February 2, 2020 – The day when Baby Jesus comes out of the Hard Rock Stadium in Miami at the end of the Super Bowl, and if he sees his shadow in the stadium lights, there will be another six weeks until Lent starts.
Just kidding. It is interesting though, that big church and cultural touchstones occur on the same day, and all happen to be on Sunday this year. The Feast of the Presentation of Jesus in the Temple is a feast day of the church 40 days after the Feast of the Nativity. It marks the day when Mary could return to the temple after giving birth, Jesus is presented in the temple, and an offering of thanksgiving is given by the parents. It is another instance of Jesus being recognized as the Messiah, even as an infant, in this case by two elders of the community, Simeon and Anna. The canticle, The Song of Simeon, or Nunc Dimittis, is Simeon’s proclamation. We say it at Evening Prayer, there are famous settings of the text sung at Choral Evensong, and there are many musical settings of the text.
A quick aside – we celebrate the Feast of the Presentation only on February 2. When it falls on a Sunday, we celebrate it that Sunday, but if February 2 is another day of the week, we celebrate that day. This is why we don’t celebrate this feast on a Sunday morning every year, unlike a principal feast like All Saints or Pentecost.
You might have heard this feast day referred to as “Candlemas.” This traditionally was the time when beeswax candles would be blessed for use for church and home throughout the year. Some Roman Catholic churches will combine the candles from Candlemas with the feast day on February 3 of St. Blaise of Sebaste, patron saint of sore throats, by blessing throats with two crossed candles. Alas, the Episcopal Church does not celebrate St. Blaise, and instead, along with the Church of England, remembers Anskar, Archbishop of Hamburg, Missionary to Denmark and Sweden, 865. A worthy commemoration, I’m sure, but with the all the various flu strains going around this year, maybe a few throat blessings is what we need right now.
I think I just went down another rabbit hole, or was that a groundhog hole? Another important event on February 2 is Groundhog Day – a custom brought to this country by German immigrants in which a rodent predicts the weather for the next six weeks. I really have no opinion about this, except that it helps make a funny joke about the baby Jesus seeing his shadow at the Presentation.
All this is to say that while January can feel like a very long month, spiritually, I find February even longer. My soul feels like it is in hibernation with the groundhog. I keep looking for the light of Epiphany, but the Christmas decorations are finally all put away, it is still dark in the morning when I wake up, and the weather is dreary and cold. It isn’t time to start thinking about my personal observation of Lent yet, but I’m busy planning for what we might do as a congregation during Lent.
Hibernation, however, can be a time of rest and renewal. Marking small moments, easily taken for granted, like Mary’s recovery from childbirth, offering again thanksgiving for the baby who changes the world, lighting candles in the cold darkness, walking the dog in the morning before the sun comes up, making soup at night – perhaps these communal and personal rituals are exactly what can give my soul the peace it longs for right now.