Wednesday 30 December 2020

Today is Wednesday the 30 December, in the season of Christmas.  

The Portsmouth Grammar School Chamber Choir sing 'Lux Aurumque' by Eric Whitacre: ‘Light, warm and heavy as pure gold and angels sing softly to the new-born babe.’  

Luke 2:36-40

There was also a prophet, Anna the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was of a great age, having lived with her husband for seven years after her marriage, then as a widow to the age of eighty-four. She never left the temple but worshipped there with fasting and prayer night and day. At that moment she came, and began to praise God and to speak about the child to all who were looking for the redemption of Jerusalem. When they had finished everything required by the law of the Lord, they returned to Galilee, to their own town of Nazareth. The child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom; and the favour of God was upon him.  

There is a lot left unsaid in today’s reading. What was it about the child Jesus that so struck the prophet Anna that she couldn’t stop talking about him?  

We hear that after fulfilling the requirements of the Jewish law, Mary and Joseph returned with Jesus to their hometown of Nazareth, where ‘the child grew and became strong’ filled with wisdom and God’s favour. What was Jesus’s childhood and adolescence like? How do you imagine it?  

As you listen to the reading again, notice what strikes you. What is left unsaid? How do you find yourself relating to this Jesus: who left such a deep impression on Anna as a child? Whose years growing up in Nazareth are only hinted at?

Take some time now to speak or be with Jesus, as a friend would with another. Ask God for what you need.  

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.