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It doesn't seem too long ago that we were celebrating Christmas--and whilst many people may have been glad to see the back of it, at Candlemas on February 2 we take one look back before we move on and move forward to celebrate the suffering, death and resurrection of Jesus. The feast of the Presentation of the Lord is a turning point between Christmas and Lent: it is beautifully fragile, full of joy and pain.
There is so much joy for Mary and Joseph as they fulfil what the Law of Moses requires and present Jesus to God in the temple at Jerusalem when he is 40 days old. And yet in the midst of the joy, in the beautiful meeting point between Jesus and Simeon and Anna, the prophecy of pain cuts through the celebrations and cuts to the heart. Simeon takes Jesus in his arms and praises God for fulfilling his promises in Jesus, and fulfilling the persona promise God made to Simeon that he would set his eyes on the Holy One of God. In holding Jesus in his arms he cradles salvation. His life is illuminated; the whole world is filled with light, the light of Christ. But Simeon cuts through the joy and warns of the sharpness of pain to come: 'A sword will pierce your own soul too,' he says to Mary. And so we, with Mary, embrace the confusion and pain, the difficulties and hardship that we experience even in the midst of our joy, but all the time we cradle salvation, we hold onto Jesus who is in our midst bringing us light and life.
On the Feast of Candlemas, cradling the light in our hands, we go ourselves to meet Christ who illuminates the world with his love. The reality of our Christmas Celebrations hits home. This child whose coming was greeted with so much joy, the one of whom angels sang, is the one who embraces the wood of the cross to bring us life.
Candlemas is on Tuesday February 2. At St Saviour's there is the usual Tuesday morning Mass at 10.00 am but in the evening is our Sung Mass at 7.00 pm. We gather together in the hall area of the church before, with lighted candles, we enter the church to meet Jesus in Word and Sacrament.
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