Saints Joachim and Anne are the parents of Mary, and therefore the grandparents of Jesus. Strangely, however, there is no trace in the canonical Gospels of these two figures, who were certainly important to salvation history. The information we have about them comes from the apocryphal gospels and tradition.
Pope Francis recently sought to “highlight” these holy spouses by establishing, in 2021, on the fourth Sunday of July (and therefore close to the 26th, their liturgical memorial), the World Day for Grandparents and the Elderly. The commemoration of Joachim and Anne thus becomes each year an opportunity to rediscover the family as the privileged place for passing on the faith, and within it the irreplaceable role of grandparents, with their extraordinary and invaluable contribution of experience and humanity.
Dialogue and encounter between generations, particularly within the family, as Pope Francis recalled in 2013, are a treasure to preserve and nurture, because “children and the elderly build the future of peoples; children because they will carry history forward, the elderly because they pass on the experience and wisdom of their lives.” Undoubtedly, today’s society faces many difficulties which, affecting family life, can make this dialogue within the family difficult or, at times, even entirely absent.
Let us not miss out on this treasure, even if it sometimes requires a little patience! Let us appreciate what our elderly can still give us by creating moments of listening, sharing, and prayer with them: we are not wasting time… we are building our future…
