We celebrate this week, on Feb. 2, Candlemas Day. It is also known as the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord. Candlemas Day marks the halfway point of winter, the midpoint between the winter solace on Dec. 20, the shortest day of the year, and the Spring equinox on March 20. Symbolically, the darkness of winter is beginning to give way to the light.

 

Most importantly, we mark the day recorded in the Gospels when Joseph and Mary brought the child Jesus to the temple. In doing so, they demonstrate the great humility that underlies even our own joining in the religious practices of faith. That is, the holy family conforms to the Jewish Law to demonstrate that they are part of the family faith. In their case that humility is a great lesson.

 

By the Jewish Law, in giving birth a mother acquired a legal (but not a moral) stain that needed to be expunged before reentering Jewish worship. On the 40th day after birth she was required to go to the temple and make a sin offering. At the same time, if the child was the first-born male, he too needed to be consecrated to God. Mary as the sinless one had no need of such offering and Jesus was already, by His unique nature, one with the Father. But in humble compliance, and perhaps for the sake of all righteousness as Jesus said to John the Baptist, Mary and Jesus accompanied by Joseph fulfilled the Law.

 

The Feast of the Presentation was also called Candlemas because the celebration of that day focuses once more upon the darkness of the sin-filled world being dispelled by Christ, the Light. In ancient times there was of course no electricity and so the role of candles had an extra importance in the practice of the faith. For that reason, the blessing of candles is part of the Mass on Feb. 2 to remind us one more time, in the wake of Christmas, that Christ is our light.

 

In 1997, Pope St. John Paul II added a further importance to this day. He established Feb. 2 as the annual World Day of Consecrated Life. It means that on that day each year the Church honors consecrated life and the concrete examples of men and women, both today and throughout her history, who have followed that calling of faith.

 

Pope St. John Paul II, in establishing this celebration gave three reasons for it. First, it is so that we might praise God and thank Him for this gift for the Church. We thank God that He has given this gift for our spiritual good and for the deepening of our faith.

 

The second reason given by Pope St. John Paul II is to promote knowledge and esteem for consecrated life. God has given this witness to the Church through the lives of the men and women in consecrated life, and in the many different ways in which they serve. In our own Diocese of Rockford holy women live their consecration by the cloistered life of constant prayer and penance as Poor Clare Colettine Nuns in Rockford. But other consecrated men and women engage in various apostolates including education, health care, elder care, promotion of family life and respect for the pre-born and even parish apostolates, just to name a few.

 

Thirdly, Pope St. John Paul II wished this day, each year, to be a moment for those in consecrated life to join together for their own reflection and renewal in fidelity to the calling entrusted to them.

 

The guidance of the Holy Spirit and the wisdom of the Church’s traditions has given us various days of celebration and reflection throughout the year. Candlemas is one of those treasured moments. We should use it remind ourselves once more of Christ our Light. And we should pray for those holy men and women in consecrated life that we have known, and pray that our young people may seek in their own lives and consciences for hints that God may be calling them to this important aspect of God’s plan for the Church.