Candlemas

What does Mary feel as she leaves the Temple. There she has encountered two people who have told her that the child whom she has brought to bless to God - as is her tradition and duty - will be great, that he is promised but into that promise is woven a warning of her own pain - a
sword will pierce her heart.

Of all of Luke's encounters and revelations, Simeon and Anna are, perhaps, the most poetic. They are cameo characters, we know little about them, and although history has tended to fill in the gaps and make Simeon an old man waiting for death - the Bible does not detail this.
Simeon and Anna are "watchers and holy ones". They wait faithfully for the time when God will come.

Mary, on the other hand, is busy. She has a new child and that is work enough. But she has traveled to the Temple to offer her child to God - to offer sacrifices for her first born boy. We can wonder how many other new mothers were there that day with squirming little bundles. How many of them were excited and exhausted. How many of them smiled as their babies wriggled in their sleep and how many worried at their infant's crying.

Into this mele of new parenthood and offering come Simeon and Anna. Simeon says these beautiful words in his song but then he adds more - this will not be easy he says, this child is an instrument of transformation. But this powerful, cutting through, entering into love
will, in the world of human pride, be taken and spat upon. This love which Mary holds in her arms, this love which she gives from her very breath will cut her deep. The soldier will pierce Jesus side and she will die a little too, not sure, broken. This is not an easy path - no promise of simplicity or verdant pastures.

Anna is less specific - she points to Jesus - she tells others about Jesus - she risks her place to say - this child, here today is the one. But Mary - Mary leaves with a task ahead, knowing now that someday somthing of her worst fears will come true. She holds her precious bundle tight, and drinks in the moment, the soft skin, the milky breath. This child is not hers to keep - but she loves him anyway. Her questions will be answered, but not today, today is for finding God in the face of this child.