Presentation of our Lord points us to Lent
LAST Thursday February 2 was the feast of the Presentation of the Lord, which is also known as the feast of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary. It is also referred to as Candlemas in AngloSaxon countries because the blessing and procession of candles is part of the day’s liturgy.
In the pre-vatican II ordo, this feast ends the Christmas season. But under the Vatican II system, the 2011-2012 Christmas season ended on Sunday January 8. That day was both the Feast of the Epiphany (the Feast of the Three Kings) and the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord.
Maybe because in the Philippines the Feast of the Holy Child Jesus (the Santo Niño) is such a big feast the Presentation of the Lord on February 2, which also presents the faithful with the image of the Baby Jesus, is not given the importance and festiveness it gets in Spain and the Latino countries. But one must realize that those Filipinos who do daily mental prayer, spent last Thursday meditating on the Baby Jesus and the Purification of His Mother and Our Mother, the Blessed Virgin Mary.
First observed in Eastern Church
The feast of the Presentation of the Lord was originally prominent only in the Eastern Church. It was in the sixth century when the West (Rome) began to observe the feast. There has always been a marked penitential character in the way Western Christendom celebrates the Presentation of the Lord.
With our Blessed Virgin Mother’s being a participant in the events of this episode in our Lord’s life, and the sadness that is in the prophecy of Simeon, this feast points the faithful to the forthcoming Lent and Easter seasons.
Lent begins on February 22 this year, for that is Ash Wednesday.
A description of the feast of the Presentation of the Lord in an old missal says:
“In obedience to the Old Law, the Lord Jesus, the first-born, was presented in the Temple by his Blessed Mother and his foster father. This is another ‘epiphany’ celebration insofar as the Christ Child is revealed as the Messiah through the canticle and words of Simeon and the testimony of Anna the prophetess. Christ is the light of the nations, hence the blessing and procession of candles on this day. In the Middle Ages this feast of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary, or ‘Candlemas,’ was treated with great importance.
“The specific liturgy of this Candlemas feast, the blessing of candles, is not as widely celebrated as it should be, except of course whenever February 2 falls on a Sunday and thus takes precedence. There are two ways of celebrating the ceremony, either the Procession, which begins at a ‘gathering place’ outside the church, or the Solemn Entrance, celebrated within the church.”
The readings
Last Thursday’s first reading gives a deep insight into the mystery of the Lord’s Presentation in the Temple by His parents, Mary and Joseph. They were complying with the Mosaic Law. Taken from the Prophet Malachi, the first reading says, “I am sending my messenger to prepare the way before me; and suddenly there will come to the temple the Lord who you seek” (Mal 3:1). From all the Gospels, we know that it is the Precursor, St John the Baptist who was born 6 months before Jesus, that God sent to prepare His way. Putting these evangelical facts together, we can gain a comprehension of the words of the Prophet Malachi. The Lord God promised that He would send a Precursor to prepare His way. Since only six months separate the the birth of St John the Baptist and that of Jesus it is clear that the prophecy was announcing that rather suddenly after the Precursor, the Lord Himself would come to this world.
And indeed, soon after the Baptist’s birth, God entered His temple. Jesus’ presentation signifies God’s entrance to His temple. God made man entered His temple, presenting Himself to those who had been truly searching and waiting for Him.
Then the Gospel of the Mass of the Presentation gives us even more profound insights into the meaning of Jesus, the God-man’s incarnation as someone like us. Mary and Joseph were good Jews. They and their clan were obedient to the Mosaic Law. They were ready with a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons for their offering.
Then there were Simeon and Anna, two venerable (that also means holy, saintly) senior citizens. They had given up their lives to prayer and fasting. Their love of God and habits of piety gave them the discernment to recognize the Messiah in the helpless Baby.
This explains why very clever and educated people seldom have the ability to see God and His works even when these are right in front of them. For prayer, fasting and other forms of mortification (self-denial, self-death) are the exercises that keep souls young and alive with the sense of wonder without which they would be blind to the Divine Presence.
Simeon and Anna we again encounter on November 21, the feast of the Presentation of Mary. Again in that feast we are reminded that it is souls who pray and nurture an interior life—through fasting, sacrifice for the sake of others and constant dialogue with God, the saints and the angels—who understand and see everything with the wisdom and vision of the Holy Spirit.
The Presentation gospel tells us of Simeon’s prophecy that Mary will suffer almost as much as her Son. But our sadness in being told of that mission of sorrow for both our Mother Mary and her son also ignites our faith, our certainty, that all of these pains—and the death on the cross—are for the redemption of us, wretched children.
And we are reminded that the redemption could only happen because Mary said Yes to God’s plan to make her the source of the human cell that would become the Baby Jesus who will grow into the man who dies for us in Calvary.