Reflection for the Presentation of Our Lord Jesus Christ in the Temple - Candlemas - 2nd February 2026
Epiphanytide is a wonderful, energetic season as we hear about Jesus bursting on to the scene with miracles and signs. It is almost too much at a time of year when all seems rather grey and sluggish! Here is an explosion of light and life, God’s glory come near in the person of Jesus Christ.
Now we come to the feast of the presentation of Jesus in the Temple, a final glance back to the infant Jesus before we commence our journey towards Holy Week and Easter. Before ever he performed any miracles or told any parables Simeon recognised him as the light that was to come to enlighten all people.
We most often think about light as that which enables us to see, whether physical light that reveals our surroundings or an inner light that brings understanding, a clear seeing of the nature of things. It is this latter meaning of light that is no doubt what Simeon is talking about, a light that will enable those outside the chosen people of God to come to know God for themselves.
But through this Epiphanytide I have been musing on a different sense of the nature of light. I have noticed how with our lack of clear enunciation it is often not clear whether we are singing the word ‘light’ or ‘life’ – has God given us light or life? In fact, maybe it is both / and? There is such a close relationship between light and life.
There would be no life on earth without the light of the sun. Sunlight is the energy that drives the weather that waters the earth. Without that cycle of water evaporating into clouds and then condensing into rain the earth would be a dry and sterile place. The energy of sunlight is also directly absorbed by plants as they grow, thus providing food for animals who cannot directly harness that energy. When we eat we are eating the energy of sunlight, the sun provides the fuel for our lives.
What I find interesting is that light just is, it does nothing. It radiates out from a source and must be absorbed by molecules that resonate with the wavelength of the light, such as the chlorophyll in the leaves of plants. The plants also do nothing, they simply allow themselves to be energised by the light falling on them. Indeed Jesus says ‘Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these’ [Matt 6:28-29]. He is asking us not to be anxious about the necessities of life but rather to trust our heavenly Father for what we need. We are to strive first for the kingdom of God and then all the rest will be given us.
Perhaps we are to strive for the kingdom of God by letting ourselves be like plants energised by the light of Christ? Jesus often likens the kingdom to things that grow, like grain, mustard seeds, yeast and vines. In looking to plants he is pointing us to organisms that simply surrender to the processes of life. It is inherent in their being to grow, yield fruit and finally to die.
We can make our lives so complicated, trying hard to figure out the nature of God and the world, what it means to be human, how we should be living and so on. Of course there is something good and God given about our intellectual capacities that lead us to seek ways of understanding and expressing the nature of things. But Jesus points us to a simplicity that must underpin all this, the simplicity of those who live in the light of God, allowing their hearts to be illumined and their spiritual lives to grow as they surrender to that light.
I am reminded of the image that Stephen Cottrell1 painted in his book ‘Walking Backwards to Christmas’, of Anna standing in the temple in the pool of sunlight coming through a small window up high. As the seasons changed she had to move to continue to be in the light, allowing herself to be warmed and illumined by this physical light but also opening herself to the light of God in her heart. When Jesus was brought to the temple she was already sensitised to God’s light and able to recognise the baby as the one who was to bring the redemption of Jerusalem.
In our Benedictine life we are constantly exposing ourselves to the light of God as we gather in church to pray the offices throughout the day, and also in our personal prayer and lectio divina. As we allow ourselves to resonate with the light revealed in Jesus Christ we are energised and fed so that we in our turn can be sources of light and life for others.
Mother Anne - 2nd February 2026
1Stephen Cottrell, 'Walking Backwards to Christmas', SPCK Publishing, 2013