God’s Covenant Blessing to St. Joachim and St. Anna: Mary, the Blessed Virgin, the Immaculate Conception

July 26 is the Memorial of Saints Joachim and Anne, parents of the Blessed Virgin Mary and maternal grandparents of Jesus.

Though Joachim and Anna were exemplary in faith and righteous in the eyes of God, they could not have a child for years. Because of their childlessness, this righteous couple struggled with the shame that the society imposed, though it was not God to stigmatize Joachim and Anna in shame.

According to the Protoevangelium of James (PJ), a priest, Rubim, rejected Joachim’s offering to God in the Temple for being childless, saying:

It is not meet for you first to bring your offerings, because you have not made seed in Israel (PJ,1).

This rejection extremely grieved Joachim and prompted him to retreated in desert and fasted for 40 days and nights and prayed intensely, saying to himself:

I will not go down either for food or for drink until the Lord my God shall look upon me, and prayer shall be my food and drink (ibid.).

In the meantime, Anna mourned not only that she had been childless but also her husband, Joachim, was absent from her. Because of her grief, Anna refused to be comforted by her maidservant, Judith. Then, out of anguish, Anna prayed:

O God of our fathers, bless me and hear my prayer, as You blessed the womb of Sarah, and gave her a son Isaac (PJ, 2).

And Anna lamented:

Alas! Who begot me? And what womb produced me? Because I have become a curse in the presence of the sons of Israel, and I have been reproached, and they have driven me in derision out of the temple of the Lord. Alas! To what have I been likened? I am not like the fowls of the heaven, because even the fowls of the heaven are productive before You, O Lord. Alas! To what have I been likened? I am not like the beasts of the earth, because even the beasts of the earth are productive before You, O Lord. Alas! To what have I been likened? I am not like these waters, because even these waters are productive before You, O Lord. Alas! To what have I been likened? I am not like this earth, because even the earth brings forth its fruits in season, and blesses You, O Lord (PJ, 3).

God indeed heard the cries of Joachim and Anna in their prayers. And an angel of the Lord was sent to her and said:

Anna, the Lord has heard your prayer, and you shall conceive, and shall bring forth; and your seed shall be spoken of in all the world (PJ, 4).

In response, Anna said:

As the Lord my God lives, if I beget either male or female, I will bring it as a gift to the Lord my God; and it shall minister to Him in holy things all the days of its life (ibid.).

Then, two angels came and said to Anna:

Behold, Joachim your husband is coming with his flocks (ibid.).

Also to Joachim in the desert, an angel of the Lord brought good news, saying:

Joachim, Joachim, the Lord God has heard your prayer. Go down hence; for, behold, your wife Anna shall conceive (ibid.)

Then, Joachim called his shepherds and instructed them to bring him offering for the Lord and came back to Jerusalem. Expecting his return, Anna came to the city gate. There, Joachim and Anna were reunited in joy, and Anna said:

Now I know that the Lord God has blessed me exceedingly; for, behold the widow no longer a widow, and I the childless shall conceive (ibid.).

On the next day, Joachim brought the offering and it was accepted as perfect.

And Joachim said:

Now I know that the Lord has been gracious unto me, and has remitted all my sins. (PJ, 5).

Anna conceived and gave birth to Mary.      

Because Anna was determined to bring her child to God, Mary was brought to the Temple when she was three and raised by temple priests (PJ, 7).

A story of St. Joachim and St. Anna is about how God responded to the prayers of St. Joachim and St. Anna, as this faithful and chaste couple resorted to prayers in keeping their faith during the time of hardship. Their hardship is stigma and shame for being childless as Israelites, for all righteous Israelites were expected to procreate, because God made a series of covenants to bless Abraham with many progenies for generations to come (Genesis 12:2-3; 17:4-8). Remember, how frustrated Sarah was for not being able to bear a child of her husband, Abraham (e.g. Genesis 16:2-6) and how Rachel agonized for not bearing a child of her husband, Jacob (e.g. Genesis 30:1). And being barren meant public disgrace (i.e. Luke 1:25).

God sure heard the prayers of St. Joachim and St. Anna respectively and responded with good news of Anna to conceive a child. And this child is Mary, who was conceived in Anna’s womb without any trace of the Original Sin. Thus, Mary is the Immaculate Conception, as she was predestined to be the mother of the incarnated Christ, Jesus, as Pope Pius IX put in Ineffabilis Deus (cf. Ad Diem Illum Laetissimum by Pius X and Munificentissimus Deus by Pius XII), based on John Duns Scotus’ Lectura in Librum Tertium Sententiarum, vol. XX.

The First Reading of the Memorial of St. Joachim and St. Anna, Ben Sira 44:1, 10-15, reflects that God’s covenant providence for righteous people covers their progenies for generations. God’s response to the prayers of St. Joachim and St. Anna, by giving them a daughter, Mary, is a part of ongoing fulfillment of His covenant with Abraham for his offspring. In fact, St. Anna conceived Mary so that God’s promise in Eden that her offspring will crush the head of Satan (Genesis 3:15) will be fulfilled. This is why an angel of the Lord said to Anna:

Anna, the Lord has heard your prayer, and you shall conceive, and shall bring forth; and your seed shall be spoken of in all the world (PJ, 4).

It was not just to say that St. Anna would conceive a child. Her child is not just a child to add to Abraham’s progenies as an Israelite. The child whom St. Anna conceived, as God responded to her and her husband’s prayers. Rather, her child would be spoken in all the world. This foresaw that the child of St. Joachim and St. Anna was predetermined to be the handmaid of God (Luke 1:38) as the Theotokos.

Mary shall be spoken of in all the world (PJ, 4) because, as Simeon prophesized of the impact of Mary’s Son, Jesus, in these words:

Behold, this child is destined for the fall and rise of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be contradicted (Luke 2:34)

And, Simeon also spoke of Mary in these prophetic words:

You yourself a sword will pierce so that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed (Luke 2:35).

The Gospel Reading (Matthew 13:16-17) reflects that the child conceived in St. Anna’s womb by a seed of St. Joachim leads to Isaiah’s prophesy of a virgin to conceive a son, named, “Immanuel”(Isaiah 7:14). And the angel of the Lord revealed to Joseph that the Son in Mary’s womb was to fulfil this prophesy of Isaiah (Matthew 1:23).

Indeed, St. Joachim and St. Anna were blessed to see their special child, whom God destined to be spoken in all the world (PJ, 4) as the Mother of God, the incarnated Christ, though prophets, who had prophesized did not see.

God’s covenant blessing to St. Joachim and St. Anna is their child, Mary. And she was born to this righteous and chaste couple, among Abraham’s offspring, destined to be the Immaculate Conception to be God’s handmaid, as the Mother of the Son of God, the incarnated Christ, Jesus, to fulfil the Messianic prophecy, which the prophets under the old covenant, except for John the Baptist, did not see its fulfillment. But St. Joachim and St. Anna was blessed to see as it began to be fulfilled, first, through their daughter, Mary.