Memorial of Saints Joachim and Anne, Parents of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Lectionary: 606

Now will I praise those godly ancestors, each in their time. Their virtues have not been forgotten. Their wealth remains in their families, their heritage with their descendants; through God's covenant with them their family endures, their posterity for their sake. And for all time their progeny will endure, their glory will never be blotted out; their bodies are peacefully laid away, but their name lives on and on. At gatherings their wisdom is retold, and the assembly proclaims their praise. (Ecclesiasticus 1:10-15)

Everyone remembers the fourth commandment, "Honor your father and mother!" It means, "Do what they tell you and don't tell lies!" Many people struggle with that divine injunction as they care for their aging parents. Is it better to leave them alone in their homes, respecting their preference when they need round-the-clock nursing care? Or should we place them where they'll be safe and cared for? 

But we often fail to understand the context of the Fourth Commandment within the Book of Deuteronomy. There are several injunctions to go with it: 

• Be on your guard and be very careful not to forget the things your own eyes have seen, nor let them slip from your heart as long as you live, but make them known to your children and to your children’s children... that they may learn to fear me as long as they live in the land and may so teach their children. (Deuteronomy 4:9-10)
  
  
• Take to heart these words which I command you today. Keep repeating them to your children. Recite them when you are at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you get up. (Deut 6:6-7)
  
  
• Teach (these commands) to your children, speaking of them when you are at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you get up, and write them on the doorposts of your houses and on your gates, so that, as long as the heavens are above the earth, you and your children may live on in the land which the LORD swore to your ancestors he would give them. (Deut 11:19-21)

If our children and their children don't remember the salvation we have received, Deuteronomy suggests, there is no point to our freedom. That whole business of deliverance from slavery and escape through the Red Sea was an exercise in futility. And the Christian might add, "Christ died for nothing!"

Today we honor the distaff grandparents of Jesus, Saints Joachim and Ann. We have never imagined Jesus as the Lone Ranger. The Evangelists Matthew and Luke give us extensive genealogies, and his family appears in their narratives. Although unmarried and childless, the Son of God was always deeply enmeshed in a human family, and we know many of their names. 

Is he not the carpenter, the son of Mary, and the brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon? And are not his sisters here with us?” (Mark 6:3)

Saint Mark tells us his family sometimes interfered with his ministry. But Saint Luke tells us some of them were among his disciples in the Upper Room at Pentecost. 

Joachim and Ann remind us that salvation comes with family and history, and the serious responsibility of  passing this heritage of grace along. If our children and grandchildren lose the faith, Christ died in vain.