Presentation & Purification: Meditation on the World Day for Consecrated Life

February 2nd (also called Candlemas) is an occasion for several liturgical celebrations. We celebrate the presentation of our Lord Jesus in the Temple by his parents Mary and Joseph, and we also celebrate the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary, who has completed her time away from the Temple after childbirth and is now welcomed back. In 1997, Pope Saint John Paul II also established this day as World Day for Consecrated Life, to bring to the forefront of the Church’s mind this beautiful call to Celibacy for the Kingdom, so that all who encounter those consecrated men and women might be inspired to a deeper love for Jesus the Bridegroom and for the world. So why is Candlemas the best day for such a celebration? For the reasons of presentation and purification.

The Presentation of the Lord is reflected in the life of every consecrated person. By offering our lives to the Lord, the world can be changed. The consecrated person presents his or her heart to the Lord, and Jesus expands it in order to give it to the world. Our hearts and our very lives must be light; we must shine the Light of Christ into the darkest places so that all might know the great love with which God loves each of us.

The Presentation of the Lord is also called Candlemas because of the special blessing of candles which often takes place at the beginning of Mass on this day. These candles are not only a symbol of the Light of Christ, but also a sign of how the consecrated person fully gives themselves for the will of the Father to be accomplished. “He must increase, but I must decrease,” (Jn 3:30) John the Baptist proclaims, and so too the consecrated person of today, like the candle, is on that journey of being completely united to Christ.

This expansion to encompass the whole world can be painful, as we suffer with the Bridegroom in carrying the Cross. We live out that same purification that the Blessed Mother did, awaiting in hope the coming of the Kingdom of God, and preparing for it by our daily attempts of growth in virtue. And as we know, the one who has hope lives differently (Pope Benedict XVI, Spe Salvi, §2). The fullness of the consecrated person’s hope should be in the will of the Father lived out by the Bridegroom. Therefore we know the expansion and preparation of our hearts is not in vain; rather, it is a gift that allows us to see our Beloved in each of our neighbors as we work for our salvation and theirs.

So this year on the World Day for Consecrated Life, we ask you to pray for us, that we may continue to serve the Lord as He has asked us, that we may fall more deeply in love with the Bridegroom, and that, by the grace of God, we and all those we serve may one day meet again at the heavenly banquet.