Letter from the Rectory
February 2007
This month begins with a great
Feast and ends with a great Fast! The Feast is the Presentation
of Our Lord and the Fast is, of course, Lent. On the Feast Day we
shall light candles, but at the beginning of the Fast we shall be
signed with a cross of Ash. At first sight, it would seem that
the two have little in common, but, as we shall see, this is far from
the truth – candle and ash are linked together.
The Feast of the Presentation, traditionally kept on February 2nd,
commemorates the occasion of Christ’s ‘presentation’ in the Temple
forty days after his birth. The Jewish Law stipulated that a
first-born son be symbolically ‘given back’ to God and then ‘redeemed’
by his parents with a token offering. St Luke’s account of the
moment when this happened to Jesus can be found in Chapter 2 verses 22
-40 of his Gospel.
When we ponder this event, its profound meaning begins to unfold itself
to us. In the infant Jesus, God entered his own Temple.
Fulfilling the demands of the Law, he is offered to his Father and thus
anticipates the offering he will make on the Cross many years in the
future.
St Luke tells us that, after Mary and Joseph have made the offering for
Jesus, they meet the elderly Simeon who takes Jesus in his arms and
utters the words we know as the Nunc Dimittis. These reveal him
to be the light to lighten the Gentiles and the glory of Israel.
This reference to Christ as our light is the reason why we shall be
invited to light a candle on the Feast of the Presentation and why the
alternative name for this day is Candlemas. With these candles,
we shall welcome the Lord into his Temple.
The Feast of the Presentation was long regarded as a fairly minor day
in the Church calendar, but, in recent years, it has become more
prominent. So much so, that we are now permitted to transfer it
to the nearest Sunday, which is indeed exactly what we shall be doing
at Holy Trinity – keeping it on Sunday 4th February.
Increasingly, this wonderful feast is seen as the moment of transition
from the Christmas/Epiphany Season, when we celebrate the coming of
Christ into the world, to Lent/Holy Week and Easter, when our thoughts
are focused on the Passion, Death and Resurrection of the Lord.
In the Temple, after Simeon had said his Nunc Dimittis, he spoke to
Mary and Joseph of how this child was ‘destined for the falling and
rising of many people in Israel’ and that he would be ‘a sign which
would be opposed’ and he tells Mary that ‘a sword will pierce your own
soul too’; in other words, that she would suffer deeply on account of
her son. The coming of Jesus into our world was indeed a moment
of great joy. But it inevitably led to a great crisis when the
power of love in the person of Jesus came up against human wickedness
and corruption. The incarnation inevitably led to the Passion and
the Cross. So perhaps we can begin to see that the candles we
will light on Presentation Sunday inevitably lead to the Cross of Ash
we will receive on Ash Wednesday (21st February).
At the end of the Eucharist on Presentation Sunday, we shall extinguish
our candles and shall say: ‘Here we turn from Christ’s birth to his
passion. Help us for whom Lent is near, to enter more deeply into
the Easter mystery’. We shall look forward to our Cross of Ash
and to the opportunities for penitence and growth that Lent brings us,
as we prepare to commemorate the Passion, Death and Resurrection of the
Lord.
So enjoy the Feast Day, light your candle and welcome the new-born
Christ into the Temple of your heart – then be prepared to accept the
consequences of following this Christ, as he calls you to take up your
cross and follow him. Be ready for your Cross of Ash!
Fr. John
Previous letters:
January 2007