Friar’s Corner: Burn bright with Jesus
Malachi 3:1-4; Psalm 24:7-10; Hebrews 2:14-18; Luke 2:22-40
What is this Sunday’s Feast of the Presentation of the Lord all about as we bypass the readings of the Fourth Sunday of Ordinary Time? St. Luke’s gospel is the only one to give us these details. Today, since the Western Church celebrates the birth of the Messiah on December 25th, February 2nd is the 40th day after his birth. Jewish law required that the parents “… brought the child up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord, as it is prescribed in the Law of the Lord: ‘Every firstborn male shall be consecrated to the Lord,’ and to offer a sacrifice in accordance with what is stated in the Law of the Lord, ‘a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons.’”
Simeon and Anna
To the temple, the Holy Spirit brought in an elderly man who had been promised that he would not die until he had seen “the Christ of the Lord.” Simeon came into that ritual and gave this prophecy. Simeon, “took Jesus in his arms and praised God, saying:
Now, Lord, you may dismiss your servant in peace,
according to your word,
for my eyes have seen your salvation,
which you prepared in the sight of all the people:
A light for revelation to the Gentiles,
and glory for your people Israel.
This little prayer is still recited at night prayer in the Prayer of Christians.
A holy widow Anna also came at that time with a prophetic message for Mary about the child.
After this, Joseph was told in a dream not to return to their home in Nazareth, because King Herod was looking to kill the newborn king. So the holy family went down to Egypt until Herod died and then returned to their home.
As the centuries moved on and Christians were given the freedom to express their faith openly by Emperor Constantine in 315 A.D., many wonderful celebrations developed around the coming of the Messiah. The Feast of the Presentation remembered Jesus’ first appearance in the Jerusalem Temple. In St. John 8:12, Jesus says, “I am the Light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the Light of life.” At the beginning of the eighth century, Pope Sergius inaugurated a candle procession for this event. At the end of that same century, the blessing and distribution of candles became part of the celebration giving this feast its popular name, Candlemas. We still continue this practice. It used to conclude the Christmas Season.
Candlemas
St. John has eight texts about Jesus being the Light of the World. At the end of our baptism ritual, the parents or sponsors are given a candle whose light was taken from the Paschal candle. Symbolizing that the new child is to be the light of Christ in the world. At the Easter Vigil “after the lighting of the new fire, “the Paschal Candle is blessed. Then the congregation is given candles, which are then lighted from the Paschal candle. These symbols are given in ritual to remind us that our faith life comes from our Messiah, Jesus Christ. We are to light our faith light from Jesus himself.
How do we do that? We activate our faith from the sacraments of Christ’s Church and our daily prayer life. The Mass, the Eucharistic Liturgy, is the main source of our divine power. Our daily prayer life lights us up to be a brighter light for Jesus in the world. To update this image, we can use one from our secular life, the gas station. It gives us the fuel to keep our transportation vehicles empowered to move.
The Vatican identifies some six hundred renewal movements throughout the world. One of those is called the Christophers. It was founded by a Maryknoll missionary priest, Fr. James Keeler in 1945 and is still around. Its main motto was to light your faith life from the Light of Jesus Christ, building on the Baptismal and Easter candle images. As we pray, we intensify Christ’s light/power in us and we burn or glow more brightly for God as we go about our daily life in the world. The more of us who “light up for Jesus,” the more we help set others alight for Christ. Amen!
A torch for Jesus
Let us get closer to the joy of Jesus to have our light, not as a birthday candle or a single flame, but to be a bonfire or torch for Jesus. Let us light up the culture and world around us to get out of the darkness of the evils that surround us and shine with the life and love of Jesus Christ for all people.
Also helpful are saying the Chaplet of Divine Mercy and getting the beautiful picture of the face of Jesus painted by Bette Myers (www.truefaceofjesus.com). The light flowing from Jesus’ eyes will truly light up your life with more of the joy of his love for us. These will help you glow brighter with the fire of Christ’s love. “This little light of mine, I’m going to let it shine!” or “Shine Jesus, shine!”
Alleluia!
+ Father Bob Hilz
fbhilz@gmail.com
(© 2020 Father Bob Hilz, TOR)
