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

 Lectionary: 606

"Blessed are your eyes, because they see,
and your ears, because they hear.
Amen, I say to you, 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."

Children try to remember what their parents tried to forget." 

That adage was said of Protestant churches in the United States in the nineteenth century; it has become true of Catholic churches in the twenty-first century. I remember the apparent new age following the Second Vatican Council. Many familiar Catholic customs were erased, and many statues, pictures, and banners disappeared. 

Many explanations were given for these reforms, including: simplicity is more appealing than complexity; the old rituals lack relevance in a new age; only a select few know what they mean, or meant; and we should pour new wine into new wine skins with new rituals. 

But the day would come when old songs were reclaimed, bells re-rang, incense re-burned, rosaries re-beaded, and the Sacred Heart would reappear as the icon of Divine Mercy.  And children are asking their grandparents what they mean. 

This is especially true where grandparents still attend church while parents prefer illusive feelings and ill-defined spirituality over substance and religion. 

Many grandparents also have a unique way of making the truth appealing, reassuring, and credible, while parents feel obliged to render the truth as domineering, arbitrary, and invasive. Grandparents have learned that honey attracts more flies than vinegar. 

In the antebellum South enslaved grandparents were often entrusted with the rearing, teaching, and discipline of children. We're seeing the same in our time as many parents are enslaved to their careers or to substance abuse. Today's grandparents must adopt their children's children. 

Perhaps it's time to rename some "Holy Family" churches after Saints Joachim and Ann. The sainted couple reminds us that our faith is very ancient. It was old even when Mary was a little girl; and she taught her Son what they'd taught her about the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph. Today, more than ever, children of faith must conscientiously practice a religion with prehistoric roots. They should understand Qoheleth's insistent remark, "There is nothing new under the sun." Even robots with human features cannot ignore, dismiss, or cover that fact of life. Nor can these fantastic machines enjoy the ever-ancient, ever-new privilege of belonging to the Lord.