Candlemas 2026
Forty days after His birth from the Virgin Mary, Jesus is presented in the temple by His parents. This is an act of thanksgiving. Mary and Joseph are young parents immensely grateful for the gift of life. Their heart and their whole being are drawn effortlessly to gratitude. This is an act of adoration, too, for life comes from God alone. When the Child is offered to the Father in the temple, God is adored as the source of life, the one Creator of heaven and earth, of each creature and of each soul. He is the only One a human heart is allowed and indeed invited to adore in reverence and joy with a total surrender of self.
The highest gifts call for the greatest gratitude. They command, too, the greatest gift in return. This is at the heart of what we call sacrifice. Jesus is offered as a victim of adoration and thanksgiving, in a sort of Eucharistic fashion. Mary offers Him and her offering, too, takes the form of a sacrifice, the only offering adapted to her deepest feelings. She gives back to God the Child she has received from Him – and from Him alone. She is the true daughter of Abraham offering his son Isaac.
However, the wisdom of the Law allows for the substitution of a pair of turtledoves for the child. These animals will be put to death and offered up as a whole burnt offering to God. This does not mean that by offering them Mary no longer needs to offer her Son. On the contrary, the very meaning of the sacrifice of these animals is to express the interior sacrifice of Mary, the very gift of her heart. They represent the total gift which Mary is making. She offers her Son and her whole self to God as a joyful celebration of His overflowing goodness, love and mercy. You can freely give your life back to the Author of life for He can only give more life in return. The sacrifice is symbolised in the animals, but in happens in the heart. It is essentially spiritual. It is an act of love which flows from the heart of Mary to the Heart of the Father. This is a free exchange of gifts between God and the creature under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. This is a celebration of life, the total sacrifice of temporal life by bringing it back to the eternal source in which it is constantly renewed. “Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name! Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits, so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.” (Ps 103.1-2.5)
This exchange of gift and sacrifice, this admirable commercium, this wonderful trade, forms the background for another gift of the Holy Spirit: the encounter with Simeon and Anna. Within God’s gifts always lie other more profound gifts. With the keen eye of a prophet who has been taught by God, Simeon recognises the Child of the promise. Jesus is the salvation of Israel made flesh. He is essentially victim: of propitiation, of reparation, of reconciliation, of redemption and perfect adoration.
At this point, Simeon can die – and we can all die together with him. Nunc dimittis servum tuum in pace, “Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace, according to your word; for my eyes have seen your salvation”. You can let me go, now, says Simeon, for this very now is filled up to the brim with the salvation which you once promised and are now giving.
When we see Jesus presented by Mary and the Church, we, too, see our salvation. We perceive through faith the gift of life. We get to “know the gift of God” (cf. Jn 4.10). This is why we are ready to lose our life for Jesus and the Gospel so as retrieve it incorruptible and eternal in Christ. Similarly, when we receive the Body and the Blood of the Risen Christ from the altar, we open to Jesus the doors of our heart so that He may relive in us His complete mystery of death and life.
By presenting Jesus to the temple, Mary is introduced to the mystery of the Sacrifice of her Son, a sacrifice which is rooted in the mystery of God Himself. In turn, Mary introduces the Church as a whole and each of us to partaking in Christ’s sacrifice. Each time Mass is celebrated, Mary is with us and the Now of our life is filled with the presence of Jesus, the Eucharistic Victim who saves the world.