The Feast of the Presentation has been named in various ways and has had a diversity of religious associations in Christian history. The date on which it falls, February 2nd, has also non-religious – even pagan – associations, as it coincides with the Celtic feast of Imbolc.
It is called the ‘Presentation of the Lord’ because on that day the Church recalls the episode in the life of Jesus when Joseph and Mary came to the Temple to present him to the priests, and through them to God, as their first-born son in accordance with the Jewish law listed in Leviticus 12 and Exodus 13. The rite was to be carried out forty days after the child’s birth, so the church commemorates it forty days after December 25th, and the reason for that interval is given in Leviticus: the mother was ritually unclean for a week after the birth and then her blood had to be purified. The Feast was also known as The Purification of Mary before the liturgical reforms of the Second Vatican Council (1962-65), and a private ceremony called the ‘churching’ of women thirty days after they gave birth was almost universal.
In Exodus, another aspect of the rite is explained: it commemorates the liberation of the Hebrews on the night of the first Passover, when the first-born of the Egyptians were slain but those of the Hebrews saved. Ever afterwards, their first-born male was considered to belong to the Lord and had to be redeemed, or bought back from God, so the offering of sacrifice by the priest had a double purpose of purification and votive offering. Leviticus laid down that a lamb be offered or two turtle doves or pigeons, if the couple could not afford a lamb. Luke’s Gospel says that Joseph and Mary were in this category.
People sometimes ask what their circumstances were, and the Gospels tell us little beyond the fact that Joseph was a carpenter. That would have meant catering for the needs of a rural subsistence economy, making such items as yokes for animals, parts for ploughs – probably a reasonable living, but stretched to meet payment of the Roman taxes. They had not gone to live in Nazareth at the time of the Presentation and the visit of the magi bearing gifts occurred after that. What became of the gifts during their flight into Egypt, for example, we simply do not know…
They did ‘everything the law required’, and the account in Luke’s Gospel adds their encounter with Simeon, who emerges in the story at this point, but is otherwise unknown. He is described as ‘an upright and devout man’ (Lk 2:26). No doubt to the surprise of the parents – he was not the priest whose role it was to do so – he took the child into his arms and declared that he could now depart this life because he had seen the salvation God had promised, describing Jesus as ‘a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel’ (2:29). This reference to light is the origin of the practice of blessing candles as part of the liturgy of the Feast, and of the name Candlemas Day.
The two parts of Simeon’s testimony are significant: Jesus as saviour of the world, but also the final liberator of Israel, the long-expected Messiah. He blessed the child and then prophesied that Jesus would meet much opposition, and Mary too would suffer. This could imply that, as a humble person, the challenge of her calling to be the mother of the Messiah would bring great hardship.
Anna, who was always in the Temple, ‘came by just at that moment.’ She is described as a prophetess, a role ascribed to only a few women in the Old Testament, so her testimony has added significance. She embodied the religious aspirations of the people and saw Jesus as the one who was to come and achieve the final liberation of Israel, a destiny shrouded in mystery.
The Presentation of the Lord, grounded in Old Testament ritual, marked a decisive stage in the transition from Israel’s expectations to the universal salvation Christ would achieve by his life, death and resurrection.
Fintan Lyons OSB