BLOWING ROCK — Father Brendan Buckler, pastor, celebrated a Missa Cantata, a sung Solemn Mass in the Extraordinary Form, on the Feast of Epiphany at the Church of the Epiphany, a mission of St. Elizabeth Church in Boone.
— Amber Mellon, correspondent
The flame of Christian witness
KERNERSVILLE — Hundreds gathered for a candlelight procession and Mass at Holy Cross Parish Feb. 2.
The feast was Candlemas – the Presentation of Our Lord in the Temple and the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary, commemorated 40 days after the birth of Jesus.
“We follow in the footsteps of the Holy Family, so we imitate, as the early Church did, the living out of the family life,” said the pastor of Holy Cross, Father Noah Carter, who also noted that in many cultures parents still present their children 40 days after birth and the new mother comes for a thanksgiving blessing in a custom known as the “Churching of Women.”
“It’s important to unite ourselves around what it means to hand on a living faith,” he said, “not just come on Sunday and hear a homily, but to these special celebrations that allow us to reenact and make present the same graces that were available to Christ in the temple, Mary during her blessing and purification, and St. Joseph who was there to witness. We have access to the same graces.”
The Presentation in the Temple
A pivotal moment in salvation history found in Luke 2:22-38, the events of this liturgical feast day are rich in meaning. The Holy Family travels to Jerusalem to present Jesus in the temple, according to the Law of the Lord. It’s here where the holy and aged Simeon takes the infant Jesus in his arms and proclaims Christ to the world as the Savior of all people, a turning point for a fallen humanity.
This brief passage is loaded with salvific elements: haunting prophecy, heroic virtue, piercing sorrow and ineffable joy. Neither Christ nor Mary needed the dedication or purification rite, as Christ is fully God and Mary is perpetually pure, conceived without sin. However, they fulfilled the Law of the Lord out of obedience – an act of love and an example to follow.
As the fulfillment of the Holy Spirit’s promise to Simeon that he would not die until he met God’s anointed one, this event brought peace to the devout man’s soul. The Spirit inspires Simeon to go into the temple when the Holy Family arrived with their offering of “a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons” (Luke 2:24). Upon seeing Jesus, he takes the Child into his arms and sings a hymn of praise, the Song of Simeon known as the Nunc Dimittis (Luke 2:29-32). At Holy Cross, the visiting Latin Schola Choir chanted this during the Blessing of the Candles.
Mary and Joseph marveled as Simeon blessed them and, in his song, praised God and announced who Jesus is and what He came to do. Simeon said the Lord had prepared Jesus to be “a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to thy people Israel” (Luke 2:32), but he also proclaimed that the
Christ would be a sign of contradiction, revealing the hearts of many, and that a sword of sorrow would pierce Mary’s soul (Luke 2:34-35). This prophecy is the first of the Seven Sorrows of Mary, the “mater dolorosa” or “Sorrowful Mother.” The prophetess Anna also worshiped and praised God at that time with fasting a prayer and “spoke of him to all who were looking for the redemption of Jerusalem” (Luke 2:38).
“What we see in the temple in the Presentation of Our Lord is that the time was fulfilled,” Father Carter said. “It was the perfect time for Our Lord to come for His mission: the whole world being at peace, as they say at Christmastime during the Christmas proclamation.”
Candlemas at Holy Cross
Faithful from the parish and throughout the area arrived at Holy Cross to celebrate this special feast. Assisting Father Carter at the blessing, procession and Mass were Deacon Mark Mejias, who serves at Our Lady of Grace Church in Greensboro; Father Britt Taylor, parochial vicar of St. Leo the Great Parish in Winston-Salem; nine altar servers; and Our Lady of Grace’s Latin Schola Choir directed by Andrew O’Connor. The congregation processed with candles through the church and briefly outside in the brisk winter air.
“With the Christ being proclaimed by Simeon, it’s a reminder to proclaim Christ to the world, so that’s why we go outside of the church with lighted candles to show that we carry that light of Christ into the world. And everyone loves processions,” Father Carter said with a smile. “It’s one of the cool things about Catholicism.”
Prior to the procession, attendees brought candles to be blessed and remained for Mass in the Extraordinary Form. Deacon Mejias delivered the homily in English and Spanish, sharing some history of the feast.
He said that the first historical description of this celebration is given in the diary of Aetheria around 390 A.D. In it, she says that the services in Jerusalem began with a solemn morning procession, a sermon on the Gospel text of the day, and finally Mass was offered. At that time, the feast was observed Feb. 14 because the birth of Christ was celebrated Jan. 6, the Feast of the Epiphany. Then it was simply called “the 40th day after Epiphany.”
Deacon Mejias asked, “Have you ever waited so long and so hard for something that you almost missed it when it finally arrived?” He went on to explain that it was with great joy that Simeon took the infant Jesus into his arms, knowing Him to be the one for whom he had been waiting so faithfully.
“It is, I think, a mark of true wisdom and discipline to not allow either your fantasies or your boredom to distract you from what God is actually doing,” Deacon Mejias said in his homily. “I wonder how many of God’s promises we don’t see fulfilled simply because we aren’t paying attention or because we don’t have eyes and hearts like Simeon’s, prepared to see God at work in unexpected places. Or maybe we don’t see it because we are more comfortable in the waiting than in uncertainty of what comes after.”
In comments after Mass, Father Carter said, “Each of us has to recognize that Christ, by calling us, is calling us to whatever location we’re in. He’s made it the acceptable time for each of us to reflect the mission of Christ, to reflect the virtues and model of holiness, especially in a world that, more than ever, is in darkness, especially in our own country with what we see in the culture and in politics and in policy. All of that it is completely opposed to the worship of God and the values of a Christian society. I would even say a decent society – so now, more than ever, we have to boldly take up the same light we received at our baptism in order to live the Gospel message in our daily life.”
Father Carter also stressed the importance of celebrating liturgical feasts like Candlemas, which has grown in popularity in recent years.
“There’s a greater emphasis on the celebration of the liturgy. That is our heritage, something we all share,” he said. “Even tonight, to have over 400 people and to have Spanish speakers and English speakers, you can see a shared heritage, where maybe they don’t share the same cuisine, maybe they don’t share the same language, but we all share the same faith.”
— Annie Ferguson, Correspondent
Pictured: A Mass in the Extraordinary Form was offered Feb. 2 for the Feast of the Presentation, also known as Candlemas, at Holy Cross Parish in Kernersville. (Photos by Annie Ferguson)