Presentation of the Lord
February 2.
Long before it was Super Bowl Sunday… long before it was Groundhog Day… it was known as Candlemas, or the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord. It celebrates the time, forty days after the birth of Jesus, when Mary and Joseph went to the Temple in Jerusalem to present the infant Jesus and to be purified of their ritual uncleanness after childbirth. This they did to follow the commandments in the Law of Moses.
This Feast of the Presentation does not capture the attention or the imagination of most Catholics these days. It falls within that liturgical neutral zone between the Christmas season and Lent. It reminds us of Christmas long after we have had our fill of Christmas carols and decorations. Nevertheless, the readings for this day, and the liturgy itself, invite us to stop, look, listen and ponder. Something very important is going on.
For one thing, this feast day is one of the few days in the liturgical year that take precedence over a Sunday when it falls on a Sunday. Secondly, a candlelight procession traditionally began the Mass for this day. This option is still in the Roman Missal. The only other day in the Church year that officially includes a candlelight procession is the Easter Vigil, the highlight of the liturgical year. Moreover, it is strange that St. Luke, in his account of Jesus’ infancy, focuses on this day and not on the day when Jesus was circumcised, as circumcision was far more important in Jewish tradition than the presentation of the infant or the purification of the mother.
So, we might ask, what is so important about this feast? What are we celebrating? What have we been missing that was there in front of us all along?
We begin by noting something strange, even ironic, about this moment. Mary, full of grace, conceived without sin, has given birth to the Son of God, who is also without sin. Yet she goes to the Temple to be ritually purified by Levitical priests who, like the rest of humanity, are sinners. What can this mean? We find a clue in our first reading. The Lord speaking to Israel through the prophet Malachi, announces the coming of one who “is like the refiner’s fire, or like the fuller’s lye. He will purify the sons of Levi… that they may offer due sacrifice to the Lord.” This is a prophecy of the Messiah, the Christ. Mary may have come to be ritually purified in the Temple, but her Son, Jesus Christ, will in turn purify the very way we worship God. Jesus, being the Son of God, will show us more fully who God really is and how we are to worship Him.
Why is worship so important? As Bishop Robert Barron has pointed out, the people of Israel could live rightly only when they worshipped the true God rightly. Every sin, from that of Adam and Eve on down, was rooted in worship of a false god, or in a failure to worship the true God rightly. The root sin of Israel in the Old Testament is idolatry. This is why the Ten Commandments begin with the commandment to worship the one true God alone. This is why every Israelite prayed this prayer daily: “Hear, O Israel! The Lord, our God is One! You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, all your strength, and all your mind.” If we look at our own lives, we can see the truth of this. Whenever we yield to a temptation and sin, we have chosen something else at that moment as the god of our life. When we worship the true God rightly, we are most open to God’s grace and help, and most capable of fulfilling His will. True worship empowers us to prosper spiritually and know joy , peace and love. Idolatry brings with it restlessness, dissatisfaction and a divided heart.
True worship is crucial for another reason. We sometimes think of worship in church as a refuge from the world and its struggles. Worship is actually the front line of the spiritual battle. It is where God’s presence and grace break in to our lives. It is also where we encounter fierce resistance to God’s way. Notice how difficult it can be for many people to even go to Mass, let alone pay attention during Mass. We see this in Jesus’ own ministry. Early on, when He first goes to Capernaum, He enters a synagogue. It is there, in a place of worship, where He first encounters a possessed person and then casts out the demon from him. Jesus begins by cleansing worship. When Jesus goes to Jerusalem at the end of his earthly life, He cleanses the Temple, thus symbolically enacting the prophecy of Malachi and announcing that He has come to bring about true worship of God. It is this act of cleansing the Temple that causes the Temple priests to seek Jesus’ death.
St. Luke alludes to all of this in his account of the presentation of Jesus in the Temple. Simeon comes along, led by the Holy Spirit, and declares that Jesus will be a sign of contradiction and will be opposed, even as He becomes a light to all the nations, calling all to true worship of God. And what is the core of true worship of God? That we see in what happens next. Anna comes along, whom we are told is an 84 year old widow. This is very significant. The number 84 is a product of 12 x 7. The twelve tribes of Israel, times seven, the symbol of completion and perfection. Anna represents Israel, awaiting her true Bridegroom, who is now here in Jesus. True worship, then, is rooted in the same kind of faithful love, the same kind of gift of one’s life, that we find in marriage. In this light, it is interesting to compare St. John’s account of Jesus meeting the Samaritan woman. During their conversation, Jesus tells her that she has no husband. This is not just a comment on her literal marital state at that moment. It is, more importantly, a comment on her spiritual state. She has no proper Divine Bridegroom. Notice that the Samaritan woman asks Jesus at this point about how God is properly worshipped. Finding the true Bridegroom means wanting to know how to love and worship Him rightly. We see the same thing in this story as we see in today’s Gospel story of the Presentation.
What can we learn from all this? The feast of the Presentation of the Lord is primarily about the gift of true worship of God. This is a great gift for us. Only by worshipping the true God rightly can we be truly open to all the grace and joy and love and healing and forgiveness that God wants to shower upon us. This worship is like the love of spouses for one another, but even more intense and total. The Lord alone is our God. When we keep this in mind every day, and worship Him as He and His Church have taught us, we are truly blessed and can live Christian lives to the fullest. This is truly a feast worth celebrating. May its light guide us every day of our lives!