I was ordained a priest 30 years ago this month in a village high in the Andes Mountains, in the south of Peru, on the shores of Lake Titicaca. The Feast of the Presentation of the Lord, also known as the Purification, is a huge celebration in Peru.
In many parts of the world, The Presentation of the Lord is a very important feast, as it used to be in Europe and North America. One can argue that Europe and North America should revive the importance of this celebration in the Catholic faith.
La Candelaria, or as we say in English, or Candlemas, is celebrated for 15 days with an amazing festival of traditional, folkloric dancing.
Many dozens of groups gather to dance for the Virgin and her Son in the city of Puno, on the Lake.
You’ve probably seen pictures of Andean dancers in their wild, often demon-like costumes, and heard the hauntingly beautiful music of Zamponias and other Andean pipes.
The people come together to celebrate, to dance - dancing together all their hopes, their struggles, the longings, and their prayers to Our Lady who, this day, brings to His Temple the Light of the Nations, the Glory of Israel, the Faithful God on Whom we can count.
Life in the Andean Altiplano around Puno is very precarious. Most people survive through subsistence farming. During the month of February, the crops have been sown and are growing, yet during that time a ten minute hailstorm can destroy the entire grain crop. Drought means desolation.
People turn to the foundation of our TRUE HOPE, that Holy Babe who has come to take away sin and give us life, Who is held up for all to see by the Humble yet powerful Virgin who understands us. Their traditions, their dancing, and their prayer connect them.
If there is anything we should have learned from Covid, and from what we see as we try to emerge from it, it ought to be that our life too is so fragile – and precious. Yet so many are caught by fear and sin, stuck in a sense of isolation, and separated from the roots and traditions that connect us!
Yet from the beginning of the Holy Scripture, in the book of Genesis, God promised the coming of the Holy One and His Mother.
Prophets foretold Him. His life, His miracles, His death, and Resurrection are powerful testimony of the truth that our Great Tradition proclaims - and leads the people of Puno to dance with hope and courage!
We too are called to dance for joy before this Holy Babe, the Light of the World, and the one whom He has made the Mother of the New Creation.
