OUR LASTING INHERITANCE

OUR LASTING INHERITANCE

MEMORIAL OF STS. JOACHIM AND ANNE, PARENTS OF THE BVM

Sir 44:10–15, Ps. 131, Mt. 13:16–17

Yesterday, we heard from the narrative of Matthew the request of a mother to Jesus. Today, we celebrate the memorial of another mother, and a father, Anne and Joachim, parents of Mary of Nazareth, whose names can never be found in any of the canonical gospels except from the apocryphals. Now the question is: Why celebrate their feast? Why remember the silence and even absence of Joachim and Anne in the life story of Jesus and Mary?

In our first reading from the wisdom of Sirach, we hear “the praises of illustrious men, of generous men whose good works have not been forgotten. In their descendants there remains a rich inheritance born of them.” We see how the Jews consider God’s Covenant their “inheritance” that they hand on from generation to generation. Parents consider it a serious responsibility, for on it depends “the blessing or curse.”

In our Gospel, Jesus proclaims his disciples blessed because they were eyewitnesses of what “many prophets and holy men longed to see and never saw.” They were able to see with their eyes and hear with their ears—the fulfilment of the Covenant and the establishment of the New Covenant. This becomes the “inheritance” of those who “left husbands, wives, mothers, fathers, sisters, and brothers.” And this inheritance brings with it a responsibility—to persevere in the faith and hand it on.

No doubt our readings were deliberately chosen to praise the husband and wife whose memorial we celebrate today, Sts. Joachim and Ann. Although the Bible is silent about these two saints, the greatness of their descendants, Mary, their daughter, and Jesus, their grandson, speaks eloquently about them. Di ba’t may kasabihan tayo, “Kung ano ang puno ay siya ring bunga.” The Gospels also has something similar that St. John Damascene in the Second Reading of the Office of Readings applies to Sts. Joachim and Ann: “by their fruits you will know them.” In the Responsory of today’s Office of Readings, these words are also applied to Sts. Joachim and Ann, “They worshipped God day and night in fasting and prayer. They looked forward to the deliverance of Israel. They prayed that God would come to save his people.” Surely they were zealous in handing on to Mary the precious inheritance of the Covenant. And their prayers were answered. Mary found favour with God and courageously cooperated in God’s plan of salvation. “The Word became flesh” and became the grandson of Joachim and Ann.

At one point in our lives, we made that decision to follow the Lord. We, celibates, have left, and you on the way to it, will give up, the possibility of having a wife and children of our own. We have left fathers, mothers, brothers, and sisters. The Lord becomes our inheritance, and every day, we have to become more convinced of this. The Lord has to become “someone” in our lives, just as Jesus became “grandson” to Joachim and Ann. Otherwise, we begin to look for other “inheritance”; we turn to other loves.

Allow me to speak of a precious inheritance we are currently losing: that ancient Christian community in Mosul, Iraq, that traces its roots to those pilgrims returning from Jerusalem a few months after Pentecost. They faithfully handed on the inheritance of the Christian faith, and now they are facing persecution on account of that inheritance. Last Friday they were given four options by Islamic fundamentalists: to leave the city, to pay taxes, to convert to Islam, or to die by the sword. “I already feel dead. Only my soul remains, and if they want to take that I don’t have a problem.” This is just one of the many cries from our suffering brothers and sisters in Mosul. Their patient endurance to leave the city carrying with them nothing except their clothes is an outward sign that indeed their true inheritance is Christ, whose name they bear and on whose account they are being persecuted. In this Mass, let us pray and learn from them. May the Lord truly be our lasting inheritance. Amen!