In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
We celebrate this beautiful feast of the Presentation of the Lord, also known as Candlemas, in which we bless the candles as a reminder that Christ, who enters the temple, is the light of the world, and He is the light of our lives, our hearts, and our home. So I welcome you after Mass. If you like, you can take a candle with you to bring to your home today that we have blessed at the beginning of Mass.
This feast day has so many beautiful reflections for us to look upon. First of all, we see the obedience and faithfulness of our Blessed Mother and St. Joseph. This feast traditionly was also called the Presentation of the Lord and the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary. And we see that the Mosaic law required that the firstborn son be redeemed. Jesus is the Son of God. He is true God. Of course, He had no need of redemption, but we see the obedience to the law of the Mosaic law of God. And we see Our Lady, who is immaculate, who is pure without stain of sin, also submitting herself to the necessary rituals for the purification required of the mother forty days after giving birth.
And so when we see in this the obedience, the faithfulness, the following of God’s laws and commandments, and it is to inspire us to see how we, too, are called to be faithful in the little things of our daily life, the little things of our spiritual life, and to be faithful to the sacramental life of the Church, that we should see in these also a reflection of our call to make use of and to be faithful to the sacraments of the Church which Christ has established: children being brought to the Church to be baptized after birth, children being brought for the necessary instructions to make their confession, their first confession, their first Holy Communion, and youth being brought to the Church to be instructed in the preparation and to receive the sacrament of Confirmation.
I’ve known so many sad stories in which either baptism was denied or children were not brought by their parents for further instruction, for Confirmation, and leaving it up to them to choose. How sad when Catholic parents neglect their duties in which they are to give Christ to the life of their children and to help their children in order to live their life in following Jesus Christ.
And so we just see in this also an example for all of us of faithfulness to our daily life as Catholics, our faithfulness in making use of the sacraments, our time of prayer, our time of meditation, Eucharistic adoration. It’s a wonderful way for us to see how Our Lady and St. Joseph were so faithful in observing the laws of God.
We also see in this that Christ is the light of the world. He has come to set us free from our sins and that He is a light of revelation to the Gentiles, that we are the Gentiles who become children of God through Christ, that we have been made children of God through our own consecration in baptism, that we have been consecrated to God in our baptism. And it’s just a beautiful reminder to us that we belong to God, each of us, and that God’s Holy Spirit dwells in our soul to give us light and guidance and to assist us in our daily life.
We see also the example of Simeon and Anna, these two people who were on in years, who were elderly, and their faithfulness, their perseverance is to inspire us that even in old age we should keep our faith strong and fervent and fruitful through prayer and devotions. We must not think because we are on in years that we have no need to continue to keep our life of faith strong through prayer and through living the spiritual life that we’re called to live.
We also see God rewarding them in their faithfulness in their old age, that God is faithful to His promises and rewarding them in seeing the Christ child, that promise which was given to Simeon, that he would not die before he saw the promised one, and Anna, in her dedication and faithfulness, being rewarded, that God rewards us in our old age for our faithfulness and in our observance of God’s commandments and laws.
We also see, as Jesus is presented in the temple, the foreshadowing of His being also presented on the cross, in which the words of Simeon to Our Lady, “and a sword shall pierce, you yourself a sword will pierce.” We see in this the prophecy of the cross, that this day of joy, this day of joy in which Christ is the light of the world, is a reminder to us of why He has come and has been born for us, that as He was presented in the temple, He was also be presented to the Father on the cross, as He gives His life for our redemption and for our salvation.
And so even at the very, the cross is present at the very beginning, at the very beginning, and so that we must see in this also that the cross is part of our life, that we cannot live without the cross, meaning that we need to be dependent upon Christ in His salvific work in saving us, that we need a Savior, we need a Savior, we need to be redeemed, we need His mercy and forgiveness, and we need the sacrament of confession.
But also in our own life, it is to inspire us that we, as our Lord reminds us in one of His gospels, “if you love Me, pick up your cross and follow Me.” That is, He gave Himself for us on the cross that, and Our Lady would have her heart pierced, that we too must be faithful to the cross in our daily life, not to be fearful, but to trust, to be trusting, to carry that cross with God’s assistance, with Our Lady’s help, that we must not be fearful of the cross, but see it as a means of our own sanctification and our own uniting ourselves to Jesus.
We also see the beautiful example of Our Lady as she presented herself at the Annunciation. She renews this, she renews the offering of her heart to be offered in union with her Son at the foot of the cross, at the foot of the cross.
Simeon says something very profound, that He is a sign of contradiction. To follow Christ is to mean we can expect to be contradicted, we can be expected to be rejected, we can be expected to receive the same reception that Jesus received, who would be mocked, who would be mocked and who would be mocked and ultimately be put to death, that we must recognize in following Christ, we are contradicting the world, and the way the world sees and lives, that we are called to follow Jesus, who is the light of the world, and not allow us to be influenced by this mentality of the world, in which we recognize that I am a child of God, that I need my Savior and I follow Jesus Christ in a world which often rejects Him and contradicts His teaching, contradicts His commandments and the teachings of His Church, that I am going to be faithful to Christ and faithful in following Him.
And so that’s why this symbolism of light is so important today, because I am to bring this light of Christ to a world which is in darkness, a world which rejects Christ’s teachings and rejoices in sin and glorifies sin, and so we must be courageous and renewed in our faithfulness today in bringing the light of Christ and carrying that light in our hearts, in our homes, and wherever we may go, that we bring this light of Christ, we are called to bring this light of Christ to the world.
My brothers and sisters, this feast day is so beautiful. It’s a reminder to us of our own dedication that we received in our baptism, that we received the light of Christ in our soul and the stain of original sin being removed. Let us today be renewed in our own commitment to Christ, to follow Him faithfully, to be faithful in the commandments of God, the teachings of the Church, to be faithful in our spiritual life and our life of prayer, but above all, to be ever more united to Christ, to let His light shine through us and that we may always carry this light to all whom we encounter.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.