The Episcopal New Yorker |

Image of Christ Presented to the Temple
from “Holidays of the Church” by Martin Winkler

By the Rev. Dr. Clair McPherson

You may have grown up calling it “The Purification.” Then again, your childhood memories may be of the lovely “Candlemas.” If your family was Orthodox, you knew it as “The Meeting.” Then again, if you were brought up in the Church and are under 40, you probably know it as “The Presentation.” So what’s the real name?

Many Christian holy days have more than one name. Paschal season is also “Easter,” Christmas is “Nativity,” Epiphany, “The Manifestation of Christ to the Gentiles.” Sometimes this is because the emphasis has shifted over the years; sometimes because the day celebrates more than one event; and sometimes because the event is simply too important, too charged with meaning, to be designated by one title only.

The Feast of the Presentation, one of the seven great Feasts of the Lord in the Book of Common Prayer (BCP), has four distinct names, and for all three of these reasons: the emphasis has shifted back and forth; the event celebrated is complex; and the day is enormously meaningful.

The event commemorated on February 2 is the visit of the Holy Family to the Temple in Jerusalem 40 days after Jesus was born (and 33 after he was circumcised). Joseph and Mary came in fulfillment of the Levitical Laws, as dutiful and observant Jews. Their first duty was to “present” their first-born child to the Lord, to YHWH, for every first born, every child (or animal) that “opened the womb” belonged to him. Most parents chose to “redeem” their child by offering an animal for sacrifice. That is what Mary and Joseph did, and the deep ironies were not lost on the early Church: they were redeeming the one who would redeem humankind, ransoming us from the Devil. So it was first called “Presentation.”

But also, Mary herself had to undergo ritual “purification.” Childbirth involved the shedding of blood, and that, according to Torah, made one ritually impure (it was not about sex or reproduction, but about blood taboo). So later, as Mary was increasingly emphasized, and her role in the whole “economy of redemption” made vivid, the feast began to be called “The Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary”–a title so strong in the medieval Church that earlier editions of the BCP added “commonly called the Purification” to the name, so no one would be confused!

Then again, in the seventh century, Sergius, Bishop of Rome, brought the Feast of the Presentation to the west from his native Syria. By that time, the Song of Simeon had become a daily custom in the western monasteries that followed the Rule of Benedict to sing the Song of Simeon nightly a part of Evening Prayer (a custom reflected to this day in the BCP).So an innovation was made: a procession with candlelight. Soon the custom of blessing the candles for the year was added (in imitation of the Blessing of Oils that took place on Maundy Thursday), symbolizing the fact that the Jesus presented in the Temple is also the Light of the World hailed in the Fourth Gospel. And again by western custom, the nickname for the feats became Candlemas–which in many parts of the anglophone world is still the first name of this solemnity.

But the Eastern Church has since ancient times called it by yet a fourth name: The Meeting. The meeting, that is, between Jesus and Simeon–or between the Old and New Covenants. Simeon had been told by God that he would not taste death before his eyes had seen on the Messiah, and when Jesus came into the Temple, he was told by the Spirit to take the child into his arms. Then he sang the evening song, the Nunc dimittis:

Now, Master, you are letting your
servant go in peace
as you promised;
for my eyes have seen the salvation
which you have made ready in the
sight of the nations;
a light of revelation to the gentiles
and glory for your people Israel.
(Luke 2: 29-32, NJV)

Thus the Old Covenant gently and lovingly closes, and welcomes the new, as Simeon welcomes the Christ.
A feast with four names, equally emphasized throughout the centuries and throughout the Church: this clearly must be an important day in the year. One of the glorious aspects of the Church in these difficult times is the recovery of treasures we have lost over the centuries. And one such treasure surely is the restoration of the full Church Year. As 2007 unfolds, what a perfect way to celebrate that would be an observance of the Feast of the Presentation, the Purification of the Virgin, the Meeting of the Covenants, the Consecration of the Candles. Everything is there in the BCP: the Collect on page 239, the Eucharist on page 355. And there are forms for the blessing of candles in the Book of Occasional Services, if you wish to add the procession.

THE EPISCOPAL NEW YORKER
Church Year	January/February 2007
The Presentation: Feast with Four Names and Many Values Byline

Image of Christ Presented to the Temple from “Holidays of the Church” by Martin Winkler By the Rev. Dr. Clair McPherson You may have grown up calling it “The Purification.” Then again, your childhood memories may be of the lovely “Candlemas.” If your family was Orthodox, you knew it as “The Meeting.” Then again, if you were brought up in the Church and are under 40, you probably know it as “The Presentation.” So what’s the real name? Many Christian holy days have more than one name. Paschal season is also “Easter,” Christmas is “Nativity,” Epiphany, “The Manifestation of Christ to the Gentiles.” Sometimes this is because the emphasis has shifted over the years; sometimes because the day celebrates more than one event; and sometimes because the event is simply too important, too charged with meaning, to be designated by one title only. The Feast of the Presentation, one of the seven great Feasts of the Lord in the Book of Common Prayer (BCP), has four distinct names, and for all three of these reasons: the emphasis has shifted back and forth; the event celebrated is complex; and the day is enormously meaningful. The event commemorated on February 2 is the visit of the Holy Family to the Temple in Jerusalem 40 days after Jesus was born (and 33 after he was circumcised). Joseph and Mary came in fulfillment of the Levitical Laws, as dutiful and observant Jews. Their first duty was to “present” their first-born child to the Lord, to YHWH, for every first born, every child (or animal) that “opened the womb” belonged to him. Most parents chose to “redeem” their child by offering an animal for sacrifice. That is what Mary and Joseph did, and the deep ironies were not lost on the early Church: they were redeeming the one who would redeem humankind, ransoming us from the Devil. So it was first called “Presentation.” But also, Mary herself had to undergo ritual “purification.” Childbirth involved the shedding of blood, and that, according to Torah, made one ritually impure (it was not about sex or reproduction, but about blood taboo). So later, as Mary was increasingly emphasized, and her role in the whole “economy of redemption” made vivid, the feast began to be called “The Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary”–a title so strong in the medieval Church that earlier editions of the BCP added “commonly called the Purification” to the name, so no one would be confused! Then again, in the seventh century, Sergius, Bishop of Rome, brought the Feast of the Presentation to the west from his native Syria. By that time, the Song of Simeon had become a daily custom in the western monasteries that followed the Rule of Benedict to sing the Song of Simeon nightly a part of Evening Prayer (a custom reflected to this day in the BCP).So an innovation was made: a procession with candlelight. Soon the custom of blessing the candles for the year was added (in imitation of the Blessing of Oils that took place on Maundy Thursday), symbolizing the fact that the Jesus presented in the Temple is also the Light of the World hailed in the Fourth Gospel. And again by western custom, the nickname for the feats became Candlemas–which in many parts of the anglophone world is still the first name of this solemnity. But the Eastern Church has since ancient times called it by yet a fourth name: The Meeting. The meeting, that is, between Jesus and Simeon–or between the Old and New Covenants. Simeon had been told by God that he would not taste death before his eyes had seen on the Messiah, and when Jesus came into the Temple, he was told by the Spirit to take the child into his arms. Then he sang the evening song, the Nunc dimittis: Now, Master, you are letting your servant go in peace as you promised; for my eyes have seen the salvation which you have made ready in the sight of the nations; a light of revelation to the gentiles and glory for your people Israel. (Luke 2: 29-32, NJV) Thus the Old Covenant gently and lovingly closes, and welcomes the new, as Simeon welcomes the Christ. A feast with four names, equally emphasized throughout the centuries and throughout the Church: this clearly must be an important day in the year. One of the glorious aspects of the Church in these difficult times is the recovery of treasures we have lost over the centuries. And one such treasure surely is the restoration of the full Church Year. As 2007 unfolds, what a perfect way to celebrate that would be an observance of the Feast of the Presentation, the Purification of the Virgin, the Meeting of the Covenants, the Consecration of the Candles. Everything is there in the BCP: the Collect on page 239, the Eucharist on page 355. And there are forms for the blessing of candles in the Book of Occasional Services, if you wish to add the procession.

The Presentation: Feast with Four Names and Many Values