"New Bethlehem Heart"
"A Christmas Witness"
Christmas is a most profound mystery
of God's Love for us and our longing and desire for Him. On this Sunday's Feast
of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph the gospel from St. Luke (Luke
2:22-38) depicts the mystery of the "Presentation of the infant Jesus in the
Temple". The prophetess, Anna, is one of "Christmas's witnesses" --one
of those "burning torches" whose holiness of life prepared her to
"Behold, the Bridegroom" (Mt. 25:6) and exhort others to "Come out to meet
him!" (Mt. 25:6). Anna joins Simeon as a "ram's horn of the New Dawn", a
true temple adorer who witnesses to the "Christmas closeness" of the God of
Love. On the seventh day of Christmas my True Love gave to me: The
gift of a lifestyle of intercession.
"There
was also a prophetess, Anna...She was advanced in years...a widow until she was
eighty four; She never left the temple, but worshiped night and day with
fasting and prayer...She gave thanks to God and spoke about the child to
all who were awaiting the redemption of Jerusalem" (Luke 2:36,37, 38).
The entire
scene of this mystery in the life of Jesus takes place in the temple. The
temple is the place of God's covenanted presence, the place of true worship,
prophetic utterance, mission and sacrificial offering. Those who worship "in
the temple" are called to true covenant worship: Religion of the heart! In
one sense Anna's life as it is depicted within this mystery of the infant
Jesus-- the Lamb of sacrifice--in the temple is reflective of what St.
Paul will say of Christians in the age of the Church: "your body is a temple
of the holy Spirit within you" (1 Cr. 6:19); "the temple of the living
God" (2 Cr. 6:16); and, "For the temple of God, which you are, is holy"
(1 Cr. 3:17).
As a prophetess, Anna is associated with the
word of God ("The word of God remains in you" - 1 John 2:14C). She is attentive
and alert to the promptings and stirrings of the Lord: "Silence all
mankind, in the presence of the LORD! For he stirs forth from his holy
dwelling" (Zech. 2:17). Hers is an example of empowered, expectant
faith--focused and fired-up! She is a woman of God "advanced in years"
moving in all five gears"; "hard core at 84"; "a golden glower
and a real flame thrower"!
Anna is a devoted, disciplined
"warrior", and St. Luke offers us a depiction of her "lifestyle" of
intercession. Intercession is a lifestyle--not a program. We are told that "She
never left the temple":
" One thing I ask of the LORD;
this I seek: To dwell in the LORD's house all the days of my life, to
gaze on the LORD's beauty, to visit his temple" (Ps. 27:4).
A
lifestyle of intercession is lived "all the days of my life"--24/7: All day,
every day! The words
of Jesus can apply here to Anna as well: "Did you not know that I must be
in my Father's house?" (Luke 2:49); as well, the words of Jesus from The
Book of Revelation: "The victor I will make into a pillar in
the temple of my God, and he will never leave it again" (Rev. 3:12).
Her lifestyle strikes against the world,
the flesh and the devil. Hers is an uncompromising commitment to God that
conquers worldliness.
Anna's enlightened faith and
persevering prayer are reflective of " the holy life she lives under the
inspiration of the Spirit of the Lord" (Pope John Paul II, General Audience,
January 8, 1997). She is totally consecrated to God: God is her life.
This total dedication to God is embodied in a lifestyle of intercession. She is
a faithful "living stone", a spiritual "temple" herself, offering
spiritual sacrifices as her spiritual worship in a holy "priesthood" through
her lifestyle of constant prayer, self-denial and self-offering.
Anna's willful fasting separates her
from worldly attachments, strikes at self-absorption and the spiritual deceits
of the world, and helps her to live with a single-hearted gaze upon the Lord
(to fix her mind and heart on the Lord). Her fasting also offers her
strength to fight temptation; strength to deny herself so as to identify with
others; strength to love and care for others; and strength to make her prayer
of intercession more powerful. For, in a word, Anna's fasting opens her up to
be united with the Lamb who, in taking upon himself a human nature, emptied
himself for the sake of our salvation. Anna's interior attitude, embodied in a "lived
intercession", is of one who believes in the truth of the Incarnation: "God
is with us"!: "The LORD is in his holy temple" (Ps. 11:4).
Questions:
1) Are
there elements of Anna's lifestyle of intercession that either resonate with
you or inspire you?
2) Is
fasting ever a part of my intercessory lifestyle, or am I afraid to fast? (or,
find it difficult to fast?)
Scriptures:
Any scripture from the text; Rom. 6:12-14; Rom. 12:1-2; Eph.
2:21-2
