The Glow of Candlemas

Each year on February 2nd is the Feast of the Presentation of our Lord in the Temple, also known as Candlemas. The shortest and darkest day of the year in the northern hemisphere is the winter solstice, usually around December 21. From that day on, the daylight grows until matching the darkness and night at the spring equinox, roughly around March 21. The midpoint between winter solstice and spring equinox revolves around—you guessed it—February 2.

Even before Christ’s coming and long after his ascension, nature knew of him—indeed, the sun, moon, stars, and earth announce his mystery in concert, as it were. Today’s liturgical calendar thus incorporates not only the historical facts of Christ’s life—such as his incarnation in the womb of Mary, his birth in Bethlehem, his presentation in the Temple, and his Paschal Mystery—but also elements of God’s own creation.

The Annunciation on March 25, for example, observes the incarnation of the Lamb of God within Mary: just as the stellar Ram, Aries, speaks “in advance and for all time of the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world” (Ratzinger, The Spirit of the Liturgy, 100).

Nine months later, on December 25, the Nativity of Jesus recounts “the light [that] shines in the darkness, [yet] the darkness has not overcome it” (John 1:5, read at Christmas Mass during the Day). “I am the light of the world,” Jesus says (John 8:12), and his light will grow brighter throughout the next months.

The passion, death, and resurrection of Christ will not take place until the spring equinox has occurred. On the Holy Night of the Easter Vigil, not only does Aries still shine down his announcement of the Lamb of God, but the sun conquers the darkness as a sign of the Son’s defeat of darkness, the sickly and lunatic moon wanes into obscurity as a symbol of sin’s demise, and the earth emerges from its winter hibernation to a spring of new life.

But between Christmas and Easter stands February 2. Forty days after the birth of Jesus observed on December 25, Mary presented her child to God in the Temple in Jerusalem. Simeon, who had “been awaiting the consolation of Israel” (Luke 2:25) in the Temple, takes Jesus in his arms and proclaims: “Now, Master, you may let your servant go in peace, according to your word, for my eyes have seen your salvation, which you prepared in sight of all the peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and glory for your people Israel” (Luke 2:29-32).

Candlemas recalls this great mystery: that the light has come into the world (December 25), that it grows in brightness even now (February 2); until that day when it destroys darkness and death by its radiant beauty. Today marks the culmination of Our Lord’s Nativity saga and is thus the final day we will have our Christmas decorations up until we once again arrive at Christmas.