Memorial of Saint Joachim and Saint Anne, parents of the Blessed Virgin

http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/072612.cfm

"but blessed are your eyes, because they see,and your ears, because they hear.amen, i say to you, many prophets and righteous peoplelonged to see what you see but did not see it,and to hear what you hear but did not hear it.".

Loving the Mother of Jesus as we do, we are naturally curious about her parents. They too must have been wonderful people. The one who called out to Jesus, "Blessed is the womb that bore you and the breast that suckled you" might have been speaking about his grandmother and her precious daughter. The scriptures, as you know, say almost nothing about Jesus' grandparents, except to name the father of Joseph as Jacob.But Catholics have never been bound to the limits of the Bible. We wrote it, and appreciate its origins in the many complex relationships of human life.Indeed Jesus might have been speaking of his grandparents when he made that statement above,

many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it."

A fellow asked me recently about the Church's teaching on "election." (Now there's a complicated question. He seems to be agonizing over whether he is among the elect.) 


I tried to explain to him that the Catholic teaching of election is very wholistic. Election begins with God, of course, and continues with the married couple who want the best for their yet-to-be-conceived children. They begin in prayer and dedication to their sacrament of marriage. Then follow that prayer with healthy living -- bed rest, good diet, abstention from excessive alcohol etc -- as they conceive children. 


The newborn is formally "elected" when he or she is baptized, given the Eucharist and Confirmation and raised in the practices of our faith. Election is nothing as rational as Calvinist doctrine, nor as mechanistic as "double election." Rather, it's the decision of the Holy Spirit which finds expression in the pious zeal of people who believe in God.
Saint Joachim and Anna took their place in God's plan of salvation much as you and I have. Could they know how blessed their daughter might be? Probably not, nor did they need to know. It was sufficient for them that they raised their little girl with the best insights they had and fidelity to their Jewish faith.

When we celebrate Joachim and Anna we honor the millions of people who live in the warmth of God's love and do their part, never imagining how God might favor their heroic sacrifice in the centuries to come.

If you can spare the extra minute, let me comment on another mini-controversy that the "new translation" has stirred up. During the Eucharistic prayer, at its high moment during the consecration, the priest reads "which is given for many" rather than "which is given for all." Is there a difference between many and all?

I will suggest that many is more open-ended. While all certainly includes everyone, many implies limitless.

Everyone is a limited expression, and sometimes everyone means no one. To say that all are elect is the same as saying no one is, like "I love all my children equally." I'm sure the good parent loves all her children equally but she doesn't necessarily mean "without distinction," because each child is different and requires distinction. You can't give all your children boys' toys when some of them are girls, nor all of them size 8 when some need a size 4.

The word many leaves room for more, an indefinite more, and I can live with that.