December 30 – Sixth Day in the Christmas Octave
Luke 2:36–40
We live in a world that is impatient with waiting. We track deliveries in real time, expect instant replies, and grow anxious when things take longer than expected. Yet beneath our speed and convenience, many people carry long, hidden waits: – for healing in a family, – for reconciliation, – for a child who has drifted away, – for clarity about the future, – for a world that feels less harsh and more humane.
In this hurried age, today’s Gospel introduces us to someone whose entire life was slow: a woman who waited not minutes or months, but decades. Her name is Anna.
Anna: A Life Described in Details
Luke gives Anna a remarkably rich introduction. First, she is called a prophetess. In the Old Testament, this title is rare—reserved for Miriam, Deborah, Huldah, and the unnamed wife of Isaiah. A prophetess is one who sees with God’s eyes and speaks God’s truth. Anna, in the same line, recognizes in the child Jesus the long-awaited Redeemer and tells “all who were looking for the redemption of Jerusalem.”
Her name—Anna, the same as Hannah—means “favor, grace.” It recalls the mother of Samuel, another child born through God’s mercy who helped renew Israel.
We also learn she is the daughter of Phanuel. Though the man himself is unknown, the name echoes Penuel, the place where Jacob wrestled a mysterious divine figure and said, “I have seen God face to face.” Anna, whose life has been marked by longing, now beholds the true Face of God in the infant Jesus.
Anna comes from the tribe of Asher, one of Israel’s “lost tribes,” exiled by Assyria in 721 BC. Jeremiah once prophesied that God would restore these scattered tribes. Anna—standing in the Temple, seeing the Messiah—becomes a sign that the time of gathering has begun.
Seven Years of Marriage, Eighty-Four of Widowhood
Luke tells us Anna was married seven years—notice the biblical number of fullness—but we hear nothing of children. Then she lived as a widow for eighty-four years, a lifetime of grief, solitude, and waiting.
Her story mirrors Isaiah’s promise:
“You will forget the shame of your youth and remember no more the reproach of your widowhood.” (Isaiah 54:4)
Anna stands for Israel itself—long barren, long grieving, long waiting. Now the wait ends. The Redeemer has come. The child in Mary’s arms is the One who will restore Israel, gather the lost, and one day unite himself to his people as a bridegroom to his bride.
Widowhood gives way to worship. Loss gives way to praise. Night gives way to morning.
A Word for Us Today
Anna teaches us a countercultural truth: what God begins in hiddenness, He brings to fulfillment in His time. A long wait is not a wasted wait. It is often the place where God reshapes the heart so that, when the moment comes, we can recognize His presence.
Anna did not become bitter; she became attentive. She did not close in on herself; she opened her life to prayer, fasting, and hope.
And because she kept waiting, she saw.
Conclusion: The Courage to Keep Watching
As we move through the Christmas Octave, Anna invites us to ask: Where am I being called to wait faithfully? What grace is being formed in the silence?
Christmas does not remove all our unanswered questions, but it gives us something greater: the assurance that God is already in the story, already at work, already drawing near.
Like Anna, may we keep our eyes open. May we stay faithful in the long seasons. And may we recognize—perhaps quietly, unexpectedly—that our Redeemer is closer than we think.
Scripture Attribution
New Revised Standard Version Bible: Catholic Edition, copyright © 1989, 1993
the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of
Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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