WHY CANDLEMAS?

Sunday - 29th January 2006: Epiphany 4 (Candlemas)

Kingdom Season 14  |  Proper 39 : Track 1  |  Ordinary Time Week 4 (Year B)

Malachi 3.1-5  |  Hebrews 2.14-end  |  Luke 2.22-40 : To see the current week's readings, click here

...because, as the end of Christmas, it reminds us that Jesus is the Light of the World.. it’s a last look back at Christmas before we turn towards Lent and Easter. 40 days have passed and Mary fulfils the rite of purification after child birth

...because in the Middle Ages people used to bring their candles to church to be blessed - a kind of blessing/hallowing of the light

...because we remember how Simeon said of Jesus that he was the Light to lighten the Gentiles.

Candlemas is also a bittersweet festival... as well as rejoicing with Simeon and Anna in the gift of the Christ child sent to enlighten our lives and our world, yet again we see the shadow of the cross being cast over the infant’s cradle... This is one of the recurrent themes we’ve noted throughout the Christmas Season - how the destiny of the child born in Bethlehem is tied up with his death. This is the side of Christmas which reminds us most powerfully that Christmas is not just for the children.... Mary’s heart will be pierced with a sword as she stands at Calvary watching Jesus die in agony so that we could know God.

CATALYST FOR CHANGE

And the destiny - not just the future, but the “now” - of the child Jesus was that he would cause the falling and the rising of many in Israel. It was true then: and it’s true today. Look at the people in the gospels who found Jesus a stumbling block, one who brought them low: the rich young ruler; Pilate; Ciaphas; the Sadducees... And those who found themselves raised because of him: the shepherds; the poor; tax collectors; the morally dubious; the weak and vulnerable; children; women; foreigners...

Still today there are many for whom Christ is a stumbling block: those who are proud; those who like to think of themselves as independent, self secure... And there are those who have discovered that Jesus raises the fallen: those who are wounded and weak, the worried and confused, the vulnerable and the frightened.. those, who in the eyes of the world are of no - or little - value...

Simeon knew that he wouldn’t see the grown up Jesus, yet he was content to die in peace having caught a glimpse of the one who - even now - was beginning to transform the world...