A Light To Lighten The Gentiles
Candlemas. The last feastday of the Christmas cycle, that joyful season of the year during which we celebrate the birth of the Messiah, and his manifestation to the world. If there is one symbol which more than any other exemplifies Christmastide, it is “Light”. Our Lord described himself as the Light of the World, and on today’s feast of his Presentation in the Temple, the old man Simeon prophesied that the Christchild would indeed be the Light to lighten the Gentiles and to be the glory of his people Israel. The concept of Light lends itself very well to symbolizing the Son of God, with the whole analogy of a dark world of sin, illuminated by a light that would banish that darkness forever.
Light was the very first thing God created. When darkness was upon the face of the deep, God said “Let there be light” and the rest followed. God saw the light, he saw that it was good, and from that time on, we have understood that light is good and that therefore darkness is bad. God does not create bad things, and he did not create darkness. Darkness is simply what was there before anything was created. If creation disappeared tomorrow, there would be darkness again upon the face of the deep. Darkness is nothing more than the absence of light, the absence of everything. Darkness, in other words, is nothing.
We tend to think of darkness as being the opposite of light. Light and darkness—two equal forces which both exist in the same way. But this is not so. Darkness does not “exist” in the same sense as light. We can take a flashlight and point a ray of light into the darkness, but there is no way we can point a ray of darkness through the light.
The greatest of the angels was named Lucifer, a name which means Bearer of the Light. He was given this unique and exalted name by God to signify the greatness of his rank in the celestial choirs. When this Bearer of the Light vainly imagined himself to be as great as God himself, he rebelled and lost his privileged position. Although he was expelled from the Light into the Outer Darkness, he never abandoned his claim to be the bearer of the light, and his followers even today refer to themselves as the “Illuminati”, the Enlightened Ones. However, the light they bring to the world is not a true light and never has been. From the beginning, the Devil has pretended to be like God, illuminating mortal men with his own perverted version of the Truth. “Eat of the forbidden fruit,” he told Eve, “and you will become like gods.” Just as Lucifer turned into the Prince of Darkness, so did he abandon the eternal Truth of God and become the Father of Lies. Light into darkness, truth into falsehood, and then finally, paradise into sin, peace into conflict, joy into suffering. All the bad things in this world stem from the extinguishing of the Light of the World, first by Lucifer’s and then by Adam and Eve’s rebellion against the God who made that Light, who is that Light.
With Original Sin, the world was plunged again into its primeval darkness, an even more sinister darkness than before, for now it was the darkness of sin, of rebellion against God, and the betrayal of our Creator. And then into this world of sin was born a Saviour, the Son of God himself, the Light of the World. “In him was life, and the life was the light of men: and the light shineth in the darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not.” That is why, as we come together this day to celebrate the end of Christmastide, we hold in our hands these candles, their flames burning brightly, showing one last time the light of Christ’s Redemption to a world in which so many have rejected him.
Candlemas is not just some quaint tradition to brighten the dark winter months, it’s not some old pagan ritual that has been transformed into a pretty ceremony for the kids. Candlemas represents the Light of the World, and his presence amongst us. It gives us the chance to carry our own light into the coming darkness of Lent, so that we too can bring light to the world, so that we too can participate in the work of Redemption. For you see, just as light is good, so is the absence of light—darkness—the symbol of evil. So long as we hold up the light of truth, we are on the side of good-ness himself, children of light, children of our all-powerful all-loving Father in heaven. But that light starts to dim whenever we start to turn to other darker forces. If we follow that path, then eventually the light will be extinguished completely and we will be overcome by sin, finding ourselves cast out into the same Outer Darkness as the devil and his angels.
Tonight, the sun will go down and the joyful season of Christmas will be over. May the candles we hold in our hands today remain in our thoughts in the coming dark winter nights and the season of sorrow and repentance, protecting us from the darkness, keeping us in the light of God’s grace, and guiding us to the final light of the beatific vision in heaven. A last Merry Christmas to you all!