Jesus' Grandparents Day

Appreciating the wisdom and love of grandparents

7/26/2022

Mt 13:16-17 Jesus said to his disciples: "Blessed are your eyes, because they see, and your ears, because they hear. Amen, I say to you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it."

Every year we promote Catholic schools for a whole week, called “Catholic Schools Week”. One of the highlights of that week is the Monday we celebrate “Grandparents Day”. Have any of you attended that day? We begin in the Parish Center with a light breakfast for the grandparents, who meet their grandchildren coming from school. I say a prayer and Mrs. B gives a warm welcome. Then, some take pictures at a picture booth, others go to buy their grandchildren books at a book fair, and a fun time is had by all.

Grandparents are critical in promoting the Catholic education of grandchildren. Why? Well, because sometimes the parents cannot clearly see the importance of the faith in their lives. They are too busy with work, and raising a family, and saving for retirement. They are blind to the faith. But grandparents have time, and hindsight, and especially money, and they have no doubt about the crucial role that Catholic schools play in a young person’s life. In many cases, grandparents pay for their grandchildren to attend Catholic schools. Grandparents are the glue that hold Catholic schools together.

I mention Grandparents Day because, in a sense, today’s feast of Sts. Joachim and Anne is a liturgical grandparents day. How so?  Well, Sts. Joachim and Anne are the parents of the Blessed Virgin Mary, so that makes them the grandparents of Jesus. Even though the four gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John do not mention Sts. Joachim and Anne by name, it is not unreasonable to suppose they were involved in Jesus’ life. Why should we suppose that?

Well, traditionally, Mary most likely gave birth to Jesus while she was very young, perhaps still a teenager. Hence, it is altogether likely that Mary’s parents were still alive and even helped in raising Jesus to some extent, even though Mary and Joseph were his primary providers. In other words, besides Mary and Joseph, Sts. Joachim and Anne may have had a hand in the faith formation of Jesus, just like grandparents do in their grandchildren’s lives today.

It should not surprise us, then, that today’s gospel is taken from Mt 13:16-17. There, Jesus declares: “Amen, I say to you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it.” When I hear those words of Jesus, my first thought is that our Lord means the holy people of Israel’s distant past, like Abraham, Moses, and David. And that is certainly true.

But Jesus could also have had in mind his holy and righteous grandparents, Sts. Joachim and Anne, who helped raise him. Jesus is saying these words around the age of 30, so it is probable that Joachim and Anne did not live to Jesus’ public ministry and saving death and resurrection. But they certainly longed to see this day. Why? Well, not only was their daughter, Mary, immaculately conceived (that is, without sin), but their grandson, Jesus, was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit. All grandparents long to see what their grandchildren will grow up to be and do with their lives. And no grandparents longed to see that day more than Sts. Joachim and Anne.

Here’s another reason why we should treat the feast of Sts. Joachim and Anne as a liturgical grandparents day. We need these elderly saints to teach us how to do a better job of taking care of our own grandparents or elderly parents. Quite often we, their children, get frustrated, angry, and impatient with their physical or mental weaknesses due to old age. But no one feels more frustrated, angry or impatient with those limitations than they do!

In all our busy-ness, we need to stop, listen, and try to learn from them. Grandparents teach their grandchildren very important life-lessons, and those lessons are every bit as important for their children to learn as for their grandchildren. And I know in this respect I am the proverbial pot calling the kettle “black” because I need to do a better job of being more loving and patient with my own parents. May Sts. Joachim and Anne come to our aid, and help us love our grandparents better, just like Jesus loved his grandparents.

I will never forget a mother who said to me once: “I never thought I could love anyone more than I love my own children. And then I had grandchildren.” Well, no one in the long, unfinished history of humanity will ever be able to mean those words more than Sts. Joachim and Anne.

Praised be Jesus Christ!