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Master·evangeli.net

Today's Gospel + short theological explanation

July 26th: Memorial of Saints Joachim and Anne, Parents of the Blessed Virgin Mary
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Gospel text (Mt 13,16-17): Jesus said to his disciples, «But blessed are your eyes because they see, and your ears, because they hear. For I tell you that many prophets and upright people would have longed to see the things you see, but they did not, and to hear the things you hear, but they did not hear it».

Joachim and Anne, parents of Mary

EDITORIAL TEAM evangeli.net (based on texts by Saint John Paul II) (Città del Vaticano, Vatican)

Today the figure of Saint Anne reminds us of the paternal house of Mary, Mother of Christ. Mary came into the world there, bringing in herself the extraordinary mystery of the Immaculate Conception. There she was surrounded by the love and care of her parents Joachim and Ann. There she "learned" from her mother precisely, from Saint Anne, to be a mother. And, although from the human point of view, She had renounced motherhood, the heavenly Father, accepting her total donation, gratified her with the most perfect and holiest motherhood. Jesus Christ, from the top of the cross, transferred - in a sense - the motherhood of his Mother to the favorite disciple, and likewise extended it to the whole Church, to all men.

—On the threshold of the New Testament, Saint Joachim and Saint Anne are preparing the coming of the Messiah, embracing Mary as a gift from God and offering her to the world as an immaculate "ark of salvation." In turn, according to the apocryphal gospel of James, Joachim and Anne were welcomed and venerated by the Holy Family of Nazareth, therefore becoming a model of loving assistance regarding the elders.