4th Sunday in Ordinary Time (2)

The flickering flames of candlelight illuminate the temple, shadows dancing across the ancient stones, as Simeon takes the child into his arms. His eyes, aged by waiting, now glisten with the light of fulfillment. “Now, Master, you may let your servant go in peace, for my …

In our first reading today the Prophet Zephaniah, writing some 600 years before Christ, writes of the people he calls the anawim, which means a remnant, the leftovers, a tiny band of God’s poor and forgotten. The characteristic feature of these humble and lowly …