Today’s Feast has no fewer than four different names. Each name recalls a different aspect.
THE PRESENTATION OF CHRIST IN THE TEMPLE
THE MEETING OF THE LORD
THE PURIFICATION OF THE MOTHER OF GOD
First, this Feast is called the Presentation of Christ. This is because it commemorates the Presentation of Christ in the Temple at Jerusalem exactly forty days after His Birth. Christ was brought to the Temple by His mother and Joseph, holding the customary sacrifice of two turtle doves, the offering of poor people. In the Temple Christ was carried in the arms of the Righteous Simeon and watched over by the Prophetess Anna.
This meeting between the Righteous Simeon and Anna and the Saviour is why this Feast has another, very ancient name: ‘The Meeting of the Lord’. According to age-old tradition, Simeon was one of those seventy translators who had translated the Scriptures of the Old Testament from Hebrew into Greek. Coming to the words in the seventh chapter of Isaiah the Prophet, he had been awestruck by the statement that a Virgin would give birth. He had been told by the Holy Spirit that he would live until he saw these words fulfilled. At today’s Feast which is the fulfilment of these words, the aged Simeon utters the words: ‘Lord, now lettest Thou thy servant depart in peace according to thy word, for mine eyes have seen thy salvation, which Thou hast prepared before the face of all people, a light to lighten the Gentiles and the glory of thy people Israel’. Soon after uttering these words, he died, as did Anna, who had also been waiting to see the fulfilment of the promise of the Holy Spirit that she too would see the Messiah in great old age.
The Prayer of Simeon is sung at every Evensong. According to the Old Testament, the Jews were commanded to present their male children at the Temple in Jerusalem after their Birth. This was to give thanks to God and pray for the purification of the mother and health of the child, for it was considered that after the vital forty-day period it was almost certain that all mortal danger was passed. This is why this Feast has yet another name: ‘The Purification of the Mother of God’. The Christ-Child was only a few days old; the salvation of the world was dependent on His Mother. This is why although this is a Feast in honour of Our Lord, we also give great honour today to the Mother of God. Indeed, this Feast is the Feast of all mothers. Since New Testament times, we have the custom of ‘churching’, which is similar to this rite of purification of the mother, which was carried out in the Old Testament. Nowadays children are presented for baptism and so made ready for Holy Communion, and the Prayer Book also appoints prayer to be said for the mother at this critical time.
The Presentation, the Meeting and the Purification are then all names given to this Feast, but there is yet a fourth name – Candlemass. This name was given to this Feast which recalls the lights in the Temple at Jerusalem. The Jews have a festival called Hanukkah that annually celebrates the lighting of the lights at the re-dedication of the Temple. In Christian tradition the custom spread and in many churches a prayer for the blessing of candles is said on this day. As T S Eliot put it ‘our earthly lights serve to remind us of the light invisible’. Years ago, in Colemere Church the altar and sanctuary were lit with no less than 42 candles. Two seven branched candelabra (menorah) survive to represent the presence of Christ Himself, ‘the true light that lighteth everyone that cometh into the world.’
Christopher Jobson
Feature Image: Fra_Bartolommeo_-The_Scene_of_Christ_in_the_Temple-_Google_Art_Project, P.D.