Daily Reflection Thursday of the Fourth Week in Ordinary Time

Until 1969, this feast, which comes from the Eastern churches, was known in the West as the feast of the Purification of Our Lady or Candlemas – which is only relevant if you’re at Oxford or Cambridge and starting a new term named for it. Now we prefer to refer to it as the Presentation of the Lord.
         Although Christmas ends for most of us with taking down the decorations and coping with credit card bills, today’s celebration – as far as the Church is concerned – is what officially brings the Christmas season to a close. It was Jewish belief that, because of any bleeding while giving birth, a mother was ritually unclean and hence needed purification. On giving birth to a son, a woman would be in semi-seclusion for 40 days (in the case of a girl, it was even longer.) At the end, the mother would, present her first-born male child to the Lord to acknowledge God as the source of all life. (First-born animals were also presented and sacrificed to God.)
         Thus, in today’s feast we see Mary and Joseph – 40 days after the birth of Jesus – following the Law of Moses and bringing their Son to be offered, as the first-born, to God and for the purification of his mother, even though we believe that Mary didn’t need any purification. For the ceremony, they have come up from Nazareth to the Temple in Jerusalem, fulfilling the prophecy of Malachi in our First Reading: “Suddenly there will come to the temple the Lord whom you seek.” Guided by the Spirit, Simeon came into the Temple and recognized in Mary’s child the long-awaited Messiah.  
         Today’s feast concludes a season that resonates with a sense of light. Christmas itself, taking place just after the winter solstice, is the celebration of the end of winter’s darkness and the coming of the Light of the World. Twelve days later, we have the feast of the Epiphany when the light of a star guides the Magi to pay homage to the Light of the World. Finally, today we bring the celebration to a close with another feast of light which remembers the Lord’s entry into the Temple, the house of his Father, for the first time.
         Like Simeon may the Spirit always guide us to recognize Christ anywhere and everywhere.