What illusions did she have to let go of in order to recognize the Promised One of God? (Sr. Patricia Bruno OP)

  In Luke’s account of the Presentation of the Lord in the Jerusalem Temple, Mary and Joseph encounter Simeon and a woman less often discussed:  the prophetess Anna.  Sr. Patricia Bruno OP, of the Dominican Sisters of San Rafael, shares this reflection on Anna’s significance in the story:

  Anna, too, was present in the temple that day of the purification of Mary and the presentation of her newborn child.  In spite of Anna’s near invisibility and brief appearance this passage offers us a unique insight into her character.  She is of the tribe of Asher, one of the twelve sons of Jacob. But in this passage they name her the daughter of Phanuel…. To be remembered as the daughter of Phanuel [where Jacob wrestled with the angel] is to say she is a woman who never abandoned her search for God even if it meant a life of struggle, and because of that, she, like her ancestor Jacob, met God face to face.

  We don’t know a lot about Anna’s life, but we can assume it wasn’t easy.  She was a widow, after only seven years of marriage… But Anna was no withering widow, even in a society that offered women limited options. She didn’t get lost in a small village or become an anonymous temple dweller.  She was the daughter of Phanuel, a faithful daughter even in the midst of darkness and doubt.  Nothing blocked her search for God. Nothing lessened her trust in God – not even the struggles involved in a long life of widowhood and waiting!

  Waiting is not one of our favorite occupations… Often, the longer we wait, the more difficult it is to hope that what we expect will come to be.  But Anna is the daughter of Phanuel.  She understood the importance of holding on to the end, even if it meant daily disappointment and careful vigilance.  How and when the Promise would be fulfilled was a mystery.

  I’ve often wondered how many times, in her thirties, fifties, eighties, Anna had to adjust her expectations of the Promise that God made.  What illusions did she have to let go of in order to recognize the Promised One of God?  Certainly, she would not have expected the Promised One to come as an eight-day-old child bundled up in plain, common cloth.  Wonderful, Counselor, a mighty King, the Prince of Peace would most likely arrive in purple and gold:  royal clothing.  Wouldn’t he have an entourage to announce his arrival?

  Sometimes it is easier to live with our illusions.  But Anna spoke with clarity.  She was a prophetess:  the mouth piece of God.  Waiting sharpened her discernment.  It purified her vision.  It gave her time to pray and ponder the prophetic words of scripture.  Attentive waiting deepened Anna’s relationship with God, and it can do the same for us.  It can help us reevaluate our expectations and clarify what we have mistake for the truth.  It can give us the wisdom to let go of what is false. Waiting, used well, can give us the courage to be disillusioned and not lose hope.  In fact, Thomas Merton describes this attentive kind of waiting as prayer.

  Truly Anna is a watch woman for God. Eighty-four years old and waiting, not for death, but for new life.  Anna’s quite a teacher.  She teaches us how to move gracefully through the seasons of our lives:  the seasons of struggle, insecurity and change, and not lose hope.  Her faithfulness to prayer and fasting reminds us of what carries us through unexpected cold winters of grief, and dry summers of unanswered hopes.  She also teaches us that often God appears to us at unexpected times and in ways we least expect.

  Anna’s story is not exactly comforting.  It would be easier to hear that the process of meeting God face to face is a much gentler evolution.  But that’s not the way Anna’s life developed and often our lives follow the same pattern.  Yet, in the process Anna became a prophetess, one who recognized and announced the arrival of the Promised One.  We, too, are called to be daughters and sons of Phanuel:  people who struggle with our questions, delayed answers and disappointments, people who trust that while we wait, God has not left us on our own; people who become wiser and more discerning as we wait; people who with surety proclaim God’s small and large arrivals; people who wait not for death, but for life.

--Sr. Patricia Bruno OP,

Dominican Sisters of San Rafael
(reprinted with the permission of the author)

For more reflections by Sr. Patricia and her preaching team, click here.

Image source 1:  Rembrandt van Rijn, The Prophetess Hannah (Anna), 1639, http://www.artnet.com/artists/rembrandt-van-rijn/the-prophetess-hannah-anna-Td6jHH-RwBbd8oE9Pvo4kA2

Image source 2:  Giovanni Bellini, Presentation at the Temple (ca. 1460), https://wikivisually.com/wiki/Presentation_at_the_Temple_(Bellini)