+In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
We human persons love rituals. Especially the English. Watching the English: The Hidden Rules of English Behaviour is a book written by English anthropologist Kate Fox. The rules and rituals she describes are descriptive, unlike prescriptive ones like those in the Highway Code, which govern the road, well apart from the ones here in east Dorset, which are based on the rules of dodgems. The book has separate chapters on pub etiquette; humour; dress codes; work and play; even rites of passage, the last chapter. I often violate those rules. Texans aren’t known, for instance, for our reserve.
Now it’s saying rather a lot that the first chapter in Watching the English is called ‘The Weather’, and most of you know exactly why. The English are obsessed with the weather. Apart from tornado season in the north, where Dallas lies, and hurricane season on the gulf coast, think Houston, the only time Texans are ritually obsessed with the weather is Candlemas, or as we call it, Groundhog’s Day. Each year, in the town of Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, people gather for the ritual of watching a certain beloved groundhog named ‘Punxsutawney Phil’ as he emerges from his burrow. If he sees his shadow, which means the sun is shining, there’ll be another six weeks of winter. Sadly, Phil’s reliability is statistically as dreary as English weather: just 39%.
A similar custom happens here. Perhaps you know this rhyme:
If Candlemas day be fair and bright, Winter will have another flight.
If Candlemas day be shower and rain, Winter is gone and will not come again.
Our penchant for Candlemas forecasting is altogether human. It’s a quaint superstition: we don’t really believe the weather on one day is a reliable predictor for future months. We just enjoy this rather amusing ritual.
In our reading from St Luke’s Gospel, Simeon had made a far less credulous prediction. For it was revealed to him by God, and therefore with infallible reliability, that he would see the Messiah. When our Lady laid our Lord in his hands, you can hear his adoration in the hallowed words of the canticle Nunc Dimittis. Here’s the traditional form.
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.
Our Lady is Saint Luke the Evangelist’s model Christian. But because of Simeon’s simple faith, today’s feast focuses as well on this somewhat obscure man. He performed two required religious rituals, and one unrequested: first, was the purification of Mary, forty days after childbirth; the second was Jesus’ dedication as her firstborn son. Of course, both were necessary only in the religious, ritual sense. Mary Immaculate needed purifying as much as God incarnate needed dedicating: not personally but communally. The third ritual? Mary and Joseph didn’t seem to request it, nor was it required by the Law: Simeon blessed them. But Simeon got the best blessing! Can you imagine, holding your Creator and Redeemer in your hands!
Kate Fox begins her last chapter of Watching the English with these words.
I’ve called this chapter Rites of Passage, rather than Religion, because religion as such is largely irrelevant to the lives of most English people nowadays … [An] Elizabethan courtier … claimed that the English were God’s ‘chosen and peculiar people’. Well, if we are, this was certainly a rather peculiar choice on the Almighty’s part, as we are probably the least religious people on earth. (p. 353)
But is that such a bad thing really? Father Kevin Goss was Vicar of All Saints, one of the local parishes in Bishop’s Stortford, Hertfordshire where I did my curacy. Ten years ago this weekend he preached his first sermon, when he encouraged his parishioners to ‘Look Up’ and ‘Reach Out’. I’ve kept Fr Kevin’s Candlemas sermon in my archives because it had quite an impact, helping me, as an expatriate newly arrived in the UK, to watch, and hopefully to understand, the English. Kevin had said:
God hates religiosity. I have a word for this: “Yuk”! We must always remember that worship and the Eucharist especially, is the springboard to mission. In our worship God wants us to celebrate His love for us, His presence with us, and to enjoy Him!! And having shared moments of intimacy with Him we are then to move out and share his love and grace with others.
So in critique of Kate Fox, it isn’t really religion the English despise: it’s religiosity. Yuk! In my experience, the English despise earnestness of all sorts. But all human persons, as part of our soul’s created nature, deeply desire reliably revealed, relational, religious ritual. In a word, what they really and truly want is to be Catholic.
The pious priest Simeon held God incarnate in his trembling hands. What a unique honour was Simeon’s! Well, not entirely. In just a moment, all of you shall ‘look up’ to the Blessed Sacrament. Many of you shall ‘reach out’ and receive Him in your hands or mouth. Someone shall there place that same Messiah, God the Son, whom blessed Simeon held. And after you’ve received, and risen, you’ll carry Christ back with you to your seat. And then, you’ll leave as walking revelation, bearing the light of Christ into the world. Just how reliably you are a presentation of the revelation is up to you.
+In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Readings at Mass
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First reading |
Malachi 3:1-4 © |
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The Lord God says this: Look, I am going to send my messenger to prepare a way before me. And the Lord you are seeking will suddenly enter his Temple; and the angel of the covenant whom you are longing for, yes, he is coming, says the Lord of Hosts. Who will be able to resist the day of his coming? Who will remain standing when he appears? For he is like the refiner’s fire and the fullers’ alkali. He will take his seat as refiner and purifier; he will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, and then they will make the offering to the Lord as it should be made. The offering of Judah and Jerusalem will then be welcomed by the Lord as in former days, as in the years of old.
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Psalm |
Psalm 23:7-10 |
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Second reading |
Hebrews 2:14-18 © |
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Since all the children share the same blood and flesh, Christ too shared equally in it, so that by his death he could take away all the power of the devil, who had power over death, and set free all those who had been held in slavery all their lives by the fear of death. For it was not the angels that he took to himself; he took to himself descent from Abraham. It was essential that he should in this way become completely like his brothers so that he could be a compassionate and trustworthy high priest of God’s religion, able to atone for human sins. That is, because he has himself been through temptation he is able to help others who are tempted.
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Gospel Acclamation |
Lk2:32 |
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Alleluia, alleluia!
The light to enlighten the Gentiles
and give glory to Israel, your people.
Alleluia!
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Gospel |
Luke 2:22-40 © |
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When the day came for them to be purified as laid down by the Law of Moses, the parents of Jesus took him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord, – observing what stands written in the Law of the Lord: Every first-born male must be consecrated to the Lord – and also to offer in sacrifice, in accordance with what is said in the Law of the Lord, a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons.
Now in Jerusalem there was a man named Simeon. He was an upright and devout man; he looked forward to Israel’s comforting and the Holy Spirit rested on him. It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death until he had set eyes on the Christ of the Lord. Prompted by the Spirit he came to the Temple and when the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him what the Law required, he took him into his arms and blessed God; and he said:
‘Now, Master, you can let your servant go in peace,
just as you promised;
because my eyes have seen the salvation
which you have prepared for all the nations to see,
a light to enlighten the pagans
and the glory of your people Israel.’
As the child’s father and mother stood there wondering at the things that were being said about him, Simeon blessed them and said to Mary his mother, ‘You see this child: he is destined for the fall and for the rising of many in Israel, destined to be a sign that is rejected – and a sword will pierce your own soul too – so that the secret thoughts of many may be laid bare.’
There was a prophetess also, Anna the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was well on in years. Her days of girlhood over, she had been married for seven years before becoming a widow. She was now eighty-four years old and never left the Temple, serving God night and day with fasting and prayer. She came by just at that moment and began to praise God; and she spoke of the child to all who looked forward to the deliverance of Jerusalem.
When they had done everything the Law of the Lord required, they went back to Galilee, to their own town of Nazareth. Meanwhile the child grew to maturity, and he was filled with wisdom; and God’s favour was with him.