4th Sunday of the Year
1 February 2004
Praised be Jesus Christ! Now and forever!
Dear Friends in Christ,
As we saw in the celebrations of Christmas and Epiphany, the sacred liturgy recalls many manifestations of Christ’s glory to the world: his birth at Bethlehem the visit of the Magi, his Baptism in the Jordan, and his miracle during the wedding feast at Cana of Galilee. On Monday of this week, the Church celebrates another such manifestation connected to Christmas: the Presentation of the Lord at the Temple.
St. Luke’s Gospel (Lk 2:22-40) reminds us that the Law of Moses required all Jewish women to offer a sacrifice in the Temple forty days after the birth of a male child (eighty days for a girl!), and Mary fulfilled this obligation by traveling to Jerusalem with Jesus and Joseph. Because the Eastern Churches celebrate the birth of Jesus on the Feast of the Epiphany, the Presentation was celebrated at Jerusalem on February 14th, and there it was called the Feast of the Meeting, referring to the encounter between Christ and his mother and Simeon and Anna. At least as early as the 4th century, this feast was kept at Jerusalem, and by the 5th century it was being celebrated at Rome, where it was moved for the Western Church to February 2nd to correspond to our celebration of the birth of Christ on December 25th. And so for 1500 years, the Latin Rite Church has celebrated the Feast of the Presentation of Christ (also sometimes called the Feast of the Purification of Mary) forty days after Christmas. Although this feast lies outside of the celebrations of Christmastide, it is organically connected to that great cycle of recalling the Mysteries of the birth and manifestations of the Christ to the world.
When Simeon held Jesus in his arms, he cried out in faith that this child is "a light for the revelation to the Gentiles and glory for…Israel". From this proclamation that Christ is the light of the world, the Feast of the Presentation has for many centuries also been connected to the blessing of candles, from which it draws yet another name: Candlemas. In Christian worship, the candle is always a symbol of Christ himself, uncreated Light and the perfect reflection of the Father’s radiance. And the burning light of candles is meant to awaken in us a yearning to respond with saving faith to the Lord Jesus, the Light of all nations, God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God.
Father Newman