Candlemas
Jesus Christ is the Light of the world. That, in a nutshell,
is the message of Candlemas.
Christ dispels our darkness, reveals our path, warms and
illuminates our world. Because of this, candles have long been a symbol of
Jesus’ presence among us, with wax representing His flesh, the wick His inner
soul, and the flame itself His blazing divinity, the fire of His Holy Spirit. The
candle represents God come to earth, God made Man. It is the union of the
material with the immortal.
The story of Candlemas can be found in the Gospel according
to St. Luke. 40 days after the Nativity of our Lord, Joseph and Mary came to
present the infant Christ at the holy Temple in Jerusalem. They had to wait 40
days as such was the period required by Old Testament Law for the ritual
purification of a new mother after giving birth to a son. In Jerusalem,
meanwhile, lived an aged prophet named Simeon, said to have descended from a
great and noble family. The Holy Spirit had revealed unto Simeon that he would
not die until he had laid eyes upon God’s promised Messiah, the Christ so long
expected and so soon anticipated.
As soon as he saw the Holy Family presenting the Christchild
at the Temple, Simeon took the infant Jesus in his arms and proclaimed with
joy:
Now, Lord, You let
Your servant go in peace. Your Word has been fulfilled. My own eyes have seen
the salvation which You have prepared in the sight of all people: a Light to
reveal You to the nations and the glory of Your people Israel!
Here, at last, was the Messiah destined to fulfill the hopes
of Israel, and to reveal the God of Israel as the One True God of all peoples,
lands, and nations. Simeon, having encountered Him Whom prophets and holy men
had yearned for centuries to glimpse, could now die at peace, happy and
fulfilled. Yet all was not roses and sweetcream in the gardens. Simeon further
prophesied that the Messiah would be opposed, and that great suffering would
pierce the heart of His mother as well. And all this God confirmed through a
second witness: another aged prophet, but a woman this time: Anna, the daughter
of Phanuel.
There’s a lot going on in this story: the fulfilment of
ancient promises and prophecy; the declaration of Jesus’ mission beyond the
bounds of Israel; the looming shadow of the Cross which darkens even the
earliest days of Jesus’ earthly life. What new mother wants to hear of her Son
embroiled in conflict and tragedy? The commemoration of these events,
appropriately falling on this 40th day after Christmas, has gone by many names
in Christian tradition. Some call it the Purification of the Blessed Virgin,
marking her 40 days of cleansing. More formally, we note it as the Presentation
of the Child Jesus at the Temple. In the East they name it simply Hypapante, “the
Meeting,” for all the illustrious persons here gathered together: the Holy
Family, the Christchild, the ancient prophets, all meeting, all converging at
the Temple.
But in our tradition, in the English tongue, it is most
often and elegantly Candlemas: the Mass of the Light of the World. On this day
we bless candles, for use in corporate worship and in home devotion, to remind
us that Christ is truly and forever God’s Light to the nations and the glory of
His people Israel. Winter is waning; spring can be glimpsed upon the horizon; and
the King of Kings has come at last into His Temple, our hope for the future
and our trust in God’s promise fulfilled. Praise be to You, O Christ …
When you take your candle home this evening, or simply light
with devotion one already found in your house, I want us each to ponder how
Christ is a lamp to our feet and a light to our path—not in some vague, general
way, but specifically in each and every one of our lives. What is it that He
illumines? What path does He reveal? We all know how beautiful the candlelight
flickers here, beneath these hallowed halls. What more does the Light of Christ
make clear in our own homes, beneath our own roofs? Hopefully it will show us
our purpose in life.
We all have goals. We all have a bucket list. There are
things we wish to accomplish before we die, goals we desire to achieve in the span
of life allotted to us. What are your goals? What will make you happy or
fulfilled? What do you want to achieve in your life that will make you think, “Yes,
I have lived well, I have run the race. Now, Lord, You let Your servant go in
peace.” For some, life goals might include fame and wealth. A wife and
children, perhaps. A degree, an award, a certificate. Some want to travel the
world, some to write the great American novel. What is the goal, what is the
end, what is the purpose here?
Christianity has always been clear on the answer to such questions.
We have fancy philosophical terms for it—teleology, final causality—but it all
boils down to the overarching goal and purpose of human life. And it is simply
this: to live forever in happiness and joy with God. That’s our goal, our
purpose. That’s the drive which causes humanity ever to seek the good, the
true, and the beautiful. It’s the reason why God created us, why God was born
as one of us, why God died on a Cross and rose from the dead to lift us up from
death to life! It was all for love of you—that you could live forever with the God
Who loves you.
Once we realize this, once the final goal of human life is
revealed in the Light of Jesus Christ, everything else becomes ordered to that
final goal. What is the purpose of life? To become a saint! Not a saint like
others but a saint such as only you can be! Everything else is subsidiary,
auxiliary, little goals helping us along to our ultimate end. This does not
belittle our accomplishments and adventures in this life. Far from it! To see
that all we do, all of which we are a part—our careers, our families, our
recreation—is rightly ordered toward eternal bliss is to make all of life part
of salvation history. The coffee you drink in the morning orients you towards
the love of God. The job you work helps bring you closer to your heavenly home.
Nowhere is this truer than family. Children and spouse and a
happy home converge so that all may aid one another in growing closer to God
and thus to abundant and eternal life, starting now, together. And believe me,
I’m not romanticizing. You want to have your ego crushed, your passions tamed?
You want to learn humility and gratitude and patience in suffering? Get
married! You want to understand the love that God holds towards rebellious and
unruly sinners? Have kids! Nothing will drive you closer to God, in both love
and desperation, than family!
This, then, is the light to our feet and lamp to our path.
When we bring the candle of Christ into our homes, we remember that everything
around us is properly seen in the Light of Christ, in the Light of our eternal
inheritance and destiny. What matters, ultimately, is God. He is our purpose.
He is our goal. And this enlightenment enriches rather than weakens our other
goals, our other loves.
So let us not kill ourselves over secondary concerns. Let us
not work ourselves to exhaustion and despair with no understanding as to life’s
final end. Instead, let us keep our eyes focused upon the Light of Christ and
what most reflects that light. Don’t become attached to the material things and
fleeting wealth of this world. Don’t let your passions run meaninglessly wild. Don’t
be afraid to delegate: trust that God has given us each gifts that work best in
cooperation. Seek out God in the simple things of life: friends and family,
laughter and love, beauty and song and honest labor. For Heaven’s sake, pray. And
never underestimate the depth of power found in two or three truly good friends—for
such love is a mirror for the love of God. We worry about many things; there is
need of only One.
Christ is the Light of the world. He is also the Light of
your world. By His grace may we one and all walk by His light, seek ever His
warmth, and guide others along the path—so that at the end of our days we may
truly proclaim:
Lord, now You let Your
servant go in peace. Your Word has been fulfilled. My own eyes have seen the
salvation which You have prepared in the sight of all people: a Light to reveal
You to the nations and the glory of Your people Israel.
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy
Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be. AMEN.
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