Once Broken-Hearted
Homily on the Sixth Day of the Christmas Octave; 30 Dec 2024, Divine Mercy Chapel, Estancia
Is there anyone among you who is feeling sad and lonely? …perhaps hurt and broken-hearted or simply disappointed or frustrated! This Mass is especially for you as we begin this Jubilee Year of Hope. Welcome to the sixth day within the Octave of Christmas! Merry Christmas!
On this sixth day of Christmas we continue to visit the crib listening and meditating on the mystery of Christ’s incarnation. The gospel today presents to us the story of Joseph and Mary, bringing the holy child to be presented at the temple in fulfillment of the Mosaic law. And while they were there at the temple, they met an 84-year old woman named Anna who was overjoyed to see the baby. Why was she overjoyed? Was it her first time to see a baby? No! on the contrary she had been seeing countless babies being brought to the temple every single day. But there is something very interesting about her.
After her husband’s untimely death, Anna chose not to remarry but to stay in the temple all her life worshiping God night and day with prayer and fasting. She has actually been waiting patiently and perseveringly for the coming of the promised Messiah. At that moment when she saw Joseph and Mary bringing with them the infant Jesus in the temple, she recognized the holy infant to be the long-awaited Redeemer promised by God. And for that, she gave thanks to God spoke highly of what the child would become when he would grow up. The words she uttered about the future of the child were very similar to what the old man Simeon had already said earlier.
Brothers and sisters, while the focus of our reflection and worship today is the infant Jesus who is the joy and hope of today’s world, we are also inspired by the simple but important role played by Anna the prophetess in this wonderful drama of our salvation. I guess her choice not to remarry enhanced her spiritual growth, intensified her prayer life, and increased her yearning for God and longing for a Savior in each passing day.
What is most amazing is that she has already grown old waiting, praying and fasting and yet it seemed like she never got tired, or burnt out, neither did she give up. On the contrary she persevered in hope. I believe it was her purity, her clear focus and sensitivity to the Spirit that enabled her to finally identify the baby Jesus among the thousands of babies and children she had seen in the temple all her life. She might not have been chosen to be the mother of the Redeemer but because of her choice to be single-hearted and single-minded for the Lord, God blessed her before she could see death. Her greatest blessing and most wonderful gift was to be able to see with her eyes and touch with her hands the infant Messiah. And amazingly, that momentous encounter inspired her to speak words of wisdom foretelling the future mission of the child before Joseph and Mary.
Anna is a great inspiration for us especially for widows and elderly women. And I can see that there is a good number of you here present. To those among you who are like her, your spouse might have gone ahead of you or might have left you, and because of this you feel so alone, so abandoned, so devastated and so hopeless. But you have a choice either to remain broken and bitter all your life or to become better and holier everyday for the rest of your life. Being widowed sooner than she expected, Anna grabbed the chance and faced the challenge to become a better person by longing and looking forward to the real Bridegroom who was yet to come, the one who truly loved her through the love she experienced from her earthly husband. With undying hope therefore she persevered in her prayerful waiting until that day when she came face to face with the True Bridegroom whose love he would seal with his own blood on the cross. He the Lord is the only one who has loved for more than a thousand years and would continue to love us for all eternity. One can never be too hurt and broken-hearted to be able to see, magnified through one’s tears, God’s unbroken fidelity through the years and experience his overwhelming love here and now, in the future and for all eternity.
As we continue to celebrate Christmas in this Jubilee Year of Hope, may we learn from the prophetess Anna the way out of our brokenness and use it to long and look forward to the real love of our life. He is the only One who can really mend our brokenness and fill a heart completely. May this Eucharist empower us to celebrate Christmas with confident hope and selfless love, knowing that God is already with us and will always be with us. GiGsss!
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