Anna waited. She waited almost her entire life in the temple, praying, worshipping, hoping. She waited for an encounter with Jesus Christ, with the Messiah. It took 84 years. She knew the law and the prophets, and she knew that there was a promised one who would deliver her people from their sins, from their captivity. She waited, trusted, and longed for the coming of Christ. She waited with prayer. She waited with fasting. She never left the temple.
As we approach the “New Year,” many people make New Year’s resolutions. We want to lose weight. We want to learn that instrument we’ve been meaning to begin playing for decades. We begin to look at the things we’ve put off in our lives, things that in their own right may be very important to us. We realize that another calendar year has gone and passed, yet here we are, many of us right where we started. So we want to make a change. We want to get started.
Imagine if all our new year’s resolutions revolved around one single thing. “Waiting… waiting for an encounter with Jesus Christ.” Even if it takes a lifetime. Waiting with fasting and prayer. Waiting for God, even if it feels dry or difficult. Resolutions are a good thing. Forming habits that make us better than we were before, laudable.
Use them wisely. Use them like Anna, who made her entire life about God. We need to make resolutions that help us grow and faith, help us grow in prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. Resolutions that put us more often in the temple of God and less often in the temple of the world.
A reflection on the readings for December 30th, 2021: The Sixth Day in the Octave of Christmas