Memorial of Saint Joachim and Saint Anne (July 26)

Entrance Antiphon Cf. Sir 44:1-25 Let us praise Joachim and Anne, to whom, in their generation, the Lord gave him who was a blessing for all the nations.

Collect O Lord, God of our Fathers, who bestowed on Saints Joachim and Anne this grace, that of them should be born the Mother of your incarnate Son, grant, through the prayers of both, that we may attain the salvation you have promised to your people.

(July 26) St Joachim and St Anne

SAINT JOACHIM The lives of some saints must always remain hidden; so it is with Joachim, the husband of Saint Anne and the father of the Blessed Virgin. With no certain knowledge about him, we are forced to rely on such apocryphal documents as the Book of James, which, unlike the canonical Scriptures, often mixes fiction with fact. This Book of James tells that Joachim and Anne were a rich, childless couple living in Jerusalem and far advanced in age. When Joachim was reproached by his fellow Jews for not having "raised up seed in Israel," he went into the desert to fast and pray, begging God to grant him a child. His wife prayed for the same blessing, and after Joachim returned to Jerusalem, their prayers were answered; Anne conceived and gave birth to a child, the girl Mary. There are other apocryphal details about the life of Joachim, but like the rest their authenticity is doubtful. The lone fact that he was the father of the mother of God makes him worthy of veneration. Joachim must have been a man wealthy in virtue to be chosen as the father of Mary, who was destined to be the mother of God's Son.

SAINT ANNE Into the hands of Saint Anne were placed the education, the training, and direction of this child. Anne was the starting point of the Redemption; through her the dawn began to break; in her the morning star was conceived, free from Adam's sin. Through our relation to Christ and His Mother, we become her grandchildren. There was little written about Saint Anne in the first two centuries of the Church. The details of her life, even her name, come to us through unreliable sources in which fact and fiction are intermingled. By the fourth century, devotion to Anne was widespread in the East, and several of the early Fathers of the Church sang her praises. Her fame expanded throughout the West after the Crusades and grew to great heights, especially in France. Her best-known shrines are still Saint Anne d'Auray in Brittany and Saint Anne de Beaupre in Canada. By many miracles at these and other places, God has been pleased to testify how highly He regards devotion to this saint, the model of all women in the married state and charged with the rearing of children. Anne is honoured today with the official title "Mother of the most holy Mother of God."

Scripture today: Jeremiah 2:1-3.7-8.12-13; Psalm 35; Matthew 13:10-17

The disciples came to Jesus and asked, Why do you speak to the people in parables? He replied, The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them. Whoever has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him. This is why I speak to them in parables: Though seeing, they do not see; though hearing, they do not hear or understand. In them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah: ‘You will be ever hearing but never understanding; you will be ever seeing but never perceiving. For this people’s heart has become calloused; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts and turn, and I would heal them.’ But blessed are your eyes because they see, and your ears because they hear. For I tell you the truth, many prophets and righteous men longed to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it. (Matthew 13:10-17)

On Holiness The mere fact that the Church’s Liturgical Year officially celebrates the parents of Mary the mother of Christ as saints establishes that in fact they were saints. It is yet another indicator of the power and the role of the Church’s Tradition. I am not aware of any saint featuring in the Old Testament who is celebrated formally in the Church’s Year – none of the Patriarchs, nor Moses, nor any of the Prophets or holy kings such as David. The nearest (indirectly), I suppose, might be John the Baptist, a great prophet of the coming Messiah, yet a contemporary and witness to Christ. But there are Joachim and Anne, whose names do not appear in the Old Testament texts, but come to us from sources well after Jesus Christ. They lived two generations before Christ, and were probably contemporaries of Simeon and Anna, and Elizabeth and Zechariah in Luke’s infancy account. It is to be noted that while Simeon, Anna, Zechariah and Elizabeth feature in Luke’s Gospel, they are not celebrated in the Church’s Year as saints – which of course does not mean that they were not saints. But Joachim and Anne, who do not feature anywhere in the entire Bible, have their day in the Church’s Liturgical Year. The details of their lives are buried in obscurity and are the subject of what is mainly speculation on the basis of unreliable sources. Yet the parents of Mary, the grandparents of Jesus Christ were saints before God – this we know from the fact that by the Church’s decision their day is celebrated on July 26. Further, there is this. The Church chooses to employ the Gospel text above for their celebration. Our Lord in these words speaks of the Old Testament era, the era of divinely-guided preparation for the coming of the Messiah. Notice what he says about this whole period: For I tell you the truth, many prophets and righteous men longed to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it (Matthew 13:17). So during the history of God’s chosen people following their founding, many prophets and righteous men longed to see the fulfilment of the divine promises. There were many holy persons during this period of salvation history. Let us remember this and revere the Old Testament accordingly. It was a time of holiness, despite the infidelity of so many. It reminds us that the Old Testament tells of holiness and sin.

Our Lord’s words tell us more about this point. Speaking to his disciples who gazed on him and heard his words, he says, blessed are your eyes because they see, and your ears because they hear. Now, prior to this he spoke of the people and the reason for his addressing them in parables. Though seeing, they do not see; though hearing, they do not hear or understand. In them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah: ‘You will be ever hearing but never understanding; you will be ever seeing but never perceiving. For this people’s heart has become calloused; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts and turn, and I would heal them.’ Our Lord sees what is in the heart, and he says that the blindness and lack of understanding of the people was due to a hardness of heart. So these are the issues, hearts that have become hard through sin which brings on blindness, and the blessedness of sight and hearing because of fidelity to God. Inasmuch as the Church uses this text for Joachim and Anne’s day, our Lord’s words tell us about the dominant feature of the holiness of his grandparents. But there is a further point from our Lord’s words. The lives of Joachim and Anne were oriented towards the coming of the Messiah. They lived in expectation of this and so lived as to be found worthy of his arrival. Many prophets and righteous men longed to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it. Joachim and Anne were among them, as was, say, Simeon (in Luke’s infancy narrative) who longed to see the Messiah and had been told by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death till he did. Joachim and Anne were of his ilk and company, little suspecting that their daughter, so beautiful in soul, would be the very mother of the Messiah. So then, Joachim and Anne remind us both of the holiness of the Old Testament and of its end and purpose. Its purpose was to long for the Messiah and to prepare worthily for his coming. Let us read the Old Testament in the way our Lord would have us read it, seeing therein paradigm after paradigm of holiness and sin, and further, the divine preparation for and prefiguring of himself.

Joachim and Anne, obscure no-bodies in the sight of the majority, were representative instances of all this. Obscure and hidden as they were, they were chosen by God for a high purpose, to be the parents of the Virgin Mary and grandparents of the incarnate Son of God, our Saviour. They did not shine out and gain acclaim. They did not do especially noteworthy deeds. They stand in the company of Mary, Joseph, Elizabeth, Zechariah, Simeon and the prophetess Anna. Their holiness glowed brightly before God, but did not make it into the annals of recorded history – not even into the Bible. That contains a great lesson for us all. Let us be content with the lot to which God has assigned us in virtue of our talents, circumstances and history, each day humbly resolving to do his will faithfully and with love.

(E. J. Tyler)

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