On July 26, the Church celebrates St. Joachim and St. Anne, the parents of Our Lady. They were elderly when Mary was conceived in an entirely miraculous way.
Newsdesk (July 27, 2021 2:16 PM Gaudium Press) North of the Promised Land was the small town of Nazareth, where the virtuous Joachim, a descendant of David through Nathan, one of the four sons of the prophet-king and Bathsheba, came to settle while still a young man. He was originally from Bethlehem and, already during his childhood, Providence had favoured him with several signs about the coming of the Messiah. When he was eight years old, he had a mysterious dream about a wedding, in which he discerned by revelation that he was called to become the patriarch of a great family.
When the customary age for marriage was reached, on one of his trips to Jerusalem Jehoiachin took counsel with a priest friend who, although young, enjoyed the prestige of his unblemished holiness, named Simeon.
The latter indicated to him as his wife a virgin of the same lineage, according to the customary practice among the Israelites, whose name was Anne.
The only daughter of a Levite from Bethlehem, who had married a descendant of David, she was distinguished above all by virtue. From her maternal grandfather came the relationship between Our Lady and St. Elizabeth (cf. Lk 1:36), mother of John the Baptist, who also belonged to the lineage of Aaron (cf. Lk 1:5).
Because of the uniqueness of her mission, in Mary Most Holy, royal greatness and priestly sacredness had to converge, for she would give birth to Jesus Christ, King of kings and Supreme Priest, “holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners, and exalted beyond the heavens” (Heb 7:26).
The priest Simeon himself officiated at the wedding ceremony of Joachim and Anne in Jerusalem.
The ordeal
Everything was going on in the tranquillity of an orderly life and in the strict observance of the Commandments of God’s Law until a thick cloud threatened to cloud the horizon: that marriage was unfruitful.
“If they are barren, they have committed some fault,” thought many Israelites. The more knowledgeable still repeated the proverb: “God blesses the home that serves Him. And they concluded that the lack of descendants was due to a divine curse, because of the sins of the spouses.
Fidelity to the divine Law created emptiness and isolation around the holy spouses, and sometimes doubt crept into their innermost being. “Have we not committed some hidden fault that has kept God’s blessing from us?” they asked themselves. This confused feeling of guilt, for some sin they could not discover, tormented their upright consciences much more than the contempt they were subjected to.
Twenty long years passed in this excruciating ordeal, pervaded by insults, scorn, and a deep misunderstanding of God’s plans for them.
One day, however, when Jehoiachin came to the Temple to make a voluntary offering of cattle, as was his custom, a priest publicly rejected him, claiming that the sacrifice of a man without offspring was not pleasing to the Lord.
It was the confirmation, through the lips of a holy minister – whom Jehoiachin respected for his office, despite knowing his dissolute life – of the thoughts that troubled his mind: “What have I done against God that He should punish me?
Anna well understood her husband’s distress, all the more so because, shortly afterwards, this offence was compounded by a reproach made by a domestic because of her barrenness. As Sarah, wife of Abraham, had been reviled by the slave Hagar for not having children (cf. Gen. 16:4), she also suffered the invective of a servant girl, which led her to cry out in distress to the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to the God of her ancestor David, begging the grace to be counted among the line of predecessors of the long-awaited Messiah.
It was an extremely hard period for the holy couple, spent in solitude and without getting any answer from God.
After a few weeks, Joachim returned to Nazareth, disconsolate at the silence of Heaven. Oppressed by external humiliation and afflicted by inner trials, the spouses returned to normal family life. As a rule, the great plans of Providence require long waits, during which everything seems to go against the divine promises, and only at the end does She act.
In the tunnel of trust, a light shines
A year after these events, the Archangel Gabriel appeared radiant to Anne to give her the joyful news that the Lord had answered her requests: she would give birth to a child by Joachim, who would have a sublime vocation, very much related to the divine life. The heavenly messenger added that in this child would come to pass all that the prophets had foretold, but he did not clearly tell her that she would be the Mother of the Redeemer.
The same Archangel communicated to Joachim in a dream that his wife had received a heavenly visit, revealing to her that she would conceive a daughter. He also told her that the Child would be called Mary.
Raised to a high degree of holiness
As true Israelites, Joachim and Anne were in their time cleansed from original sin and lived in a state of grace. But the greatness of the conception of the Mother of the Messiah recommended that they be raised to a degree of holiness and purification that had never been reached before. Therefore, they were to be filled with very special gifts and virtues.
Moreover, as far as the constitution of the Child was concerned, it was fitting that Anna should possess a holiness even greater than that of her husband, for she would become the living tabernacle of the Queen of the Universe.
However, God also endowed Joachim with eminent virtues, because they would be the main inheritance that he would leave to his Daughter.
In a certain sense, their mission surpassed that of the Angels themselves, since neither of them was called “Mama” or “Papa” by Our Lady.
The Promise
They decided to go to Jerusalem to give thanks to the God of all mercies, who always hears the prayers of his children. And by common agreement they decided that they would consecrate the girl to the service of the Most High in his Temple, as soon as her age would permit. Thus comforted by the heavenly manifestation, they left on a pilgrimage.
They received many graces during this pilgrimage to the Temple, and returned to Nazareth. But God has His time. There would still be long months of waiting before St. Anne would show the first signs of gestation.
What happened to St. Anne and St. Joachim?
The Gospels say nothing about them, nor even mention their names. However, they are the parents of Our Lady and the grandparents of Jesus!
Msgr. João Scognamiglio Clá Dias, EP
Text extracted, with adaptations, from the book Maria Santíssima! God’s Paradise revealed to men vol II.
Compiled by Zephania Gangl