“The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure buried in a field, which a person finds
and hides again, and out of joy goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.” (Matthew 13:44)
While it is the Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, today is also the World Day of Grandparents and
the Elderly as the church remembers and celebrates on 26 July each year the memorial of Joachim
and Ann, parents of the Blessed Virgin Mary and grandparents of our Lord Jesus Christ.
The Second Person of the Holy Trinity shared in our humanity when He was conceived in the
immaculate womb of His mother, Mary. The Holy Trinity chose the elderly and childless couple,
Joachim and Ann, to conceive, bear and raise the baby girl who will become the mother of God.
Joachim and Ann lived with the pain and the shame of being barren. Tradition has it that the temple in
Jerusalem refused to accept the offerings of Joachim because they deemed him and Ann as cursed
and punished by God to have no children.
This is a central part of the great mystery of God’s saving love for humanity. The Second Person of the
Holy Trinity chooses from all eternity Joachim and Ann to be His grandparents. He chose an elderly
couple who cried to Him with their pain of being barren to bear for Him His mother.
It is in the womb of Ann that God purified from original sin the baby girl who will be
full of grace and whose love for God will be pure. Joachim and Ann will raise a sinless girl
to become the mother of the Saviour of the world. Their pain turns to joy and their shame to honour.
In the weakness of old age, Joachim and Ann brought forth into a sinful world the sinless girl who will
become the Mother of God.
This is the joy and thanksgiving with which we celebrate all the elderly and
grandparents of the world. From God’s own love for Joachim and Ann comes our love and
care for our elderly and grandparents.