Tuesday within the Octave of Christmas, December 30, 2025

Luke 2, 36-40

There was a prophetess, Anna, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was advanced in years, having lived seven years with her husband after her marriage, and then as a widow until she was eighty-four. She never left the temple, but worshiped night and day with fasting and prayer. And coming forward at that very time, she gave thanks to God and spoke about the child to all who were awaiting the redemption of Jerusalem.  When they had fulfilled all the prescriptions of the Law of the Lord, they returned to Galilee, to their own town of Nazareth. The child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom; and the favor of God was upon him.

After the conquest of the Promised Land by Joshua, the Tribe of Asher was allotted territory in the northwest part of the country. For a few hundred years it existed peacefully, separated from the rest of Israel by a mountain range and established near the prosperous kingdom of Phoenicia, with which it traded. In the year 722 B.C. the Kingdom of Assyria defeated the northern Kingdom of Israel in a series of battles. Some Asherites fled to the southern Kingdom of Judah, but most were resettled to other lands by the Assyrians, and there they disappear from history.  It is striking that St. Luke introduces Anna as “of the Tribe of Asher”. That Anna knew her heritage speaks volumes about tribal memory, even centuries after that tribe assimilated with their neighbors centuries before. It must have been so, for there is no reason for the Evangelist to invent such a detail which would have stuck out as a glaring anachronism to Jew and Gentiles alike, destroying Luke’s claim to be a careful recorder of history. Luke, in mentioning this, may also have had a theological intent as well: he had just spoken of the aged Simeon who proclaimed that the Infant Jesus would be “a light to reveal you to the nations and the glory of your people Israel.” This message of revelation to both the Jews and the Gentiles is confirmed and reinforced by the elderly Anna, descendent of a people who lived adjacent to and and in peace with the Gentiles whose land bordered theirs.

“She never left the temple, but worshiped night and day with fasting and prayer.” Her perseverance in fasting and prayer living in the Temple courtyard shows us the reason why she was able to recognize Jesus as the Savior. It is a sign to all believers ever since of the need to make God the center of their lives so that they will recognize his will for them and that they will see his grace in their lives. Her actions also reflect those of the blessed in heaven: she lived in the Temple of God while they dwell in the Temple in heaven of which served as a model for the one on earth; they feast now while she had fasted; and they pray in praise and thanksgiving while she had prayed in longing and expectation.

“When they had fulfilled all the prescriptions of the Law of the Lord, they returned to Galilee, to their own town of Nazareth.” We see how humbly the Mother of God and her helpmate St. Joseph performed their duties according to the Law, a Law Jesus would fulfill and perfect in the future. Luke does not tell about the flight into Egypt, as St. Matthew does. Luke has the Holy Family returning to Nazareth directly after the visit to the Temple, but they must have returned to the house in which they were in Bethlehem, and it was some short time afterwards that the Angel appeared to Joseph in a dream to warn him to flee. It is not until some years later that they return to Nazareth. The Fathers speculate that either Luke had not heard of the flight into Egypt from the sources whom he consulted, or omitted it just as he could not write everything that he had learned about the life of Jesus. To this we recall with St. John, that “there are also many other things which Jesus did which, if they were written every one, the world itself, I think, would not be able to contain the books that should be written” (John 21, 25).