Mary's Candlemas

I spoke on Sunday about our adoration of Christ - how adore has gone a bit out of fashion. So, having thought a bit about Simeon and Anna earlier this week I want to move to Mary.

Mary (with Joseph) brings the infant Jesus to the Temple in line with tradition and duty. Jesus is the first born male child and as such should be brought before God in the Temple. There were prescribed sacrifices for such an ocassion.

Sometimes we think of the Temple as a sort of sleepy English Parish church which, despite insurance restrictions, manages to keep its doors open all day and had a kindly priest popping in and out of its quietness. But the Temple would have been much more like Washington National Cathedral or Westminster Abbey on a busy tourist day. People from all over the place would have been visiting - would have been buying animals to sacrifice. The Temple was not only busy it was big business too.

Yet, somewhere in all this hustle and bustle Mary and Joseph came across these two (presumably) elderly characters. They already know that the child whose care has been charged to them is especially blessed by God but at this point of offering this blessing is re-iterated. This is the Messiah the prophets tell Mary - but they tell her something else too.

This child is a light to the nations, the promised redeemer but this child will grow into a man whose demands will be absolute. Right here, at the first public presentation of Jesus, a thread creeps into the story which makes us feel uneasy - Mary is told that a sword will pierce her own heart.

It is impossible for us to hear these words without thinking of the spear which was thrust into Jesus' side at the crucifixion and the agony which Mary must have felt at this act - and at realising that the baby whom she had loved so dearly and protected so fiercely, that all her hope and patience seemed to be for nothing. Jesus was dead.

This moment in the Temple gives us a clue as to the path which we are called to tread but also a clue as to the real nature of hope in Christ. Hope in Christ is not about avoidance, it is not about trying to have as easy a life as possible. By the time she gets to the Temple Mary has already faced hardship and rejection but she is still saying yes to God, still performing her religious duty.

The third verse of the hymn, Now My Tongue the Mystery Telling, goes like this

That last night at Supper lying
Mid the twelve his chosen band
Jesus with the law complying
Gives the feast its rites demand,
Then more precious food supplying
Gives himself with his own hand.

You see, the way it works is not just a rejection of all that has been and an ushering in of something completely new - it is a complete entering into the Old Covenant and a renewal of it from within. Jesus is brought to the Temple within the rules of the Old in order to allow for the New - this is not something else, something apart which God is doing, this is God's plan of salvation in action - this is a continuation of a most wonderful story but a story which has been being told in human terms instead of divine ones.

So the Mother of God comes and sets her baby before His Father. The prophets shout for joy but not without a warning of tears. We are invited to that same place of obedience and witness and in this Eucharist to consider both the joy of our offering and the pain of our separation from the God who made us.