This week, we can carry the light of Christ into the world
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
We celebrate the Feast of the Presentation this week on Feb 2. The better we understand how this event sits in salvation history, the more we can learn an important lesson for the spiritual life.
When Moses built and dedicated the tabernacle for the ark of the covenant, the Lord came to dwell in it in a visible way: “Then the cloud covered the meeting tent, and the glory of the Lord filled the dwelling” (Exodus 40:34).
Similarly, when Solomon built and dedicated the temple, the Lord came to dwell in it in a visible way: “The cloud filled the temple of the Lord so that the priests could no longer minister because of the cloud, since the Lord’s glory had filled the temple of the Lord” (1 Kings 8:10-11).
Then, when the temple was rebuilt and re-dedicated after the Babylonian exile, nothing happened! No cloud, no powerful visible presence. It left ancient Israel wondering: When will the Lord come back and dwell in the temple in a visible way? And the Lord promised that He would, through the prophet Malachi, who wrote around the time of the rededication: “And suddenly there will come to the temple the Lord whom you seek” (Malachi 3:1).
And then … it happens. The baby Jesus is carried into the temple by His mother. This is the moment that ancient Israel has been waiting for: The Lord has returned to His temple in a visible way. But: Surprise! The mighty one comes in smallness.
What happened then matters for us now. Often, when we look for signs from God, we’re looking for big things. And sometimes God does big things — in salvation history and in our lives. But more often God does small things. The presentation is a lesson in this — a lesson that’s re-echoed daily in the Eucharist. So — like Simeon and Anna in the story of the presentation (see Luke 2:22-40) — we need to keep our hearts open to the small things: a small “coincidence,” a quiet movement of the heart, and so on. Jesus continues to enter our lives in small ways.
In older days, this feast was known as Candlemas: There was a candlelight procession into Mass — in imitation of how Mary carried “the light of the world” into the temple — and all the candles to be used in the church for the coming year were blessed.
One of the encouragements of Candlemas is that, as participants physically carried candles, we might also think and pray about how we can carry the light of Christ into the world. Maybe, like Mary, we carry Christ literally in some way. (People who bring Communion to the homebound are a good example of this!) Maybe, like Simeon and Anna, we can point out Christ to others, even when He comes in surprisingly small ways. Maybe, like St. Joseph, we can work quietly in the background so that others can be the main event.
Whatever our way is, let’s all be a little more deliberate this week about letting the light of Christ shine in the world’s darkness.
