Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time – Year A Feast of the Presentation of the Lord Fr. Chad S. Green Malachi 3:1-4 Mary, Queen of Peace Catholic Church Psalm 24 Sammamish, Washington Hebrews 2:14-18 02 February 2020 (Luke 2:32) Luke 2:22-40 Jesus Is Our Light When Our World Is Gloomy Perhaps some of you have noticed that we’ve been on a bit of a streak of cloudy days lately. Does anyone remember when was the last time we had a “sunny” day? N ot just a day that had some sun breaks in it, but a day that the weather experts would classify as a sunny day? A little hint: it was last decade! Way back in the teens, on November 30, 2019, was the last time we had a day that officially qualified as “ sunny ” . There were a couple news articles I read this past week that drew attention to this streak of “gloomy and soggy weather” that we’ve been enduring for now more than two months. 1 There are five ways that a day can be categorized: sunny, mostly sunny, partly sunny, mostly cloudy, and cloudy. 2 According to these articles, in the past 63 days, 61 have had more than 80% average cloud cover. While the “best” two days still only achieved 70% average cloud cover — just barely qualifying for the category of partly sunny (or, partly cloudy , depending on how you look at things). +++ Even though we only had 30% of sun in the sky on those two days, they were both meaningful days. How so? The first one was December 15 th , the Third Sunday of Advent. Recall that the Third Sunday of Advent is also known by its special Latin name: Gaudete Sunday . Which means Rejoice ! 3 We rejoice especially on that Sunday each year because the Lord is so close to coming into our world on Christmas Day! And, it turns out that the second of the two “best” days during the past two months was December 25 th , Christmas Day, itself!
Green 2 02 February 2020 Coincidence? No, not coincidence , but Divine Providence . How fitting that during this streak of gloomy days, God chose to give us just a bit more light on these two days in particular. Two days in which we celebrated the Light of our Savior coming into our darkened world. 4 No, it’s not a coincidence. For, as Saint John Paul II said during his visit to Fatima in 1982: “In the designs of Providence, there are no mer e coincidences.” 5 +++ “Okay, Father Chad…what’s your point? Are you trying to depress us, or what?” I promise, I’m not trying to depress you. Rather, I’d like for us to think back to December 15 th . As we rejoiced on that Gaudete Sunday , we had no idea that we were a quarter of the way into a long and gloomy streak. But there was an important lesson we learned that day about light and color. What is the prominent color we experience during Advent? Violet/purple. And then, what is the striking color that suddenly appears amidst the purple on Gaudete Sunday ? Rose/pink. My chasuble was pink; the third candle of the Advent Wreath was pink; there were pink flowers in the greens of the wreath; and many of you even wore pink colors on that Sunday. In my homily on that Gaudete Sunday , I described how the window of my dorm room at Mount Angel Seminary in Oregon looked out to the east. I loved to spend time in my morning prayers looking out that window, across the Willamette Valley farmlands, out towards Mount Hood . And, on very special days (when it wasn’t 100% cloud cover) , I loved to watch the beautiful sunrise over the Cascade foothills. The dark night sky oh-so-subtly lightens and takes on a slightly paler shade of blue. When that happens, we know the hidden sun is completing its lap around the far side of the Earth. It’s getting closer and closer to the horizon. Gradually, the sky beyond the mountains
Green 3 02 February 2020 gets brighter and brighter. The color changes from blue to a purplish color and, finally, to a deep reddish-pink. That blazing red-pink sky is the final stage of sunrise, letting us know that the golden rays of the sun are so close to bursting over the horizon. This natural effect of purple turning to pink just before the sunrise contains the supernatural meaning of Gaudete Sunday . The change from purple to pink in our liturgy is a sign that the Light of our Savior is coming into our darkened world. It’s a sign to us that the long night is coming to an end, and the new Golden Day of Jesus Christ is getting ready to dawn on us. And, just as the excitement and joy grow in us when we watch a beautiful sunrise, so, too, do we grow in excitement and joy as we see the signs of Christ’s Light coming into our world! +++ Today is another celebration of Chris t’s Light coming into our world! (And, providentially, it has started off as a fairly sunny day…) Today, we celebrate the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord. We celebrate that forty days after Jesus’ Birth, Mary and Joseph brought H im to the Temple in “Jerusalem to present Him to the Lord.” 6 Although Christmas Season has already ended, today is the last day of what was traditionally known as the “ Christmas Cycle ” . Our observance of this feast on February 2 nd each year is one final connection to our recent celebration of Christmas. It only falls on a Sunday like today once every five or six years. So, this year offers us a special opportunity to celebrate this festival of Jesus’ Light in our world . In today’s Gospel, we were introduced to two special people who were waiting for and particularly affected by seeing the Light of our Newborn Savior. Simeon and the Prophetess Anna had been waiting for quite a long time to see the Light. For them, the wait was much longer than our mere 63 days. Anna may have been waiting 60 years or more to see the Light of
Green 4 02 February 2020 Jesus. 7 For Simeon, perhaps much longer. An ancient legend declares that Simeon miraculously lived 360 years until he finally saw the Light of Jesus! 8 Sixty-three days without seeing the light of a sunny day doesn’t seem so long now, does it? +++ What was that moment like for Anna and Simeon? After years, decades, perhaps centuries of waiting, what did they feel in that moment? What was the look on their faces? Did others see them and take notice? Did they come over to join in the excitement? Were they, too, drawn to the Light of Christ in that moment? Once again, on this celebration of Light in a gloomy time, we can turn to the example of a sunrise for a notion of what Simeon and Anna felt when they saw the Light of Christ dawn upon them. Just a few days ago, on Thursday morning, did any of you happen to see the spectacular sunrise? When I looked out my window that Thursday morning, something looked different. There was something different about the clouds in the sky. Rather than the usual tones of drak gray and light gray, they were slightly pink . A sign from Heaven that the dark and gloom of night was ending, and that something spectacular was on its way! I had to sit down and watch it unfold. What would have been a beautiful sunrise on any morning was that much more magnificent after 63 consecutive gloomy days. I’m sure many of you also took notice, and we weren’t the only ones. I saw several of my neighbors walk out of their apartments into the early morning cold so that they could take in the blazing pink glory and snap pictures to remember and share it. Furthermore, #SeattleSunrise was trending on social media that morning, as hundreds of people posted pictures and made comments about what they were experiencing. These are some examples of what people tweeted:
Green 5 02 February 2020 “i gasped on the way to work this morning. it was an epic sunrise.” “Breaking (news): We have a sunrise in #Seattle today. I repeat...the sun does exist.” “The world today seems dark. But here is a (beautiful) sunrise…this morning.” “Have you ever seen a #Sunrise so beautiful you can’t even take a picture bec ause it wouldn’t do it justice? One so amazing that it makes you say ‘wow’ out -loud to yourself?! That’s me right now #Seattle. ” Finally, leave it to the National Weather Service to splash a dose of reality onto the beautiful morning. They wrote: “Enjoy the dry weather while it lasts -the next system arrives this afternoon.” And, boy, were they right! +++ These joyful reactions from folks like you and me at seeing a beautiful sunrise in the midst of a gloomy streak of days, they give us an idea of what it would have been like to be there on that holy day when Mary and Joseph brought Jesus to the Temple in Jerusalem. What it might’ve been like to witness the Light of the world dawning upon Simeon, Anna, and all those who were blessed to be there and see Him. The reaction that we feel at seeing a beautiful sunrise, it’s a gift from God. But it’s also a sign from God. The beautiful things in nature are signs to us that reveal the Beauty of the One who created our world. The joy we feel and the way we are attracted to beautiful things in nature demonstrates how our hearts are made for communion with God, and His Beauty, and His Truth, and His Love. 9 And when our world seems dark and gloomy and far from God —that’s just when God sends His Light into our world to show us that He is on His way to save us! Yes, there are times when our world is gloomy and dark. But God doesn’t leave us in gloom and darkness. When the sun rises each morning, it’s a daily reminder of God’s Presence and God’s Promise. God promised to be with us. 10 God promised to send His Light into our world. 11 To take away our darkness. To save us from death. To set us free from sin. 12 To show
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