Of Groundhogs and Divine Love

Last Sunday, February 2, we celebrated the Festival of the Presentation of Our Lord at the Chapel of the Resurrection. The festival marks the day when forty days after Jesus’ birth, Mary and Joseph brought him to the Temple in Jerusalem to offer a sacrifice of redemption and thanksgiving on Jesus’ behalf. This would have been the first time after childbirth that Mary was back in public life and so some church calendars name this same day with an older name, “The Purification of Mary,” for the rituals that marked her return. Still other traditions call this day “Candlemas” and regard it as the end of the Christmas season. In traditions that bless objects for later use worship, the community’s candles – symbols of the light of Christ – are blessed. It’s a short walk, imaginatively, from the metaphor of the light of Christ to the experience of lengthening days in late winter, so northern European folk wisdom, as it marked the movement of sun and the behavior of hibernating animals, landed on Candlemas as the day of observation and the hope of winter’s end.  Groundhog Day and the Presentation of our Lord are not just coincidental; they’re connected. 

It’s a creative and complex world in which we live.

We know the story of the presentation of Jesus from Luke’s account. Mary and Joseph’s actions on that day aren’t unusual. One must imagine that dozens of other parents were making the same offering in the Temple that day. What makes the story unique in the eyes of Luke and subsequent generations is that this traditional action of bringing a firstborn child before God is marked by the testimony of two witnesses who recognize this child as one who has been set apart. 

Luke tells us that Simeon had been promised in a vision that he would not die before he saw the chosen one of God. Luke tells us that Anna, at the age of 84, had spent the better part of her widow’s life in the Temple compound, fasting and awaiting the fulfillment of all of God‘s promises. Both of these sages recognize the fulfillment of that promise in the person of Jesus, so they declare God‘s faithfulness in song and prophecy.

However, it’s good to remember that this account is a story told in hindsight. Luke tells us at the beginning of his gospel that he consulted a variety of sources in compiling his account of the life of Jesus. Luke’s accounts are notably rich in stories from the first years of Jesus’ life. Undoubtedly, one of his primary sources was Mary. But Mary’s recollections are gathered after the resurrection of Jesus. Because of this, they are graced with a profound wisdom that only comes from hindsight. Having seen Jesus crucified, buried, and then risen again, Mary’s memory of Simeon and Anna’s testimonies say even more than the words themselves. Jesus is the sign and event of God‘s eternal sacrificial love. Faithful ones could see it there right at the beginning. It was never not true.

Over the Christmas break, My family and I attended a church service where Senior Research Professor of Theology, Dr. Gilbert Meilaender was preaching. In the course of his sermon, he made a statement that was both simple and profound: “Sacrifice is the deepest truth of life.”

I think he’s right.

When we think about it, sacrifice is a primary way (if not the primary way) of enacting love for another. It’s what spouses do for one another. It’s what parents do for their children. It’s what teachers do for their students. It’s what friends do for their friends.

This sacrifice of Jesus, signalled by Simeon and Anna, is made real in the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus. We don’t typically consider Jesus’ resurrection as part of his sacrifice. If anything, it might be its undoing. But I wonder if the resurrection isn’t the fullest cosmic manifestation of the kind of joy we feel when our freely-given sacrificial gifts of time and resources are received by our beloved ones with grateful praise and an earnest desire to do right by what they’ve been given.

Like Mary and her memories of that day in the Temple, you and I live on the side of the resurrection in which it has been accomplished. With the gift of hindsight we can join her in seeing how the sacrificial love of Christ was there all along. Such insight might equip us to look back on our own lives and recognize the moments when we have experienced divine love through the words and actions of people who offered sacrificial love to us. 

It might also empower us to look forward with the expectation that we will both give and receive sacrificial love and that, in doing so, we will be participants in Christ’s death and resurrection. This expectation can strengthen us, especially in trying and chaotic times. 

However, we may only recognize these moments of grace in hindsight. 

They say that Punxsutawney Phil has predicted six more weeks of winter. When the spring comes, that will be its own kind of resurrection.

Peace and joy,

Pr. Jim 

Rev. Katherine Museus and Rev. James A. Wetzstein serve as university pastors at the Chapel of the Resurrection at Valparaiso University and take turns writing weekly devotions.

February 5, 2025