The Feast of Transition

Dear Friends,

Last Thursday, February 2, was Groundhog’s Day, when Punxsutawny Phil determined the length of winter by his shadow. But in our liturgical calendar, the Catholic Church celebrates February 2 as the Presentation of Jesus in the Temple.

This feast has been part of our church year since the 4^th century – long before Punxsutawny Phil emerged. It has been known by a variety of names with different emphases.

Jewish law required that Jesus be brought to the Temple 40 days after his birth. His presentation was tied into another aspect of Jewish law, namely that his mother was considered ritually unclean for 40 days after his birth. (It was 80 days for a girl baby.) This day marked her Purification.

By the 5^th century, the term Candlemas was used for this feast. People came to church and received blessed candles to take home for protection from encroaching darkness. The Light of Christ was among them. Candles were also seen as a sign of prosperity. The really poor could not afford to light a darkened house.

By 1969, the thinking of people at large had changed. Women and men agreed that ancient blood taboos that rendered women unclean were unacceptable. Electricity had rendered candles unnecessary to light a room.

So, February 2 became more commonly known as the Feast of the Presentation of Jesus. And what might it mean for us in our day?

The Rev. Wilda Gafney, Episcopal priest and Scripture scholar, invites us to think of this as a feast of transition. Mary, the Mother of God, in her time, moved from being ritually unclean to being welcomed for who she was.

In our day, some people are unwanted in their churches or families. Think of people who are gay, lesbian, and transgender. They are also the beloved of God. Who is to say they are not? Yet some churches don’t accept them as they are. The work they have had to do in order to be true to themselves and their God is not recognized.

Or in some families, sons, daughters, cousins, parents are rejected because they have been divorced or married outside family norms or have otherwise embraced a way of life that is unacceptable from within a group that has power over them.

Just as Jesus, Mary and Joseph were recognized and welcomed by Simeon and Anna, elders of their faith community, this feast invites us to recognize people who have made significant transitions in their lives. “Without either passing judgment on another culture or co-opting the specific practice of another religion, we can make physical and ritual space for human bodies in all their life-stage changes and welcome and re-welcome to and back to the community upon and after significant transitions.”  (Gafney)

The gospel for this feast provides us with a meditation on the meaning of this welcome and how to make it happen.

~Sister Joan Sobala