Our Sermons
2 Februrary 2025
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Candlemas
The feast of Candlemas, commonly known as the blessing of candles is the time when we remember the presentation of baby Jesus to the holy man Simeon and Anna who acknowledge him as the “light for revelation” thus creating the symbolism with candles.
According to tradition, Candlemas is also the day for observing the ritual purification of Mary forty days after the birth of Jesus as well as the presentation of Jesus in the Temple in Jerusalem (see Luke 2:21-40). The day has pagan roots and was a Christian adaptation of the older practices for this midwinter festivity from which Americans get the "Groundhog Day." In the US they still celebrate “Groundhog Day”, which dates back to the 1800s from the Pennsylvania Dutch. On this day, a groundhog will emerge from his burrow and deliver a forecast about whether spring will arrive imminently, or be delayed for six more weeks.
The story of baby Jesus presented to the Temple is full of symbolism, and has a great significance for our Christian faith and the spiritual life of the world as well. It is also a story we can relate to. Our congregation has many children. Some of us had recently had a child in the family, some of us some time ago, and some of us long time ago, but
I’m sure that all of us as parents remember the very moment we had our children in our hands, and marveled at their beauty, and also wondered in the inner depth of ourselves about what it would be of them in the future. One of the geniuses of the last century such as Albert Einstein, the father of theory of relativity, was born from modest merchant parents, who must have felt joyful and happy at the birth of their child Albert as we were at the birth of our children, but couldn't possibly imagine what he would have become of him in the future.
Now imagine the impact of the words Simeon pronounced about Jesus on Mary and Joseph. They must have felt a mixed of joy, astonishment and terrible premonition when they heard Simeon’s prophecy. Jesus was going to be the light and the salvation of the world, but they didn’t surely know what that meant. At the same time, Simeon’s prophecy predicted suffering for Mary: ‘ You yourself a sword will pierce’. Yes, Jesus will be the light of the world but also a sign of contradiction: ‘This child is destined for the fall and rise of many in Israel’. This prophecy must have given them a lot to think, meditate and pray. There was no clarity about what would have happened to Jesus in the future. What was very clear, instead, was that this event marked another key moment in their life as parents of Jesus and witnesses of his spiritual journey to become the Messiah long awaited by the people of Israel.
From that moment on their awareness of God’s presence in Jesus' life would have grown alongside Jesus’ awareness of his spiritual mission to the world. Light then doesn’t necessarily mean full clarity of events, but more of intention and consciousness of meaning.
In another world, Jesus as a light of the world means welcoming ‘clarity’ as a way of seeing the world more than a way of knowing beforehand the sequence of events in our life. In our spiritual journey toward a life lived in full awareness, and therefore joy, inner peace and freedom, clarity brings a vision: we see the world, events and people, as they are and not through the distorted lens of our prejudices and preconceptions.
In the Zen world they say, ‘Before practicing meditation, I saw that the mountains were mountains and the rivers were rivers. While practicing, I saw that mountains were no longer mountains and rivers were no longer rivers. And after practicing, I saw that the mountains were really mountains and the rivers were really rivers.’
Jesus as the light has to be understood as the unique chance we have to see the light by experiencing the light in our inner lives. This is real clarity.
‘For with you is the fountain of life; in your light we see light.’, says Psalm 36:9. We can’t have light in our lives if we don’t experience light, if we don’t immerse ourselves in the fountain of life that is God. This experience gently takes us to live mindfully. It is a contemplative experience that leads us to touch deeply the truth that is in us. It is what St Augustin of Hippo calls ‘resting in God’.
Our spiritual journey has to walk more and more the path of experiential and contemplative practices. For too long our Christian faith has been focusing on teaching doctrine, and intellectual exercises. The aim of our gathering here to celebrate the Eucharist should be experiential learning. More than acquiring knowledge we are here to taste the beauty of our inner lives, the place where the real encounter with God happens and where we are gifted with real insight, deep intuition. This encounter with the divine in the solitude of our hearts and in the interconnectedness of our lives with the lives of those who share the same faith, brings clarity. At this point clarity means awareness of a meaningful life. My life, your life, the life of our families, and our community has full meaning!
In your light we see light!
The awareness of this meaning brings joy and becomes a multiplier of peace for other people. This is the reason why the feast of candlemas is of great significance for us. It is a strong affirmation of the transformational power of the experience we live as spiritual seekers, and the longing to share this experience with the rest of the world. Again, we are not naive. We know that there is violence and hatred, and a great deal of spiritual stuntness around us, but this is a strong motivator to experience the light and reach out to those who haven’t experienced it yet. See, in the past Christians were called the enlightened ones. And indeed, after knowing what it means, we would agree with that name not because we feel better than other people in a sort of arrogant and derogatory attitude toward the world. On the contrary, light sparks compassion and love for the world, and urges us to be multipliers of the light we have experienced with anyone who comes closer to us.
Candlemas is the feast of the light which gives meaning and purpose to our lives, and a commitment with the world that needs more than ever this light.
This year 2025 we also celebrate the 17th centenary of the Council of Nicea (325), which is the one that shaped the creed as we profess it now every Sunday. This morning I’d like to invite to be mindful of what we are about to say while we profess our creed: we believe in one Lord Jesus Christ, God from God, Light from Light, and let those words deeply resonate within our hearts and minds as the allegiance to our faith and testimony of the spiritual experience we are part of every Sunday when we meet to celebrate the Eucharist.