Sunday, July 21, 2019

The words of Anna


After Luke 2:22-38

The old woman, revered
and often feared for the words
which would tumble, rumble
from within, the words anticipating 
what was to come, this old woman
sees the child,
just another child,
just another ceremony,
another ritual,
and she knows Jerusalem
is redeemed, that Israel
is saved, that the ceremony
if purification is turned on its head,
as the child purifies the temple,
purified the priests, purifies the people.
And the old woman,
the prophetess,
is silenced.

Photograph by Paolo Bendandi via Unsplash. Used with permission.

1 comment:

  1. The Christ-child consecrating Jerusalem, as He will later sanctify the waters of baptism. Yet another reversal the Kingdom brings about.
    I too have pondered on Anna’s seeming silence.

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