saviour King of Israel whom all good Jews awaited with anticipation.
A light to the nations
It was the day that Simeon had waited for. Taking the child tenderly in his arms, he makes a beautiful prayer. He is now ready to leave this world, "you can let your servant go in peace". For he has been blessed to see "the salvation which you have prepared for all the nations (and not just Israel) to see, a light to enlighten the unbelievers and the glory of your people Israel".
Jesus is the Light of the world, a light shining in darkness and all this is symbolised by the light of the candles each one of us carries during today's liturgy.
But what does it all mean?
In the meantime, Mary and Joseph stand watching and wondering at the meaning of all that is being said. But Simeon has words for Mary too and, at first sight, they are strange and disturbing words. He tells her three things:
a. the child is destined for the fall and for the rising of many in Israel, a sign that is rejected;
b. a sword will pierce Mary's heart;
c. the secret thoughts of many will be laid bare.
Jesus brings division?
a. It is a sad reality that the coming of Jesus brings division. It is not what he or his Father wants. After all Jesus came to reconcile all things into himself. He is the Prince of Peace, a peace that the world cannot give. But both within the Jewish community and the wider community, Jesus is either accepted or rejected. Many of Jesus' own people rejected him but there were others - and they included nearly all of the first Christians - who accepted him as Lord and were ready to die for him. Some of them did, including Peter, Paul, other Apostles, Stephen…
In general, those who reject him and his vision have opted for a way of life that can only bring destruction on themselves. They have rejected truth and integrity, they have rejected love and compassion, they have rejected justice and peace; they have opted for material plenty at the expense of others in need, they have indulged in hate, anger, resentment and violence. These can only lead a person downwards.
A sword of sorrow
b. A sword of sorrow will pierce Mary's heart. Who can imagine the distress of the mother when she saw him so often attacked by the religious leaders? Who can measure the pain of the mother as she saw her son hanging naked in a public place, convicted as a common criminal, jeered and mocked at by the people around? Yet when she gave her 'Yes' at the Annunciation, this was included. And up to the very end, she did not withdraw that Yes, she continued to be the handmaid of the Lord.
When we say Yes to Jesus, we, too, can expect some painful experiences to come along, especially if we are truly faithful in living out the Gospel message. This is expressed in a different way in the First Reading: "Who will remain standing when the Lord appears? For he is like the refiner's fire and the fullers' alkali… He will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver and then they will make the offering to the Lord as it should be made."
The mystery of suffering
Suffering - as both Jesus and Mary experienced - is not a sign of God's displeasure, still less his absence of care, but a purifying experience in which his love is always present, even though it may take time to see it. How Mary must have wondered when she saw her Son apparently dying in disgrace, humiliation and abject failure! Yet, as she and the other disciples were soon to discover, this was the moment of triumph and victory.
A challenge
c. And "the secret thoughts of many are laid bare". Jesus throws down a challenge to us. Our response to him, positive or negative, makes clear where our real self stands. Nor does it matter if we hide that response from others as we often do when we hide our allegiance to Jesus, to the Gospel or to the Church, which is his Body. We cannot in fact be true followers of Jesus if we are not up front about it. Because we, too, are called to be a light to the world.
A summary of our faith
The whole of the mystery of Christ is contained in this feast. And it is so well summarised in the Second Reading from the Letter to the Hebrews. For the Son of God has shared in the same blood and flesh as all humanity. "He pitched his tent among us" and was "a human person like us in all things but sin". By his life, suffering and death "he could take away all the power of the devil, who had power over death, and set free all those who had been held in slavery all their lives by the fear of death". Sin and death go together. Sin unrepented leads inevitably to the worst death of all - freely chosen separation from the Source of Life and Goodness.
One of us, one with us
And the letter continues to emphasise the Son of God's total solidarity with us. "It was not the angels he took to himself; he took to himself descent from Abraham". This made him a human being in the fullest sense of the word and also a human being who belonged to a particular ethnic group and a particular faith. Jesus was a Jew and he never saw himself as anything else but he differed from many of his brethren in opening up salvation to people everywhere. In taking on our human nature, "it was essential that he should in this way become completely like his brothers and sisters so that he could be a compassionate and trustworthy high priest of God's religion, able to atone for human sins".
The Bridge between God and ourselves
It was as sharing in both the nature of God and humanity that he could be that bridge, the pontifex, bringing us, estranged by our sin, back into the loving arms of our God. As a human being, he has shared all our tribulations, including the temptation to sin. "Because he has himself been through temptation he is able to help others who are tempted."
Today's feast is about light and joy. But it is also about the price that has been paid and that may have also to be paid by us so that joy and happiness may be experienced not only by us but by as many others as possible.
A prayer for light and faith
Let ours then be the prayer during the blessing of candles today:
God our Father, source of eternal light,
fill the hearts of all believers
with the light of faith.
May we who carry these candles in your church
come with joy to the light of glory. Amen.
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