From the Gospel of Saint Luke which we have just read,
"And when the time came for their purification according to the Law of Moses, they brought him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord."
In the name of Today, the fortieth day after Christmass, is the feast of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the feast of the Presentation of Christ in the Temple, Candlemass.
The Feast of Purification is called Candlemas because it is the day on which the year's supply of candles for the church is blessed. This ritual of the blessing of candles reflect's Simeon's song, when he states that the child Jesus is to be a light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of His people Israel. By the middle of the 5th century, candles were lit on this day to symbolize that Jesus Christ was the light, the truth and the way.
This day, in fact, is not a stand-alone observation, but rather on a continuum with the feasts we celebrate throughout the Christian year. Our first heralding of the coming of the Christ came before the Presentation, before the Epiphany, before the Birth, before the Annunciation. We read in Malachi, the Old Testament lesson appointed for today,
"Behold, I send my messenger to prepare the way before me, and the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple; the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold, he is coming, says the LORD of hosts."
Note that another leitmotif of the holy year is present in the forty days: Moses stayed on the Mountain of God forty days, the spies were in the land for forty days, Elijah traveled forty days before he reached the cave where he had his vision, Nineveh was given forty days to repent, prior to undertaking his ministry, Jesus spent forty days in wilderness praying and fasting. Next week we begin our Lenten forty days of preparation for the Paschal event.
Bishop Joseph Hall (Bishop of Exeter in the early 17th century) remarked on the Feast of the Presentation:
"How glorious did the temple now seem, that the Owner was within the walls of it! Now was the hour and guest come, in regard whereof the second temple should surpass the first. This was His house, built for Him, dedicated to Him: there had He dwelt long in His spiritual presence. ... Jerusalem is now everywhere. There is no church, no Christian heart, which is not a temple of the living God: there is no temple of God wherein Christ is not presented to His Father. ...
"Under the Gospel, we are all first-born, all heirs; every soul is to be holy unto the Lord: we are a royal generation, a holy priesthood. Our baptism, as it is our circumcision, and our sacrifice of purification, so it is also our presentation unto God. Nothing can become us but holiness."
Looking with Bishop Hall at this feast, we see that all of history before Christ begins to make sense with His coming; and all mortal events since Him point back to Him as the source and fulfillment of history.
First, the fact that Joseph and Our Lady went to present Jesus in the temple forty days after His birth and to submit to the ritual purification expected of all Jewish mothers, demonstrates the faith to be of a piece with its Jewish antecedent; our Lord came to fulfill the Law, not to overthrow it. Thus Simeon notes that He is the Glory of His people Israel, and that a sword shall also pierce through the heart of His blessed Mother.
The mention of the sword piercing the heart of Mary underlines to us that the coming of Jesus to the world is not some sweet, cloying, sentimental action. Rather, remember that Malachi notes that the Redeemer will be like a refiner's fire who will purify the sons of Levi like as gold and silver are refined.
Also, we note that the Presentation and Purification come right in the midst of Epiphany-tide, bordered before and behind with allusions and figures of the coming of the Light to the world, to both Gentile and Jew.
The holy Gospel of Saint John on Christmass day tells of the coming of the light of Christ: "In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in the darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not."
Just as at the presentation of Christ in the temple, Simeon saw the Salvation which had been promised breaking into the world as a new dawn, a new light, just so are we throughout eternity alerted to the true light, which the powers of darkness cannot comprehend.
Who are the children of darkness; who are they who have seen a strange light? How can we tell who are the children of light and the children of darkness? A few tests: does what they say, does what they do conform to what we know to be the unchanging, eternal will of God? Do they act and speak proudly, openly, in the light? Or are they secretive, hiding, fearful of being seen?
If we are children of light, our words, our thoughts, and our deeds will be brightly revealed in the light of Christ's truth. If, on the contrary, we are children of darkness, the burning light of Christ will engulf us in consuming fire; the children of darkness will repent and return, or they will be burnt to a cinder in Christ's light.
We, living two thousand years after that Presentation of Christ and Purification of the Blessed Virgin, cannot fully appreciate what an overwhelming change was going on then. The Jews were God's chosen people, called apart from the Gentiles to worship the one true God. There was a solid wall, both literally and figuratively, separating the Jews from the Gentiles. The Jews were the called people of God, totally distanced from the unclean Gentiles.
How astounding, then, that we hear Simeon saying that the Salvation of God is to be a light to lighten the Gentiles and to be the Glory of His people Israel. Similarly, Saint Paul told the church at Ephesus, "But now in Christ Jesus we who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. ... He hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us."
This middle wall of partition reminds us of the bundling boards in colonial America, when there were often more people than beds: a bundling board was put into the bed, so the two sleeping people would have no contact with each other. So it was, in fact, for the faithful Jew: he would have nothing to do with the unclean Gentiles.
Now our Saviour comes: He, the light of the world, pierces the darkness of the wall of separation between Jew and Gentile. He pierces this darkness of separation with His light of truth. He shatters the black gloom with the shining power of peace and health.
What effect does Candlemass have on us, today, here at the Church of the Advent? How does the light of Christ - which led the wise men to Jesus in Bethlehem, and which Simeon saw to be emanating from Christ - affect us here in Boston?
Let me use an illustration from housecleaning: when a room is in the dark, no dirt is seen; if we wish to clean the room, we must bring light to it, so that we may see where the dirt is, so we can sweep the dirt away.
Just so, we might be full of sin and evil. However, as long as we are in unredeemed darkness, our sins, our wicked thoughts, words, and deeds remain undetected and continue to corrode our being.
Now comes the Christ and the shining forth of His light, the living illumination of all creation. Now our sins and failings are clearly seen; now all the perfidy and evil, whether spoken, thought, or done, now all of that corrosive baggage is visible, defined, and exposed.
Now comes the light of Christ to Simeon and Anna, and to us here in Boston; now the light of Christ shines into every corner of our lives. Now the light of Christ finds every one of our sins, our evil thoughts, words, and deeds. Now detected, our sins are washed away from us; now the corrosion of our souls is reversed; now the Light overcomes, comprehends, conquers the darkness.
There is another effect of the shining of the light of Christ. We are no longer hidden from Him or from each other. We are no more aliens, strangers. We are all made one in the Presentation of the Christ in the temple, which temple He is to become.
So, beloved in Christ here in Boston, now that our sins of alienation and separation have been wiped away, now that Christ has broken down the middle wall of separation between us, we come together as one, the united body of Christ.
We come before His altar with our little offerings. Just as Mary and Joseph presented Christ in the Temple, so we present ourselves to Him. In His purifying love our Lord will take our gifts of bread and wine and transform them into His very Body and Blood, so that we the members of His Body, may be nourished, cleansed, and strengthened with His Body and Blood.
In fact, as of this morning, we are the temple into which our Lord has been presented. As we make our communion this morning, we receive the presented Lord into ourselves. When we go out into the world today, we take out with us our redeeming Lord.
Thus fed, may we from henceforth be a further Presentation of Christ to the world. May our lives shine as that star of Bethlehem, that people may be led to the Christ. May our daily reflection of the Light of Christ be to the world a further Presentation of Christ, an extended shining forth of our God to the world!
And now unto Jesus Christ be the glory as we celebrate His Presence in us, in the name of the + Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen