FEAST OF THE PRESENTATION OF THE LORD, YEAR A.
2nd February 2020.
Malachi 3:1-4; Hebrews 2:14-18; Luke 2:22-40.
Today is forty days after Christmas, Jesus Christ is presented to the temple by Mary and Joseph as prescribed by the Jewish law. Jesus Christ is presented as the ‘light that enlightens the Nations’. He is the fulfilment of God’s promise to restore Israel. The significance of today’s feast is the presentation of the light that expels the darkness of evil in the world. It is according to the church’s tradition a Candlemas. From a sermon by Saint Sophronius, Patriarch of Jerusalem, ‘Our lighted candles are a sign of the divine splendour of the one who comes to expel the dark shadows of evil and to make the whole universe radiant with the brilliance of his eternal light.’
Through the incarnation, Jesus Christ identified with humanity in order to expose and defeat the power of darkness holding sway of the entire universe. Prior to the incarnation, humanity was held captive by its own violence. Human violence as explained in last Sunday’s homily is the uncontrolled violent nature. Satan knew beforehand that humanity is unable to control its violence. Human violence is for the most part unconscious and invincible. Humans by nature are capable of good and evil. This violent nature does not define the human being, it is only but a part of our nature. Satan took hold of our uncontrollable and invincible nature to define us. John the Evangelist calls him ‘a liar and the father of all lies.’ (cf: John 8:44). The Book of Revelations calls him the ‘accuser of the brethren’ (cf: Rev 12:10). He derives joy in making us guilty. Through his antics, Satan conditioned humanity to be incapable of anything good. As such humanity gropes in the dark while clinging to his ever-elusive alternative. The darkness that we can make it on our own is the illusion that Satan offers us.
As the light of the world, Jesus Christ exposed the antics of Satan by the trick of the cross. The accuser of the brethren fell into his own trap while accusing Jesus Christ on the cross. Jesus Christ rose triumphant and became the light that will forever lead humanity out of the shadows of the evil of violence. He became the light by responding to the violence of the cross with the truth of the kingdom of God. Through Simeon’s eyes we too have seen the salvation of God which he prepared for all the nations and revealed as the glory of the new Israel, which is ourselves. As Simeon was released from the bonds of this life when he had seen Christ, so we too were at once freed from our old state of sinfulness. Through the sacrament of baptism, humanity is empowered with the light of Christ.
Anthony Ekpunobi, CM.