CANDLEMAS, 30th January 2022
Today we mark the feast of Candlemas, a celebration of the Light, from its divine origin to its multitudinous reflections in the world. This poem by TS Eliot is a hymn of praise to Light in all its different aspects:
O Light Invisible, we praise Thee!
Too bright for mortal vision.
O Greater Light, we praise Thee for the less;
The eastern light our spires touch at morning,
The light that slants upon our western doors at evening,
The twilight over stagnant pools at batflight,
Moon light and star light, owl and moth light,
Glow-worm glowlight on a grassblade.
O Light Invisible, we worship Thee!
We thank Thee for the light that we have kindled,
The light of altar and of sanctuary;
Small lights of those who meditate at midnight
And lights directed through the coloured panes of windows
And light reflected from the polished stone,
The gilded carven wood, the coloured fresco.
Our gaze is submarine, our eyes look upward
And see the light that fractures through unquiet water.
We see the light but see not whence it comes.
O Light Invisible, we glorify Thee!
So let us look back to the firstborn Light: in Genesis (1:3), on the first day of Creation God said:
Let there be light: and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness. And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night, And the evening and the morning were the first day.
Notice the division of light and darkness. Without the darkness how would we recognise the light? Together, they make up the first day.
In Psalm 119 (v105) we find the idea of the Word as a bearer of light:
Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path.
The gospel of John (1:1-9) begins:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God….
In him was life; and the life was the light of men
And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehendeth it not.
Light and darkness are opposites but, for us, both are necessary. They are part of our human condition.
St John continues:
There was a man sent from God, whose name was John.
The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all men through him might believe.
He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light.
That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.
(We heard today, in the reading from the book of Malachi, the prophecy:
I am sending my messenger to prepare the way before me.)
In) his report of the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew (5:14-17 relates that Jesus says to his disciples:
Ye are the light of the world.
And tells them not to hide their light under a bushel but to
Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven.
And in the next chapter (6:22-23):
The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light.
But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!
Here we have both light and darkness intertwined and this time it comes with an ominous and mysterious warning… which is, I think, illuminated in St Paul’s letter to the Corinthians (II, 4;6):
For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
So, the light must be allowed shine out of the darkness.
Lighten our darkness we beseech thee, O Lord.
The true power of the light is revealed in the face of Jesus as witnessed by three disciples in the Transfiguration as described by Matthew (17:1-8):
…and his face did shine as the sun, and his raiment was white as the light.
And by Mark:
And he was transfigured before them.
And his rainment became shining, exceeding white as snow; so as no fuller on earth can white them.
(Again, in our first reading, we heard Malachi describe the refiner’s fire and fuller’s soap, that is essential if we are to be refined and purified. In Hebrews, our second reading, we are given a hint about the darkness which I mentioned earlier. To be in the light would free us from the slavery that is the fear of death.)
In the beautiful image on the cover of our Order of Service today we see the light of the Christ child illuminating the temple. Recognising him at once as the Messiah, Simeon takes him in his arms and declares that he is:
A light to lighten the Gentiles and the glory of the thy people Israel.
But he also warns Mary:
a sword shall pierce through thy own soul also.
The darkness that must be endured before the Light of the World can be born – remember the bright star that led the Magi to Bethlehem.
You may think we have travelled a long way from Eliot’s beautiful poem but, in a way, we have come full circle, a circle of light. We have all been through dark days in our lives and there will more to come but, when they do, remember even in the dead of night there are those who pray continuously for us all by candlelight – remember, as Eliot puts it so beautifully, the small lights of those who meditate at midnight.
May the Lord make his face to shine upon you all. Amen.