2 February 2027 · Latin Rite
Open in the Daily Word appAlso: Syro-Malankara Rite · Syro-Malabar Rite · മലയാളം
“for my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel.”” Luke 2:30–32
Malachi spoke to a tired people whose worship had grown careless, and promised: “See, I am sending my messenger to prepare the way before me, and the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple.” But he warned: “who can endure the day of his coming… For he is like a refiner's fire and like fullers' soap.” Israel expected a king in glory. Today the promise is fulfilled in a way no one imagined: the Lord comes to his temple as a forty-day-old child, carried in his mother's arms, and the offering made for him is “a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons”, the offering of the poor.
Mary and Joseph come to fulfil the law: every firstborn son belongs to the Lord and must be presented to him, and the mother offers the sacrifice of purification. They come as ordinary, obedient, poor people. Yet the Spirit is at work. Simeon, “righteous and devout, looking forward to the consolation of Israel”, comes “guided by the Spirit” into the temple, takes the child in his arms, and sings: “Master, now you are dismissing your servant in peace… for my eyes have seen your salvation… a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel.” An old man holds the infant who holds the universe. The Church sings his song every night at Compline.
Then Simeon turns to Mary: “This child is destined for the falling and the rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be opposed… and a sword will pierce your own soul too.” The light will be a light from the cross, and Mary will stand beneath it. Anna, a widow of eighty-four who “never left the temple but worshiped there with fasting and prayer night and day”, speaks of the child to all who were waiting. Hebrews explains why he came so low: “he had to become like his brothers and sisters in every respect, so that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest.” Today the Church blesses candles, because Christ is the light, and celebrates all consecrated men and women who, like Anna, give their whole lives to God.
Theme: “My eyes have seen your salvation.”
The Lord comes to his temple: the offering of the poor, the light of the nations, the sword.
“See, I am sending my messenger to prepare the way before me, and the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple.” Malachi 3:1
“Guided by the Spirit, Simeon came into the temple; and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for him what was customary under the law,” Luke 2:27
Apply: Visit the Blessed Sacrament this week and greet the Lord in his temple.
“Consecrate to me all the firstborn; whatever is the first to open the womb among the Israelites, of human beings and animals, is mine.” Exodus 13:2
“When the time came for their purification according to the law of Moses, they brought him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord” Luke 2:22
Apply: Offer your day to God every morning this week.
“I will give you as a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.”” Isaiah 49:6
“for my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel.”” Luke 2:30–32
Apply: Light a blessed candle at family prayer and pray Simeon's song.
“He was despised and rejected by others; a man of suffering and acquainted with infirmity;” Isaiah 53:3
“and to be a sign that will be opposed so that the inner thoughts of many will be revealed” Luke 2:34–35
Apply: Thank a consecrated person for their life given to God.
The Lord comes in poverty and humility, as light for all peoples.
Let us present our lives to him and carry his light.
Take-home resolution: Pray the Nunc dimittis every night this week.
Dear brothers and sisters, through the prophet Malachi God promised: the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple (Malachi 3:1). Israel expected a king in glory. Today the Lord comes to his temple as a little child, carried in his mother's arms.
Mary and Joseph come to fulfil the law. They bring the offering of the poor, a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons (Luke 2:24). The one who will be the true Lamb is redeemed with the gift of the poor. God enters our world through humility and obedience.
Simeon, guided by the Spirit, takes the child in his arms and sings: Master, now you are dismissing your servant in peace… for my eyes have seen your salvation (Luke 2:29–30). An old man holds the One who holds the universe. That is why we carry candles today: Christ is a light for revelation to the Gentiles.
But Simeon also tells Mary: this child is destined for the falling and the rising of many… and a sword will pierce your own soul too (Luke 2:34–35). The light will shine from the cross. Mary offers her Son today and will offer him again on Calvary.
Anna, a widow of eighty-four, never left the temple but worshiped there with fasting and prayer night and day (Luke 2:37). Today we thank God for all consecrated men and women who, like Anna, give their whole lives to him.
Hebrews says he became like us in every respect, so that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest (Hebrews 2:17). Let us present ourselves to him today, and carry his light into every dark place. Amen.
Children, Mary and Joseph took baby Jesus to God's house. Old Simeon held him and said: this baby is the light for the whole world!
When you see a candle in church, remember: Jesus is our light. Let us shine for him.
Almighty ever-living God, we humbly implore your majesty that, just as your Only Begotten Son was presented on this day in the Temple in the substance of our flesh, so, by your grace, we may be presented to you with minds made pure. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Forty days after Christmas the Church goes to the Temple with Mary and Joseph, with candles in her hands. Malachi promised that the Lord would suddenly come to his temple, and Psalm 24 tells the ancient gates to lift up their heads for the King of glory. When the King does come, nobody opens any gates. A poor couple carries him in, with two birds for the offering, and only two old people recognize him. Hebrews, the alternative first reading, explains why he comes this way: he shared our flesh and blood, in order to set us at liberty from the fear of death. And an old man with the child in his arms says that he is now ready to die in peace. The key words are coming, offering and light.
Setting.
Malachi speaks after the exile, probably in the fifth century BC. The Temple has been rebuilt, but the priests offer blemished animals (1:8) and the people are weary of waiting. They ask, “Where is the God of justice?” (2:17). Chapter 3 answers: he is coming, and he is coming to the very place where worship has gone wrong.
The Lectionary offers two choices for the first reading today, and when the feast falls on a Sunday both are read. Both are treated here.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“See, I am sending my messenger to prepare the way before me, and the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple.” (3:1)
“Whom you seek” has an edge to it. The people have been complaining that God is absent. They may not be ready for what they ask for.
“But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner’s fire and like fullers’ soap;” (3:2)
The refiner melts silver to take the waste from it, and the fuller uses a strong soap to clean new cloth. Both are hard on the material, and both are done because it is valuable.
“he will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the descendants of Levi” (3:3)
The refiner sits, because the work takes patience and attention. The cleansing begins with the priests, in the house of God itself. Then the offerings will again be right (3:4).
How the Church reads it.
The Gospels apply Malachi 3:1 to John the Baptist, so the Church reads it as a promise of Christ. Today it is read beside Luke 2, where the Lord enters his temple for the first time. The Catechism says that Jesus showed the deepest respect for the Temple, where Joseph and Mary presented him forty days after his birth (CCC 583). The refining fire is not forgotten. Simeon's words about the falling and rising of many (Luke 2:34) carry the same note.
Setting.
Hebrews opens by showing that the Son is far above the angels (chapter 1). Chapter 2 then says something surprising: for a little while he was made lower than they, in order to suffer and to bring many children to glory (2:9–10). These verses give the reason. They also use the title “high priest” for Jesus for the first time in the letter, and it will be its great theme.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“Since, therefore, the children share flesh and blood, he himself likewise shared the same things, so that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil,” (2:14)
He does not fight death from outside. He goes into it. Today's feast shows the first step on that road: a child whose flesh and blood are carried to the Temple, already offered.
“and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by the fear of death.” (2:15)
Fear of death rules much of human life. Simeon in today's Gospel is the living picture of the opposite, an old man at peace with the thought of dying.
“Because he himself was tested by what he suffered, he is able to help those who are being tested.” (2:18)
He does not help from a distance. The one who stands before God for us knows what weakness is like from the inside.
How the Church reads it.
The Catechism quotes these verses when it teaches that Christ, the Author of life, destroyed by his death the one who had the power of death (CCC 635). The Second Vatican Council says that by his incarnation the Son of God has united himself in some fashion with every human being, working with human hands and loving with a human heart (Gaudium et Spes 22). Today's Mass begins with candles carried into the church. The light that came into our darkness, in our own flesh, is what this passage describes.
Setting.
Psalm 24 is a psalm for entering the sanctuary. It asks who may go up the hill of the Lord (24:3), and these closing verses are the answer of the procession at the gates. Many scholars think it was sung when the ark, the sign of God's presence, was carried into Jerusalem or into the Temple (compare 2 Samuel 6). In the Greek and Latin numbering it is Psalm 23.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“Lift up your heads, O gates! and be lifted up, O ancient doors! that the King of glory may come in.” (24:7)
On this feast the words become gently ironic. The gates of the Temple do not lift themselves, and no one in the courts turns to look. Yet the King really is coming in, in his mother's arms.
“Who is the King of glory? The Lord, strong and mighty, the Lord, mighty in battle.” (24:8)
He has come to fight, as Hebrews says, against death itself. It will be a strange battle, won by being defeated.
“Who is this King of glory? The Lord of hosts, he is the King of glory.” (24:10)
The question is asked twice. On this day it is answered by Simeon and by Anna.
How the Church reads it.
Several of the Fathers read these verses of the risen Christ going up into heaven at the Ascension (in substance), and the Eastern and Western liturgies have long used them in processions, above all at the entrance to a church. Today, as the people walk with their candles, the Church turns them to the first entrance of Christ into his Temple.
Setting.
Forty days after the birth of a son, a Jewish mother came to the sanctuary for the rite of purification. She brought a lamb and a bird, or two birds if she could not afford a lamb (Leviticus 12:2–8). Separately, every firstborn son belonged to the Lord and was bought back with a payment (Exodus 13:2, 12–13; Numbers 18:15–16).
Luke weaves these customs into one scene. He says “their” purification, although the Law speaks only of the mother, and he mentions no payment to buy the child back. The child is simply given to God, as Hannah gave Samuel at the sanctuary (1 Samuel 1:24–28). Again and again he repeats that all this was done according to the law of the Lord. The Lord's family is a devout Jewish family, living by the Torah.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“they brought him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord” (2:22)
The word for “present” is also used of offerings. He enters the Temple as one who is given.
“and they offered a sacrifice according to what is stated in the law of the Lord, “a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons.”” (2:24)
This is the offering that the Law allows for those who cannot afford a lamb (Leviticus 12:8). The Lamb of God has come, and his parents do not have the price of a lamb.
“Guided by the Spirit, Simeon came into the temple;” (2:27)
The Holy Spirit is named three times in three verses (2:25, 26, 27). Luke's Gospel opens in the Temple with the Spirit at work among Israel's faithful, before the public ministry has even begun.
““Master, now you are dismissing your servant in peace, according to your word; for my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel.”” (2:29–32)
Simeon's song draws on Isaiah 42:6 and 49:6, the servant as a light to the nations. Note the order: the light for the Gentiles is also the glory of Israel. Neither takes anything from the other.
“and a sword will pierce your own soul too.” (2:35)
Only here, in all the Gospels, does anyone speak of Mary's sorrow in advance. The word is rhomphaia, a large sword. She hears it with the child in the arms of an old man, on a day of offering.
“At that moment she came, and began to praise God and to speak about the child to all who were looking for the redemption of Jerusalem.” (2:38)
Anna, a prophet of the northern tribe of Asher, is an old widow who has spent her life in fasting and prayer. Luke places a woman beside a man, as he often does, and she is the first to speak of the child to others in the Temple. Her words are not given. It is enough that she told them.
How the Church reads it.
The Catechism says that with Simeon and Anna all Israel awaits its encounter with the Saviour, which is the name the Byzantine tradition gives to this feast. Jesus is recognized as the long-expected Messiah, the light to the nations and the glory of Israel, but also a sign that is spoken against. And the sword foretold for Mary announces Christ's perfect and unique offering on the Cross (CCC 529). The Second Vatican Council sees Mary here making the offering of the poor and hearing the prophecy of the sword, already joined with her Son in his saving work (Lumen Gentium 57). St Sophronius of Jerusalem preached on this feast: let us all hasten to meet Christ with lighted candles, carrying a sign of the light that has come (in substance). His sermon is read in the Liturgy of the Hours for this day.
Why would Mary need to be purified, if she was without sin?
The purity laws of Leviticus 12 have nothing to do with sin. Childbirth is not sinful. These laws concern fitness to come to the sanctuary, after the mystery of blood and life. Mary, conceived without sin, goes there like any other Jewish mother. She does what the Law asks, as her Son will go to John to be baptized. Humility and obedience bring her to the Temple, and not any guilt.
Why do we bless candles today?
The feast is known in many places as Candlemas, from the “light for revelation to the Gentiles” in Simeon's song. In Jerusalem in the late fourth century the pilgrim Egeria described a solemn celebration of this fortieth day, and by the end of the seventh century Rome had a procession. A blessed candle is a sacramental, a sign that prepares us to receive grace (CCC 1667, 1670). It has no power of its own. It points to Christ, and it asks us to carry him.
How old was Anna?
The Greek of v. 37 can mean either that she had reached the age of eighty-four, as the NRSV and the POC take it, or that she had been a widow for eighty-four years. Either way, Luke's point is that she had given a long life to waiting on God.
This feast closes the circle of Christmas, forty days after 25 December. Before the reform of the calendar in 1969 the Roman Rite called it the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary; it is now the Presentation of the Lord, which places Christ at the centre without losing his Mother. The Roman Missal gives a blessing of candles and a procession (or a solemn entrance) before Mass. The Canticle of Simeon, the Nunc Dimittis, is sung every night at Night Prayer. St John Paul II made this the World Day for Consecrated Life in 1997, because religious men and women, like the child in the Temple, are given to God, and, like Anna, they stay close to him. It is a good day for a parish to thank its sisters, brothers and priests.