Some Liturgical Notes on Sunday, February 2nd, the Feast of the Presentation of Christ in the Temple

(this short piece appeared in this week's edition of our parish newsletter, All Saints Alive).

The Presentation of Christ by Hans Holbein the Elder, 1500.

This coming Sunday, February 2, happens to be the fixed date for one of the Principal Feasts in the Anglican Communion.  The Feast of the Presentation of Christ occurs forty days after Christmas.  While it has other names, The Feast of the Presentation commemorates the occasion described in chapter two of Luke’s gospel, when Mary and Joseph bring the infant Jesus to the Temple.

As faithful Jews, in accordance with the law of Moses, Mary and Joseph were required to bring their firstborn son to the Temple to be redeemed (see Leviticus 12 and Exodus 13:12-15).  Think of it as a kind of christening service.  At the same time, Jewish law required that forty days after giving birth, Mary should present herself for ritual purification, as childbirth was considered to make a woman temporarily unclean.  For this reason, this Feast is sometimes called The Feast of the Purification of the Virgin.   Older Anglicans may recall the service of “The Churching of Women”, which can be found in the old Book of Common Prayer, and is a sort of Cristian survival of the Jewish rite of purification of new mothers.

The customary sacrifice for the presentation of a firstborn sun was a lamb, but Luke’s gospel mentions that Mary and Joseph brought two birds (doves or pigeons) which was an allowable sacrifice for poorer families.   This detail in Luke reinforces the idea of the humility of the Holy Family, and helps understand Mary’s Magnificat, which stresses the lifting up of the poor over the privileged.

Luke also includes two characters, Simeon and Anna, who both recognize the infant Jesus as the promised Messiah.  Simeon and Anna are both figures of patient hope and faithfulness, people who have been waiting their whole lives trusting that God would deliver on God’s promises.  Simeon’s words have become famous in liturgy as the “Nunc Dimittis” and are used in the Prayer Book service of Evening Prayer:

LORD, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, / according to thy word.
For mine eyes have seen thy salvation, / which thou hast prepared before the face of all people;
To be a light to lighten the Gentiles, / and to be the glory of thy people Israel.

Anna, a holy widow who lives in the temple, is described as a prophet, and is honoured in the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches as St Anna the Prophet.  The only time she appears in the lectionary in the Sunday gospel readings is when the Feast of the Presentation falls on a Sunday.

Finally, another name for this feast is Candlemas. In the western church, the service began with a candlelit procession, and the priest would bless beeswax candles to be used in the church in the coming year.  Some of these candles would be distributed to parishioners for prayers in the home.  At All Saints we have observed Candlemas in the last few years when February 2 fell on a weeknight, using the Book of Common Prayer, and have distributed candles.   We will be blessing and distributing candles this Sunday in honour of this ancient Christian practice.