The Sixth Day in the Octave of Christmas

Lectionary: 203

She never left the temple, but worshiped night and day with fasting and prayer. And coming forward at that very time, she gave thanks to God and spoke about the child to all who were awaiting the redemption of Jerusalem.

 

Now that Christmas has passed and our neighbors have taken down the decorations and showed the door to the Christmas tree, we can return to our regular programing – “worshipping God day and night with fasting and prayer.”

In his stories about the birth of Jesus, Saint Luke tells us of “all who were awaiting the redemption of Jerusalem.” They are represented by Zechariah and his wife Elizabeth; Joseph and Mary; the shepherds; the old man Simeon and the old woman Anna; and the elders in the temple whom Jesus queried.

The devout -- those who pray daily -- should not claim to be the only saved souls. It’s simply not given to them to make such absurd statements. But they do serve a purpose in the Church. They keep the doors open; they keep the silence, the prayers and the tradition; they provide an anchor to those adrift.

I hear about such devout people often in the VA hospital. “My mother never missed a Sunday mass in her life.” “My grandmother said the rosary all the time.” “As he lay dying he fingered the I-V tube as if it were the rosary.”  

The devout always seem to be the last generation; when they’re gone the devotions will end. But they never disappear. We’ve all heard of the babushkas Lenin would not bar from the churches. He said they’d die out soon enough and killing old mothers would cost too much political capital. Seventy years later, Communism fell; they toppled the statues of Lenin; and the babushkas kept fingering their beads.

The devout “speak about the Child” to anyone who will listen. They keep the tradition because the Holy Spirit raises in every age a new generation of devout people. If necessary, “God can raise up children to Abraham from these stones.” Praise God.

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