The familiar carol stops at day 12 but today is in fact the 40th day of Christmas. It marks the definitive completion of the Christmas season. Especially in Catholic countries, the nativity scene typically remains in place in church until today. Thus, in January 2012, when I was studying saint-making in Rome, I had almost a full month to visit the various presepe – some monumentally elaborate, some surprisingly simple – on display in Rome’s many churches.
In the western, Latin Church, today is currently called the Presentation of the Lord, but for several centuries it was also known as the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary. According to the Gospel we just heard, Mary and Joseph took the infant Jesus to Jerusalem according to the law of Moses, in order to observe two important religious obligations. The first was the ordinary obligation to be purified after childbirth. This reflected ancient beliefs about the sacredness of blood, and the requirement of ritual purification after any direct contact with blood. The second obligation concerned the special status and religious responsibilities of a first-born son (because of God’s having spared Israel’s first-born at the time of the Exodus). Jesus, Mary, and Joseph’s participation in these rituals highlights for us, first, the inviolable sacredness and dignity of all human lives, and, secondly, the special status (and corresponding responsibilities) which now define our entire lives, because of our relationship with Jesus.
Whatever the official title, however, the most common popular title for today’s celebration in the West has consistently been Candlemas Day, because of the Blessing of Candles and the Procession - originally in Rome an early morning, pre-dawn procession, originally somewhat penitential in character – with which today’s Mass begins. This replaced a pagan Roman custom, in which the Romans honored Februa, the mother of Mars the god of war, by lighting the city with candles and torches throughout the night. of that day. In the 7th century, Pope Sergius decreed that the faithful should instead honor the Christ and his mother on this day by lighting up the whole world with lamps and candles.
The name Candlemas calls attention, obviously, to the blessed candles, but also to their light – and to Jesus the One whom that light symbolizes. In the Gospel, the aged Simeon prays, “Now, Master, you may let your servant go in peace” and calls Christ “a light to reveal you to the nations.” In the Roman Rite, this prayer, known as the Nunc Dimittis, is recited daily at Night Prayer (Compline).
A secular version of Candlemas is “Groundhog Day.” Not so long ago, everyone in the western world knew about Candlemas Day. Today many may have forgotten Candlemas completely. Yet even those who may never even have heard of Candlemas can recognize the folklore that connects the day with the change of seasons. While the temperature is still decidedly wintry, the days are getting noticeably longer. Whereas Christmas comes at the mid-point of the winter’s darkness, with the year’s shortest day and its correspondingly longest night, Candlemas comes at the mid-point between the winter solstice and the spring equinox, the transition (according to one ancient way of calculating the seasons) from winter to spring. Soon, day and night, light and dark will be equal. Thus, this last of the great winter light festivals invites us to look ahead to what these ancient seasonal feasts are meant to symbolize.
Today we recall with joy the Lord’s entry into his Temple: and suddenly (so says the prophet Malachi) there will come to the temple the Lord whom you seek. At the same time, we hear, in wise old Simeon’s words to Mary, the first reference to what lies ahead, the first reference to the cross. Behold, this child is destined … to be a sign that will be contradicted – and you yourself a sword will pierce – so that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.
So, even as we take one last look back at winter and Christmas, Candlemas looks ahead to spring and Lent and reminds us that the point of Christmas is Easter, as Simeon and Anna’s encounter with the infant Jesus in the Jerusalem Temple points us toward our own encounter with the Risen Christ here and now.
Since 1997, Candlemas has also been observed as the World Day of Consecrated Life. Just as on this day candles are blessed symbolizing Christ who is the light of the world, so too religious priests, brothers, and sisters in the various Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life are called to reflect the light of Jesus Christ to all peoples. It is obviously an especially appropriate day to pray that God will continue to bless his Church with abundant vocations to these communities so critical to the life of the Church.
For me at this stage in my life, there is a joining of images and themes. Spending their lives in the Temple, Simeon and Anna seem to me to signify religious life in an obvious way. But they are also - and very pointedly - presented as old, about to retire from their earthly service to God. Obviously, while their age makes them representative figures for Israel's long wait for the Lord, at the same time they easily elide into representatives of so many religious priests, brothers, and sisters (among whom I must include myself) who are also old, who have spent so much of our lives in the Temple, and are now preparing to pray our own final Nunc Dimittis.
This feast which seems to have so many names is also known, In the Eastern, non-Latin Churches, as the Encounter, the Feast of Meeting. Today, Christ comes to meet us, and we in turn get to meet him. Every Christmas we encounter Christ in a special way in the image the infant Jesus in the manger. When we encounter the infant Jesus in the nativity scene in church and at home, we appreciate anew the great mystery of the incarnation of God’s Son. When Simeon and Anna experienced in the infant Jesus the human face of God, they spoke about the child to all who were awaiting the redemption of Jerusalem. They hastened to proclaim and share their good news. That remains our task today – to take the light of these candles out into our spiritually still so very dark world, and so to share with all the light reflected in our own lives from the brightness of the human face of God
Homily for the feast of the Presentation of the Lord (Candlemas Day), Saint Paul the Apostle Church, February 2, 2025.