Just as the Epiphany season has as its sub-text the topic of beginnings, so Candlemass is a hinge-point, turning our attention from the Birth to the Passion. Indeed, that’s what the final prayers at the service say. We blow out our candles lit to whim who is ‘the light to the Gentiles’ which we shall then relight only for the Easter vigil. The prayer picks up the gospel story for the day where old Simeon greets Jesus’ mother with the words that he can now die in peace because he has seen the Messiah but adds that he will be opposed ‘and a sword will pierce your own soul too’. From then onwards until Ash Wednesday the Sundays before Lent, variable in number because of the moveable date of Easter, draw our attention to who Jesus was. Thus, this year we hear of St. Mark’s record of Jesus mission, we hear again the beginning of St. John’s gospel and, as every year, on the Sunday before Lent, we hear the story of Christ’s Transfiguration, when his godhood is revealed to his disciples on the mountain. By these means the connection between Christmas and Easter is made. |
