In the name of God ☩
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.
February
2, the Feast of the Presentation, on which we remember that the infant Jesus
was presented in the Temple and saw his shadow, meaning we have six more weeks
of winter. Wait, that’s the wrong February 2nd holiday. In all
seriousness though, February 2nd is always the Feast of the
Presentation because February 2nd is always 40 days after December
25. Forty days was the amount of time prescribed by the Law for a new mother to
wait before coming back to the Temple for the ritual of purification in which
sacrifices would be offered. Normally, when such days fall on a Sunday, they
are moved to the next weekday. But the Presentation is such an important event
in our faith and the story of Jesus, that the Church calendar notes that this
day takes precedence over what would have typically been the Fourth Sunday
after the Epiphany.
