Today, Candlemas by its traditional name, or the Feast of the Presentation is a celebration which was incorporated into the tradition of the church since the late 4th century.
It is worthy of note that the celebration highlights, if anything, Mary and Joseph’s devotion to Jewish law.
First, according to the Law, the first-born male had to be given away and entrusted to the Temple officials to be raised as a servant of the Temple officers. However, those parents who could afford it, they could “trade” or redeem their beloved son for a pair of turtledoves. And this is what Joseph and Mary did.
Second, again according to the Law, after Mary gave birth, she became ritually impure. Being ritually impure meant that she would both be forbidden to her husband. In the highly regulated social structure of her times, she would have been even more excluded.
Being ritually impure it would also mean that she would also not able to enter the Temple and would not be able to come in contact with sacred items. So, chronologically speaking, Mary had to immerse herself into a ritual pool (mikveh) before proceeding with the next step, the Redemption of the First Born.
Which bring us to the scene with Simeon and Anna. Simeon, in discerning the presence of the Living God in Baby Jesus, proclaims that the little baby would be the “Light to reveal God to the nations.”
Later, as you may recall, when Jesus went to Jerusalem to celebrate Hanukkah, and in following Simeon’s prophecy, Jesus claimed to be himself “The Light of the World”.
It is such light that we celebrate in Candlemas. Traditionally churches would be filled with candles and a large procession with torches would be organized, all to draw attention to the person of Jesus Christ and, in general, the Christian’s calling to become like Jesus, lights to their generation.
So, now going back to Simeon and Anna, Rob Grayson a Lay Preacher based in England writes,
“Let’s just think about Simeon and Anna for a moment. When Mary and Joseph bring Jesus to the Temple, these two faithful people somehow see more than just one more in an unending stream of babies being brought to fulfil the Jewish purification laws.
“What does Simeon see? Well, he says he’s seen God’s salvation – which, incidentally, is undoubtedly a bit of wordplay on the Hebrew root of the name Jesus, or Yeshua, which means ‘The Lord is my salvation’. We’re also told that he’s been waiting for ‘the consolation of Israel’, which is code for the Messiah, the deliverer who was originally promised in the book of Isaiah to the Jewish exiles in Babylon; and when he sees this baby, somehow, he knows that the consolation of Israel has come.
“As for Anna, we don’t know exactly what she said when she saw Jesus, but we are told she ‘gave thanks to God and spoke about the child to all who were looking forward to the redemption of Jerusalem’. So, she, like Simeon, somehow saw something of the salvation of God in this baby.
“How were Simeon and Anna able to see the long-awaited fulfilment of God’s promise in what, to other onlookers, was undoubtedly just one more baby?”
Perhaps, and may be all too often, you have heard me decry the contemporary “must” of instant reward, instant results, instant answers, and even considering the appeal of dating sites, instant relationships or to be more candid, instant “hook-upping” if such word were to exist.
Let’s be honest -- some “instant results” are quite appropriate and desirable – No one will make me go back to carry in my car an old-fashioned and unwieldy “Road Atlas”!
However, Western contemporary society has been taken over by the belief that if something is “instant” therefore it is not only credible but it has to be good. “Instant” beats “Waiting” any time.
Today’s celebration offers us the opportunity to realize that the way in which God works his ways is far from instant. Indeed, as the Scripture tells us, God keeps his own schedule. And even if God loves us, which He does, “urgency” may not be a word which you may hear God often using.
In the Old Testament we hear Malachi telling his audience that deliverance will surely come – But it would take time. But it will not be wasted time if the people were to understand that waiting was not meant to be idle waiting, but to be taken as an opportunity to grow in the spirit and to come closer to what God intended for them.
The Epistle teaches us that Jesus had to learn mercy and faithfulness. Learning is a process, a process which almost all the time requires steps and building up on previous knowledge. And, as the author of Hebrews tells us, because Jesus went through the process, He can help us to do the same.
In the Gospel, we learn that both Simeon and Anna were not just killing time thumbing their cellphones. In the process of waiting, they learned to see something special when everyone else just saw another baby.
In the words of Malachi, Simeon and Anna had to let the soap of time and faithfulness to work its way into the fabric of their lives, so that with a pure heart they could see the world through God’s eyes, under the light of the living Christ.
As we celebrate the Light of God, as revealed in Jesus Christ, may our eyes be opened to see the world not as we wish it to be, but as our God intends it to be – even if takes time!
Jesus came to be the Light of the world, so the world can see Creation through God's lenses of love, mercy, and grace.
But Jesus also entrusted us with his light. It is a light that should not be hidden but lifted up, even when some would rather lurk in the darkness
Under Christ’s light we can see those who the world judges to be the least, as the most important. Under God’s light we will see those whom the world looks down with contempt, as beloved of their Heavenly Father.
A God who came to bless the simple and the downtrodden, and to offer the life of Jesus as ransom for the life all and not the privileged and the know-it-alls.
Be like Jesus. Be a light to your generation… Even if takes time!
Fr. Gustavo
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