A junior government minister recently got
herself into deep trouble, when responding to a journalist, by talking
about the first ‘green shoots’ of recovery on a day when large numbers
of job losses were announced and the economic crisis seemed to be going
from bad to worse. Because of the notorious political history of
the phrase ‘green shoots’ much criticism was heaped upon this
minister. And yet it’s surely often the case that recovery from a
bleak situation begins just at the time when things seem at their worst
– the darkest time coming just before the dawn? Let’s hope that
things do start to look up in the financial state of our world very
soon.
February can seem a very bleak month indeed – cold, wet and
wintry. Despite this, the hours of daylight are getting
noticeably longer and real green shoots are actually beginning to
appear. In pagan times the Celts kept the feast of Imbolc at the
beginning of February, a feast which celebrated the awakening of the
land and the growing power of the sun. Food stocks were growing
low and the rituals of Imbolc, which included the lighting of fires,
were designed to harness divine energy to enable things to grow
again. In this bleak month, even without a pagan festival to
celebrate, we can all begin to sense spring around the corner with its
promise of new life and hope.
In the Christian era Imbolc was replaced by the Feast of Candlemas,
also known as the Feast of the Presentation of Our Lord. The
pagan fires gave way to the lighting of candles to commemorate the
infant Christ’s presentation in the temple forty days after his birth,
when Simeon declared him to be ‘the light that lightens the
Gentiles’. This light shows us that in Christ we too can be
offered to God and be found acceptable to Him. Unlike our pagan
ancestors we do not need to harness divine energy to enable things to
grow again, but we are given the opportunity to use the grace given to
us in Christ, the light of the world, to help us to grow in our life in
Christ.
And on the subject of spiritual growth February also brings us
Lent. Perhaps we see Lent as a rather bleak time, a time for
penitence and giving things up, a wintry sort of time. But the
word ‘Lent’ means spring – Lent is a spring time of the Spirit, a time
for new life and growth. We can look forward to this opportunity
to renew our Christian commitment, and prepare for the joy of Easter.
So this February can be a time when ‘green shoots’ begin to appear not
just in nature but in our spiritual lives too. And, thank God, we
begin this month with a new father in God – Bishop Andrew – who will
help us all to nurture these green shoots and help them to grow into
sturdy plants.