Message of Abbot Paul - 30th December 2021
Message from Fr Paul for Thursday, 30th December 2021
This morning we shall be at the vet’s again for a check up and to take a good look at the wound on that knee which is taking so long to heal, because of its position and the fact that there’s no flesh in that spot, just skin and bone. It looks good to me, but I’ve already learned not to count my chickens before they hatch. The vet will know best. Toby is looking contented and his old self again, but he’s still going to have to take things easy for another three months. I just hope he no longer has to wear that Elizabeth collar, when left alone.
Today we’re in the sixth day of the Christmas Octave and, thankfully, there’s no feast day to obscure the fact. The tradition of the octave goes back to the Hebrew custom of celebrating the great annual feasts for a whole week, eight days, of course, not seven. At one time the Western Church kept octaves for many of its important feasts, today reduced to just Christmas and Easter. You will hear in the liturgy today, for example, such phrases as. “Today Christ is born for us, come let us adore him.” Today, because today is as much Christmas Day as 25th December was. We keep eight days of Christmas Day.
Our Gospel passage comes from Luke, (Lk 2: 36-49), the very last episode of the Infancy Narrative, the Presentation in the Temple, and the second part of that account, the meeting with Anna the prophetess. Here is the text.
“There was a prophetess, Anna the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was well on in years. Her days of girlhood over, she had been married for seven years before becoming a widow. She was now eighty-four years old and never left the Temple, serving God night and day with fasting and prayer. She came by just at that moment and began to praise God; and she spoke of the child to all who looked forward to the deliverance of Jerusalem.
When they had done everything the Law of the Lord required, they went back to Galilee, to their own town of Nazareth. Meanwhile the child grew to maturity, and he was filled with wisdom; and God’s favour was with him.”
Just as Simeon was very old and sung his Nunc Dimittis in thanksgiving for seeing and holding the Messiah in his arms, so Anna the prophetess represents the Old Testament handing over the light of faith to the New in the person of the Word made flesh, born of Mary to be our Saviour. Luke was very keen on summaries as links between one section of his text and the next. We see this throughout his Gospel and the Acts of the Apostles. In two compact sentences, filled with information, he covers the youth and homelife of Jesus in Nazareth. There will be just one addition, the visit to Jerusalem and the finding of Jesus in the Temple at the age of twelve, an event not found in the other three Gospels. Let us pray today that the events of Christmas, the birth of the Messiah, cause us to praise God and serve him night and day and to speak of Jesus to all who are searching for a meaning to life. It took Anna just one chance meeting: we, in contrast, have probably known about Jesus all our lives!
