From the Pastor:
We are blessed this year to have Feb. 2 occur on Sunday of next weekend. That day each year is celebrated as the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord. The theme for that annual celebration is not just Jesus being presented in the temple by Mary and Joseph, but that He comes as the Light of revelation for His people. The following is part of the Church’s prayer for that day:
Forty days have passed since we celebrated the joyful feast of the Nativity of the Lord. Today is the blessed day when Jesus was presented in the Temple by Mary and Joseph. Outwardly He was fulfilling the Law, but in reality He was coming to meet His believing people. Prompted by the Holy Spirit, Simeon and Anna came to the Temple, enlightened by the same Spirit, they recognized the Lord and confessed Him with exultation. So let us also, gathered together by the Holy Spirit, proceed to the house of God to encounter Christ. There we shall find Him and recognize Him in the breaking of the bread, until He comes again, revealed in glory.
Forty days is a very important theme that we find repeatedly in Sacred Scripture. Each of its occurrences involves preparation, and usually some type of penitential practice. The purpose is spiritual purification, which is ridding ourselves of everything that is contrary to who and what God is. In the gospel reading next Sunday, we’re told: when the days were completed for their purification according to the law of Moses, Mary and Joseph took Jesus up to Jerusalem to present Him to the Lord.
Notice in the same prayer that the Holy Spirit “enlightens” Simeon and Anna to come to the temple to find and encounter Christ. The Holy Spirit still does the same today. Throughout human history, fire has been used to purify and to provide light when there is darkness. In the first reading next Sunday, we hear: suddenly there will come to the temple, the Lord whom you seek…He is like the refiners fire…refining and purifying.
The imagery is clear and powerful, taking us back to Christmas – God becomes man so that man might become like God. This requires enlightenment and purification. That is why on the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord, the Church blesses candles for the faithful to take to their homes to remind them that Christ is our light and our truth. Again, the prayer of the Church:
O God, true light, who create light eternal, spreading it far and wide, pour into the hearts of the faithful the brilliance of perpetual light, so that all who are brightened in Your holy temple by the splendor of these candles may happily reach the light of Your glory, through Christ our Lord.
At Mass next weekend, consider taking blest candles home with you, and burning them while you reflect on Christ being our light. He seeks to save us from ourselves by enlightening us and ridding from us anything and everything that is contrary to God and the life of the angels and saints in heaven.
Gratefully,
Fr. Miller