Praise to be Jesus and Mary, now and forever.
Today's readings seem appropriate for the memorial of Saints Joachim and Anne, for they tell us of Mary.
She is that virgin soil that yielded rich fruit, indeed even more than a hundredfold.
She yielded not only the Son of God, but also all the countless Christians that were and are and shall be.
To her the exiles are gathered as into a new Zion, one from a city and two from a clan.
And so through her we receive shepherds according to God's own heart.
She is the mediatrix of graces through whom the grace of a vocation comes, who makes those shepherds who receive graces from her according to God's own heart, like God wants them to be.
With her as the ark of the new covenant, we do not miss the old ark.
This ark is far better.
This ark is not made of gold or jewels, but is something more precious than gold or jewels.
She is the seat of wisdom.
She is a wise woman and wisdom is worth more than all the precious things, as Solomon says.
And so this throne on which our Lord now sits is far more precious than the thrones of old, more precious than the ivory throne of Solomon.
This throne is all pure.
This throne is white not merely to the eye, but even in the sight of God, who can detect no flaw in it, no impurity, no imperfection, no stain.
And so the parents of this, what sort of people must the parents of such a great child have been?
St. Anne's name means grace and her child was to be full of grace.
The Immaculate Conception took place in her womb.
Her child was, by Christ's merits, immune from the sin of Adam, and so her womb became a second Eden.
Making her child immaculate could be the work of God alone, but then it would be up to Saints Anne and Joachim to raise that child.
St. Anne is often depicted teaching little Mary to read and thus to know the foreshadowings and the prophecies that regarded her.
So of course St. Anne would have to know those first.
Before and after this, St. Joachim and she had to teach Our Lady the things that every child must learn.
They had to be a good example for the woman full of grace, the child full of grace.
They would cooperate with the Holy Spirit in the education of her soul and in preparing her for her incomparable destiny.
St. Joachim and Anne needed extraordinary graces to be fit for the role of raising the mother of God, and this made them two of the greatest saints that have ever lived.
Admiring their sanctity and their good fortune in being the parents of the Blessed Virgin, we might think that their life was all joy, but tradition tells us that this joy was preceded by sorrow, because St. Joachim and Anne were for long years unable to have any children.
Even today when children are no longer valued as they once were, we still know couples who are unable to have children and how painful this is for them.
Today doctors can sometimes help, however some of the techniques that they use are gravely contrary to human dignity and so are gravely sinful.
It's best to consult a priest if you aren't sure whether or not what your doctor is suggesting is licit.
There is no such thing as a right to a child because a child is not a thing that you own but a person you receive as a gift.
Whether the limits that keep a couple from having children are medical or moral, it can cause a lot of suffering to want children and not have them.
But the suffering was even greater for St. Anne because the Jews usually saw sterility as a punishment from God and the blame for it fell upon the woman.
So people would mock her and speculate about what terrible sin Anne might have committed to be punished in this way.
Perhaps she wondered herself if she had committed some sin but knowing of no such sin she pleaded with God to grant her a child and of course St. Joachim also pleaded to have a child.
The real reason why they couldn't have a child was because they were destined to have the greatest daughter of all time.
God did not want to give this tremendous grace without it being merited in some way.
When we suffer we rarely think that God might be preparing us to receive some grace and asking us to merit it by patient endurance.
But before today's gospel we heard, blessed are they who have kept the word with a generous heart and yield a harvest through perseverance.
This is just what happened in the case of St. Anne, the grandmother of the Messiah, the grandmother of God.
It is by no means uncommon, in fact we could almost say it is a general rule.
First we have to study and then we graduate.
First we work and then we get paid.
First comes the cross and then the glory.
By the patience of St. Joachim and Anne in these trials they grew in virtue to the point where God could finally entrust them with his immaculate flower knowing that they would not spoil it but cultivate it to perfection.
Or rather they would do all they could and then generously hand over their only child to God.
For little Mary would be presented at the temple to be dedicated to his service and this would happen while she was still a small child.
So they knew another pain, the pain of separation, but this time it was mingled with an understanding of why the separation was the best thing, however sad it might be.
Over the centuries many people have turned especially to St. Anne for help.
They know she can understand them and that she has great influence because of her holiness and her closeness to the mother of God and indeed to the Son of God himself.
Her sanctity makes her like the valued woman depicted in the book of Proverbs who is praised for her spinning, weaving, sewing, embroidering and her care for the household, for her ability to direct the household.
Naturally those who are engaged in similar occupations place themselves under the protection of St. Anne.
Also those who made tabernacles or tents sought her patronage for she formed the tabernacle of the Most High in her womb.
Many women trying to conceive have turned to St. Anne because she knows their pain and many of these have received the gift of a child.
Mothers of religious can identify with St. Anne because they too have given their children to God.
Anyone who seeks to imitate Our Lady's virtues does well to pray to St. Joachim and Anne who were prepared by heaven to form Our Lady in her earliest years.
They have not lost that ability, if anything they have grown in it and they use it in every age to form other Marys.
Praised be Jesus and Mary, now and forever.