Today the Church remembers the parents of Mary, the grandparents of Jesus: Saints Joachim and Anne. They are not mentioned in the Bible, but rather in a document that very nearly made it into the Bible called “The Protoevangelium of James” or the “Proto-gospel”—First Gospel—of James. In it is the story of how Mary’s birth came about, as well as the early years of her life up to the Slaughter of the Innocents by Herod shortly after the birth of Jesus. The story of Mary’s birth essentially is that the pious but childless couple longs for a child, and having been ridiculed publicly for the last time for being childless, Joachim goes out to the desert for forty days and nights, fasting until God answers his prayer. He does not tell his wife about it, and thus she comes to believe he was dead. Anne mourns for a time, then puts on her wedding garments in an effort to seek joy, but laments again her loss as well as her barrenness. An angel appears, telling her that she shall indeed conceive a special child. Soon after this angelic visit, Joachim returns home, and soon enough Anne was pregnant. It is a beautiful tale well worth reading.
Who would have thought that, from the barren womb of Anne would come the Mother of God? Yet it is just like the Kingdom of God to make landfall in just this way, is it not? Mary, a mustard seed of a woman in the eyes of the world, would give birth to Christ whose Church—of which she would also witness the birth (Acts 1:13-14, 2:1-2)—“…when full-grown is the largest of plants…and the birds of the sky come and dwell in its branches.” Mary is the woman who took a little yeast—her Son—and when He ventured into the lifeless flour of humanity, the whole batch began to rise.