On the 2nd February, the last vestiges of the Christmass season in our home will be removed when I take the illuminated Crib scene out of our front window. Several Churches will also remove their Crib Scene’s as the 2nd February marks the end of the Christmass/Epiphany Season with ‘The Feast of the Presentation of Christ in the Temple.’
This story is in Luke’s birth narrative, chapter 2. (It is worth remembering that Luke’s birth
narrative focuses on Mary and Luke tells the story from her perspective.)
From this story we have the much loved ‘Song of Simeon’ –
sometimes known by its Latin name, the Nunc Dimittus, from the opening words in
Latin, ‘Lord, now let your servant depart.’
This Nunc Dimittus forms part of the Evening Prayer in
Churches of various traditions and is often used at funeral services.
The text doesn’t say, but it is most often taken that Simeon
is an old man, certainly in art that is how he is most often portrayed.
Having fulfilled his vocation, bearing witness to the Christ
Child, he can now ‘depart in peace’, that is, he can now die peacefully.
That is worth pondering on. What does a good death look like?
On Thursday last I joined the Diocesan Spiritual Formation Group as we explored
this question. We were guided by a remarkable woman, Rev. Ellie Clack who is
Chaplain at Myton Hospice. With great warmth, humour, pathos, poetry and
stories she led us through what her role to the very sick and the dying looked
like. Angry, sad, scared, irreligious
and the deeply devout of all faith traditions and none, she sought to help
people navigate their own journey.
(Links to the poems are below)
In all of this I am reminded of another famous poem rich in
allegorical mystery, The ‘Journey of the Magi’ by T.S. Elliot, and particularly
the last verse.
All this was
a long time ago, I remember,
And I would do it again, but set down
This set down
This: were we led all that way for
Birth or Death? There was a Birth, certainly
We had evidence and no doubt. I had seen birth and death,
But had thought they were different; this Birth was
Hard and bitter agony for us, like Death, our death.
We returned to our places, these Kingdoms,
But no longer at ease here, in the old dispensation,
With an alien people clutching their gods.
I should be glad of another death.
'Candlemass' marks
a hinge, a turning point from the celebration of the birth of Jesus, through to
his adoration by the Gentiles (Epiphany and the Magi) to Jesus being brought
into the Temple and declared to be the Light to the Gentiles. Or, we might
prefer to say, a light to the nations.
This was
Israel’s sacred vocation. They were called into covenant so that they might be
as a ‘city on a hill’ shining and illuminating the nations around them and
leading them to the worship of the one true God, Yahweh, the God of Israel, the
creator and founder and sustainer of the world.
Simeon
pronounces that this is now the vocation of this 40-day old baby brought to the
Temple by Mary and Jospeh for the ritual of redemption as the first born male. (Exodus
13.2)
This year,
with a late Easter, (20th April) we have a month before we turn and
begin walking with Jesus to Jerusalem and to his crucifixion, to his
death. A journey that begins on Ash
Wednesday, 5th March.
However, from
the Child in the Crib to the Christ on the Cross, it is only a matter of time.
That is for
me, why this Feast bears important significance. The ‘baby’ Jesus is unable to bring peace,
healing or redemption, for that he must grow up, become a man and walk to
Calvary and the Cross.
‘Prompted
by the Spirit, he came into the temple; and when the parents brought in the
child Jesus, to do for Him the custom required by the Law,…’ Luke 2.27
How good are
we at discerning and responding to the prompting of the Holy Spirt?
Are we aware
of our true God given vocation and are we living it out?
When it
comes to our own death might it be said of us, ‘Lord now you let your
servant depart in peace for they have borne faithful witness to your light in
both word and in deed.’
Don’t Die Before You’re Dead ©Dawn
Minott – Poems & More
I No Longer Pray - Science and
Nonduality (SAND)
Poem: “The Facts of Life,” by Pádraig
Ó Tuama | Compassionate San Antonio
No comments:
Post a Comment