Certain feasts are so vital that they supplant Ordinary Time every seven years. Such is the case with the Presentation of the Lord on February 2nd. Today, we recount the event when Jesus was presented in the temple forty days after his birth following Mosaic law. “Consecrate to me every firstborn; whatever opens the womb among the Israelites, whether of human being or beast, belongs to me.”
Before 1969, the Church focused on the feast of the Presentation as a way in which Mary and Joseph obeyed the law of God by presenting Jesus, along with the rite of purification of Mary and Joseph. Anytime a woman would bleed, either through menstruation or childbirth, the woman was regarded as impure. In the ancient world, blood was understood as a person’s life force, and when the blood left the body, the person was seen as unclean and unable to be a part of a community without restriction. Joseph, too, was impure because he touched Mary, making him impure also and in need of purification.
After 1969, the Church deemphasized the old purity laws in place of focusing on the words of the righteous man Simeon and his words when he met the child, Jesus.
The redirection focused on the person of Jesus as the true light of the world breaking through the darkness of sin. The emphasis on the light of the world is symbolically represented in many liturgical activities. For example, when the Mass is celebrated, candles flank the altar. When a child is baptized, the parents and godparents are given a baptismal candle ignited from the paschal candle, blessed and lit as the opening of the Easter Vigil.
The importance of candles symbolizing Christ’s light illuminating the darkness is also reflected in a liturgical practice known as Candlemas. At the beginning of Mass on the Feast of the Presentation, the priest blesses the candles and recites a prayer that illuminates the feast perfectly. “O God, source and origin of all light, who on this day showed to the just man Simeon the Light for revelation to the Gentiles, we humbly ask that, in answer to your people’s prayers, you may be pleased to sanctify with your blessings these candles, which we are eager to carry in praise of your name, so that, treading the path of virtue, we may reach the light which never fails.”
In the early life of Jesus, Simeon was the first to recognize Jesus as Israel’s Messiah and savior of the Gentiles. The Holy Spirit promised Simeon that he would not die until he met the Messiah. When he met Jesus, he knew he met the world’s savior. “Now, Master, you may let your servant go in peace. For my eyes have seen your salvation, which you prepared in the sight of all peoples: a light for the revelation to the Gentiles, and glory for your people Israel.”
Once he realized that the infant he held in his arms was the Savior to come, he prophesied what life he would live and included his mother in the mission. He said Jesus would cause the rise and fall of many in Israel and that a sword of sorrow would pierce the heart of the Blessed Mother—all of which had come true.
All of what transpired in the life of Jesus culminated in the defeat of death when he gloriously resurrected from the dead. The Savior had reversed the chaos and darkness of sin and its destruction of life. The light at the beginning of creation, bringing forth life extinguished by evil, is shone again in the person of Jesus.
So, the next time you go to church, observe the flame of an Advent wreath, or even attend a dinner party with candles, remember and thank Christ, who is your life’s light.