Waiting for the yes

The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today invite us to consider that “yes” moment that may come to us especially after a time of waiting and patience.

Christmas Feast of the Holy Family - the Presentation of Jesus in the Temple with Simeon and Anna. pic.twitter.com/b5xJvUOGiI

— Michael Morton (@MichaelMorton01) December 30, 2017

The grace of God is experienced by people at all stages of life according to the author of the passage from the First Letter of John.

* [2:12–17] The Christian community that has experienced the grace of God through forgiveness of sin and knowledge of Christ is armed against the evil one

At the conclusion of the purification and redemption rites in the Temple, in the Gospel from Luke, the Holy Family is addressed by Anna who proclaims her “Yes!” that marks a revelation of God after many years of prayerful waiting.

* [2:25] Awaiting the consolation of Israel: Simeon here and later Anna who speak about the child to all who were awaiting the redemption of Jerusalem represent the hopes and expectations of faithful and devout Jews who at this time were looking forward to the restoration of God’s rule in Israel. The birth of Jesus brings these hopes to fulfillment.

Edward Morse offers a prayer that we might awaken during this Christmas Season to the Grace in our lives.

Grant us, Lord, that we might awaken during this Christmas Season to make our own souls permeable to your light and to your warming presence.  We do not yet know how to pray and how to live according to your will.  The witness of your prophets and the witness of the baby born in a manger provide a beacon each year to the entire world.  Thanks be to God.

Don Schwager quotes Ambrose of Milan, (339-397 A.D.) who sees a sacred pattern of numbers associated with Anna.

"Anna, who, by reason of her years of widowhood and her virtues, is set before us as wholly worthy of belief, announces that the Redeemer of all people has come... Not without purpose, however, does he make mention of the eighty-four years of her widowhood, because both the seven twelves and the two forties seemed to imply a number that is sacred." (excerpt from EXPOSITION OF THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 2.62)

The Collect Prayer for today seeks our release from the ancient servitude that holds us bound beneath the yoke of sin.

Grant, we pray, almighty God, that the newness of the Nativity in the flesh of your Only Begotten Son may set us free, for ancient servitude holds us bound beneath the yoke of sin. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM, in the “From the Bottom Up” summary challenges us to change our “no” of self flagellation to the practice of “yes”.

Most of us learned to say no without the deeper joy of yes. We were trained to put up with all the “dying” and just take it on the chin. (When I entered the novitiate, we still had whips for self-flagellation in our cells.) Saying no to the false self does not necessarily please God or please anybody, and surely not you. There is too much resentment and self-pity involved in this kind of false dying. There is a good dying and there is a bad dying. Good dying is unto something bigger and better; bad dying profits nobody. It is too much no and not enough yes. You must hold out for yes! Don’t be against anything unless you are much more for something else that is better. “I want you to be you, all of you, your best you!” is what true lovers say to one another, not “I do not like this about you,” or “Why don’t you change that?”

The rites and rituals of religious practice may create opportunities for Grace to invite us to “yes” and the experience of loving our Way