The Candlemas feast, feast of light

We celebrated this Tuesday, February 2, in the village next to the discharge, of Andralanitra, the Festival of lights, which began around 5:30 am.

We are meeting at a crossing of three roads at the clinic, and it is there that we have the blessing of the candles. Then we went in procession to the chapel of  the City of Akamasoa . Along the way, we were immediately joined by a great multitude and we spontaneously decided to do the mass in the middle of the street, since it would have taken ten chapels to get this crowd. So we sat in the middle of the street, and we proceed mass in the Akamasoa village.

During the homily, we explained the meaning of this feast: Jésus light of the world, light of every human being, which was presented at the Temple on this day. We too can follow Jesus ‘ example and offer our children at the Temple and in the light of God. The Jewish custom was to present the first boy born in the Temple; But today, 2,000 years later, we understood that boy or girl we have equal dignity, equal rights and the same duties. This custom has been transformed by the spirit of the Gospel, where the message is that God loves all humans human, man and woman, boy and girl, and that before him there is no choice: all we are equal, all we have the same dignity, enjoy the same resemblance and the same image of God, who is love and only love.

A Jesus who was presented as a child of 40 days at the Temple, this Jesus returned in the Temple in Jerusalem at the age of 12 and he taught the scribes and the Pharisees. And when he began his public life, he returned to pray in this Temple and above all, later, he has driven out merchants, taken holy wrath upon seeing the House of God turned on and place trade. And his crucifixion, when he died on the cross, the Roman centurions have recognized that this man was son of God, and in the Temple in Jerusalem the curtains are torn. God wanted to show by this gesture that from the death of Christ, the true Temple of God, it is every human being and every person who receives the grace of God, baptism, love without borders of God. And it is from the resurrection in this inner Temple that every human being carries within itself, divine spark, essence of God himself, life par excellence, that God speaks to us today.

Grasp in his soul and his spirit this big news brought by Jesus, is the greatest spiritual revolution that every man and woman, child of God, can make itself, thanks to the freedom that Jesus has given us by his life, his word, his message and his example.

That is why this morning, on the edge of a landfill, thousands of children, young people and adults, gathered to celebrate this festival of light, and early morning we felt a great communion and a joy to be together, to be all illuminated by the word of God and the word which he offers us every day.

Each of us tender and open his hand to receive this light and this freedom of God which fill us with joy that we cannot explain. One can speak of a divine intoxication of joy in feeling so many emotions in a single moment. This is not already a proof of God’s presence in our midst?

Here are some pictures to illustrate this prayer we made in the middle of the street, in the village of Akamasoa city.

Dear brothers and sisters, live together in this freedom so dear to the men and women of today, and the light that unites us in a single human family.

Long live the light, long live humanity and long live the brotherhood!

Father Pedro