Yesterday, we heard from same passage that we heard last Sunday the Gospel of Luke on the feast of the Holy Family, of Simeon’s prayer being answered to see the Messiah before he dies. Today, we hear the continuation of that reading about the prophetess Anna. Anna spends every moment she can in the Temple, focusing her life with prayer, fasting, and being in communion with God. She sees Jesus and his parents in the Temple and she is overcome with joy. She sees what others cannot see: the redemption of Israel. Through the lens of our faith, we’re also called to see things that others cannot see. Those who do not follow the Way of Jesus often do not see things that we Christians do.
Anna fulfilled her calling from God through the course of many years. So many in our modern world struggle with patience; they lose faith or hope if something does not happen immediately or in the way they expected. In Anna, we see a woman whose quiet patience and persistence kept her coming to the Temple day after day, to wait for the Messiah until he appeared and to be there when he did come.
I remember the last time I started the Camino, a walk of four weeks with a group of three others. From the first day of our hiking, I realized that our goals and our hiking styles were very different. It was starting out very differently from what I expected. In those first few days on the Camino, I thought: Maybe this was not a good idea. Maybe this is going to be a very long Camino. However, when we all found our ground and learned to be patient with ourselves and with each other, we grew to really appreciate our Camino experience together and learn a great deal from each other. I hiked with that group together more than 8 years ago; it has bonded us together in a very remarkable way. How can we be more patient and persistent in our lives of faith like the prophetess Anna?
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