Snowdrops in the Cemetery
Candlemas falls on February 2 every year, forty days after Christmas. Though it’s not a Christian feast that I grew up celebrating, it’s become one of my favorites in the church year. It’s a signpost day, a turning point, a familiar intersection, when our attention shifts from Jesus’s birth to his life, death, and resurrection. As the English hymn puts it, announcing that “glory dawns in every dark place,” Candlemas is the moment at which Christmas greets Easter, almost like the passing of a baton.
Candlemas commemorates the dedication of Jesus at the temple. His parents, Mary and Joseph, bring Jesus to present him at the temple as Jewish law requires, making a sacrifice of a pair of doves or two young pigeons. There they have a serendipitous encounter with two elderly people.
One, named Simeon, had already been told by God that he would see Israel’s Messiah before he died. He goes to the Temple, sees the young Jesus, and recognizes him as the promised Messiah. He takes Jesus into his arms and declares that he is now released into that greater life. He is at peace. He has seen God’s salvation. In Latin, Simeon’s prayer begins with the words “Nunc Dimittis”; now [you] dismiss, now [you] let go. Simeon then addresses Mary and says rather terrifying, politically charged and turbulent words, acknowledging that she too will suffer personally:
This child marks both the failure and
the recovery of many in Israel,
A figure misunderstood and contradicted—
the pain of a sword-thrust through you—
But the rejection will force honesty,
as God reveals who they really are.
The other elderly wise one they meet is Anna the Prophetess. While we don’t have any words attributed to her in the biblical account, we know she was not silent. The text gives us a lot of details about her, noting her lineage and location in Israel’s tribal belonging. She was very old - married only for 7 years before becoming a widow, and then living as a widow for 84 years. During that time, the Bible says, she never left the Temple and spent her life praying and fasting.
Anna bursts into praise when Simeon was praying with Jesus and his parents and starts telling everyone in the Temple about Jesus (behold, one of the first Christian evangelists!). It is so powerful that this woman is not just documented in the pages of Scripture, but comes with these kinds of narrative receipts. Never let us imagine that God does not see, that God does not remember, no matter how overlooked we fear we are, down to these tiny details.
Snowdrops are affiliated with Candlemas, and thus with this biblical/historical event. These delicate flowers are intrepid wonders, punching up through snow and old autumn leaves, just in time for the feast; thus they are sometimes called Candlemas bells or Candlemas flowers. I’ve been on the lookout for snowdrops here but hadn’t yet spotted one. I loved spying them in cheerful clumps in the forest near our house in Berlin, or in yards in Belgium, and even in a few yards and woods in Virginia. I mentioned as much to a friend here recently, and she said, “Oh! I’ve seen them in the cemetery.” The congruence of snowdrops in a cemetery thrilled me, and I gave myself a gift of getting myself there as soon as I could.
This morning, I spent some time feasting my eyes on snowdrops, in various stages of growth, little living glories in deathly dark places. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness cannot understand it and will not overcome it. The tiny little bells of Candlemas cannot be un-rung, and they manage to ring every year, whether we see them ourselves or not.
What I heard from you last week I love getting replies to my newsletter, and it was wonderful to hear from those of you who regularly immerse yourselves in cold water! I’m amazed. It only took one cold water plunge for me to feel all authorized to crow about it and get all into creative expression mode. My hat is raised to you frigid and fearless folks! Of course < hint hint > I wouldn’t mind in the least getting snowdrop reports from your locales, if you are inclined to share.
Peace to you in the coming week. Peace and defiant joy.