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A Turning Point

It may seem a little strange to call February a turning point of the year.

After all, 2025 is only a month old. A month of icy weather for all, snow and floods for some. A month in which to get used to writing 5 instead of 4. A month to remember (or forget) those ‘New Year Resolutions’.

Yet in the church calendar, the very beginning of February provides a turning point. Forty days on from Christmas, on the 2nd of the month we marked Candlemas, as it’s commonly called. 

Candlemas: the feast of the Presentation of Christ. For a moment we think back to Christmas – and meet again the six-week old Jesus being brought to the temple to be ‘presented’ to God.

It is the last major occasion in the church calendar that takes its date from Christmas – we’ve had Epiphany, the baptism of our Lord, and today, the Presentation – all firmly fixed, same day each year, every year. 

And yet now, things begin to change with all the next important dates and festivals being calculated backwards from the date for Easter. 

It all becomes much less predictable: Ash Wednesday can be anything between 4 February to 10 March – it’s 5th March this year, by the way. Easter Day, anytime from March 22 to April 25 – April 20th this year.  

The solid, comfortable reliability of the Christmas season is replaced by more uncertain times as we move in to Lent, the time of temptation, and on to the events of Holy Week and the rigours and horrors of Good Friday. 

In the Temple, Simeon recognised that amidst the joy of a newborn baby (and the Messiah, at that), ‘this child is destined for the falling and the rising of many in Israel.’ Salvation will be purchased at a heavy cost – people will be divided, they will fall or rise due to him – and Jesus’ death will ‘pierce Mary’s heart like a sword’. 

So this month marks a turning point. Our attention moves away from the nativity and towards the resurrection. 

May it be a turning point for you too.

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