The age of hope


Father Michel Remaud shares with us a reflection in this period of Christmas.

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Luke begins his Gospel inside the Temple, presenting to us a priest, Zachariah, about whom he adds precision: he and his wife “were advanced in age”. After passing through Nazareth and Bethlehem, the birth of Jesus, he brings us back to the Temple so that we can meet two elderly people, Simeon and Anne.

According to the names they bear, Zachariah and Elizabeth are the affirmation of the faithfulness of God to his promises: “The Lord remembers” and “My God has sworn”. Simeon, who is reaching the end of his life, has received a revelation “that he will not die until he has seen the Christ of the Lord”. Anne, she too very aged, speaks of the child “to all who were awaiting the redemption of Jerusalem”.

At the threshold of the Gospel, these four old people are the living expression of hope. They are the representatives of an elderly people, which does not cease waiting for God to keep His promises.

Hope is not the monopoly of the young. Far from being the dream of youth, it is faithfulness, with the certainty that God will surely accomplish that which He promised, at the time He has established.

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