Gospel: Luke 2: 22-40
Today's feast of the Presentation of the Lord, or Candlemas, recalls to our minds the event of the infant Jesus being recognized by Anna and Simeon in the Temple of Jerusalem. The feast is also a reminder and an invitation to find the presence of Jesus in other people - people we might overlook and who have unexpected roles in people's lives.
Anna visited the Temple everyday and was known to be a prophetess by many. Simeon was a simple man who also visited the Temple daily and went about humbly in his Temple devotions. Both were probably considered odd and eccentric. Consider the following: the woman who attends Mass daily lights candles, and says her rosary at the Marian altar everyday; the man who volunteers daily in the parish food pantry and who cuts the lawn for the parish. Both are a little odd and eccentric, but they are most likely our modern day Anna and Simeon.
We do not consider these people to be of great importance. They don't play professional football or do anything else we consider important. We overlook them and dismiss them day after day. But Jesus is present in the temple of their bodies, his light shines forth in their lives like today's candles - a soft, humble unassuming light of welcome. Today let us look for that light in each and every person we meet, and we will keep today's feast rightly.
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