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

Lectionary: 399

Return, rebellious children, says the LORD,
for I am your Master;
I will take you, one from a city, two from a clan,
and bring you to Zion.
...At that time they will call Jerusalem the LORD’s throne;
there all nations will be gathered together to honor the name of the LORD at Jerusalem,
and they will walk no longer in their hardhearted wickedness.

We honor Joachim and Ann as the parents of Mary and grandparents of Jesus. Today's reading from the Prophet Jeremiah recalls God's promise of peace and prosperity to his holy city Jerusalem. 

During Jeremiah's brief time, that unhappy city was besieged and taken by an invading army. It's walls and temple were razed, its princes murdered, and its king viciously blinded and taken as a royal prisoner to Babylon. 

Jeremiah had predicted all this as he saw the city's long history of greed, graft, and corruption. They cheated God with cheap sacrifices, and one another with impunity. Why should the city not share the same fate of every other city that some men build and others destroy? 

But Jerusalem is also a prefigured type of Mary, the Mother of God; and the LORD had promised eternal fidelity to the city. If its citizens would persistently ignore the Lord as they exploited his blessings, if their greed would erode their willing enthusiasm for devotion and holiness while it turned the community into a den of thieves, they could be punished and their infrastructure demolished. But the holy city would remain. It remains always in the mind of God In the person of Mary.  

Christians recognize her as the new Jerusalem, the holy one of God, who gathers the Lord's disciples. We are her children and she teaches us to pray and trust in God again. She is not punished when her children are, but she suffers with them even as she suffered with her Son. Unlike those who are angry with God because bad things happen to good people, Mary remembers the promises of God and recognizes in human suffering the consequences of sin. Even as she grieves with her children, and prays for mercy with them, she does not take their side against him. 

Joachim and Ann represent that faithful strain that remained always in Jerusalem because of the Lord's promise. We do not suppose they were utterly sinless like their daughter, but they were honored to raise, educate, and protect such a child in their home. They taught her the customs, prayers, and rituals of God's holy people which they had learned from their ancestors. Although the city and the nation sinned against God persistently throughout its long history, their sins could not persuade the Lord to divorce them.  His faithful Spirit remains with them forever. 

We pray for our Church today, and we remain faithful -- sinners though we are -- as we honor our ancestors. If we have sinned like all our fathers and mothers, we have also kept the faith because God never gives up on us. 

And for that we are grateful.