Today, we celebrate the memorial of St Joachim & St Anne,
the parents of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
They are not mentioned by name in the Bible, but they have been honored
since the days of the early Church. The
Tradition that has been passed down from our early Church fathers & mothers
tells us that Joachim and Anne were an older couple without child when they were
given the gift of a daughter. This same
apostolic Tradition tells us that when their daughter, the Blessed Virgin
Mary, was with child herself, both Joachim & Anne were notified separately
by an angel of the Lord of this good news, which was the same way Joseph
& Mary both heard.
Since their daughter was specifically chosen for this special role in
the history of salvation, we can only imagine the holiness & example of
faith that Anne & Joachim gave her.
We live in an age
when the motives behind our faith are questioned by many in our society,
when many people can’t believe that we are sincere & grounded in what we
believe. Jesus tells us in today Gospel
from Matthew: Blessed are your eyes because they see, blessed are your ears
because they hear. Being able to believe
in our modern world is a grace from God.
Yes, indeed our faith is a grace; our faith would not exist without the
way that God & the Holy Spirit interact in our lives. If we look at the faith of Anne &
Joachim, the faith of Mary & Joseph, our faith is in the same tradition of
theirs, our faith finds strength in the prayers of the community of
saints. Just as Joachim & Anne
accepted the plan that God had for them, may we also see & hear the way God
is calling us, & may we follow that plan in faith.
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