Fourth Sunday after Epiphany

Thoughts for the Week - Fr. R. Taouk 
3rd February 2019

The Feast of Candlemas by Rev. Fr. M. Raymond O.C.S.O.

Candlemas Day is rich with symbolism. If we can read the signs aright all our days will be wealthy with the wealth of truth that gives peace to mind, strength to soul, happiness to heart.

The liturgy lights candles three times in your life, and each time the significance is staggering. At your Baptism a candle was lighted and the Priest said to you: "Receive this burning light, and without fail be true to thy Baptism; keep the Commandments of God, that when Our Lord comes to claim His own, thou mayest be worthy to greet Him with all the Saints in the heavenly court, and live forever and ever. Amen".

"Receive this burning light … ." What did it all mean? What does a child or an adult want with a burning light?

That light was only a symbol. But the reality it symbolised staggers the mind. It symbolised Life - divine Life - the life of God - the life of Christ - which had just been infused into your soul by God the Holy Ghost working through the Sacrament. The lovely tenuousness of the flame, wavering in silence at the wax's slender tip, told eloquently of the caution you would need all the days of your earthly exile; for it was evident to all that the exquisite beauty in that little burst of gold with its base of blue could be blown out with the slightest breath. Had you been conscious that you were carrying the Christ-life within you as you walked a world from whose four corners came winds that sought to extinguish that flame, would you not have been more cautious? If you had but remembered the symbol of that lighted candle?

Yet, it should not have been so difficult to keep it in mind! For every Candlemas Day the liturgy recalled it for you as Holy Mother Church had her Priests bless, light, and distribute this symbol of Christ. This ceremony which speaks with such clarity should have had you doing what Mary does in this picture - clasping the Christ closer to your heart! For it tells you with its gracious gesture of handing you the lighted candle just what your function is in this world. You, like Mary, are to "mother" Christ.

The figure is not mine. It comes from a Cistercian of the Golden Age. Guerric, Abbot of Igny, in France, made this sharing of the maternity of Mary the focus of the lives of his monks. He told them plainly that it is only by participating in this maternity that one reaches the fullness of the Christian life. He had them cultivate an attitude of soul which is portrayed for you in all its grandeur every time you see a mother with her newborn child. She is all solicitude for that child. So should the Christian be for the Christ Child living within him. Baptism was a birth - another Christmas Day; for it was the birth of God within the soul of the baptised. Candles and Candlemas Day have deep, moving, sublime meaning for all Christians who use their memories and their minds. They say we are to "mother" Jesus!