A reflection for Candlemas

As the end of the Christmas season approaches, the Revd Dr Peter Doll, Norwich Cathedral's Canon Librarian and Vice Dean, shares a reflection for Candlemas.

Watch the video message above and read the full text below.

"The Feast of Candlemas, or the Presentation of Christ in the Temple, celebrated on 2 February, marks the fortieth day of Christmas and the full end of the Christmas season.

It is also known as the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary, a recognition of her time of ritual cleansing after childbirth in the Law of Moses. It is appropriate that we come for this reflection to the Cathedral’s Lady Chapel, the Bauchun Chapel of Our Lady of Pity.

William Bauchun, a local merchant and benefactor of the Cathedral, depicted in the stained glass window, had the Chapel built around 1330. A later benefactor had the vaulted roof added, with the bosses honouring St Mary. In more recent times a painting of the Presentation by the late eighteenth century artist John Opie has been added as an altarpiece.

The painting presents the dramatic events in the Temple in a remarkably condensed way. In the foreground we have Mary and Joseph, who have come to the Temple in Jerusalem in obedience to the Law of Moses to present their first-born son and to offer sacrifice in thanksgiving for his birth.

There they encounter Simeon, a righteous and devout old man to whom God had revealed he would see the Lord’s Anointed One before he died. He sees the baby Jesus, takes him in his arms and blesses God, saying the words we sing each day at evensong, the Nunc Dimittis: ‘Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy Word. For mine eyes have seen thy salvation, which thou hast prepared before the face of all people. A light to lighten the Gentiles, and to be the glory of thy people, Israel.’ Here in the painting, Simeon holds up Jesus as an offering to God, his eyes looking up, as if seeing visions of God’s promised future. ‘Mine eyes have seen thy salvation.’ In the background we also see Anna, the elderly widow who came daily to the Temple and who confirms Simeon’s insight.

Although you would expect this revelation of Jesus as Messiah come to the Lord’s Temple to be an occasion of joy and triumph, the painting and the feast are suffused with a sense of foreboding. The gaze of the infant Christ is also heavenward, full of serious apprehension. Jesus is naked, as he would also be at the end of his life, on the Cross.

The Feast of Candlemas is a day of transition, as we take one last look back towards the Crib at Bethlehem and look forward to the coming of Lent in a few weeks, and to the Passion of Christ that will follow. At the end of the liturgy of Candlemas we will come to the Cathedral’s Cross of the Passion on the High Altar, saying together, ‘Here we turn from Christ’s birth to his passion. Help us, for whom Lent is near, to enter deeply into the Easter mystery.’

And here in the Chapel we see the same juxtaposition. If we look up from the Opie painting of the Presentation, we see a medieval boss of the Pieta, of Mary mourning with the dead body of her Son just taken down from the Cross on her lap, the image known in English as Our Lady of Pity.

As we turn from Christmas towards Lent, may God guide us to negotiate with Christ the path of his suffering and death, that we might come to share with him in his Resurrection and to share with Our Lady, Simeon, Anna, and all the saints in the joy of heaven."

All are welcome to join us on Sunday 1 February at 6pm for the Candlemas Eucharist with candlelit procession, celebrating the end of the Christmas season.

The service will also be live streamed on the Norwich Cathedral Services YouTube Channel.