Feast of Holy Family - Homily 4

Homily 4 - 2023

I would love to know more about Simeon and Anna. They were both getting on in years. They were both people who tuned in to God; they both prayed; they were both in touch with the Spirit of God. Luke mentioned that it was the Spirit that had somehow communicated to Simeon that he would live to see God’s long and patient formation of God’s Chosen People, over centuries of turbulent history, come at last to its conclusion; and that same Spirit let him know that it would be this infant child who would be the one destined by God to make it happen. He would “bring glory at last to Israel” and, in the process, he would “enlighten” the whole world.

Simeon conveyed the Spirit’s message to Mary and Joseph, but added more. Though God’s design would eventually be accomplished, it would not be without contestation, rejection by many, and acceptance, too, by others; and with it would inevitably come suffering — for Mary as well as for her son. But, no magic, no silver bullet.

I would love to know what Anna had to say of the child. Luke labelled her a prophetess. Female prophetesses were not professional. This probably says something about her: she was her own person. Genuine prophets generally were well grounded in the tradition, and had a deep love for their contemporaries; but they were also truly in tune with God, and had a keen feel for God’s will regarding the future. Is that what she began talking about as “she spoke of the child to all who looked forward to the deliverance of Jerusalem”? Might she have filled in some of what Simeon didn’t or couldn’t specify?

There is so much that attracts me about Simeon and Anna. It wasn’t just that they were both older-than-usual characters. They were obviously alive; both drawn to the future, not frightened of it; both personally in touch with God; both individuals; and they related easily to the child. I wonder if either or both of them knew Elizabeth, Mary’s delightful old cousin, mother of John the Baptist, and wife of Zechariah, a priest.

And finally, there is the last sentence of today’s Gospel passage that so richly draws together and crisply fills in the thirty-or-so precious years between the time of the infant Christ and the two or three years during which the mature Christ exercised his ministry of teaching by word, by deed, simply by his life — prophet per excellence himself and “light to enlighten the pagans and the glory of God’s people Israel”.

Totally ignoring details of the daily life together of the Holy Family in Nazareth, about which we consequently know nothing, Luke comments: “the child grew to maturity, and he was filled with wisdom; and God’s favour was with him.”

That summary bears sitting with quietly and trustfully, allowing each statement to raise its own questions, perhaps even unsettling questions, but potentially illuminating ones, as we come to know him ever better.

I shall read it again slowly:

“the child grew to maturity…
and he was filled with wisdom…
and God’s favour was with him.”

Something similar could be said of him and all of us — though the difference between him and us is ultimately infinite.