Lorica

In Fr. Patrick's feast of St. Joachim homily, hear the story of Saints Joachim and Anna, their faithful prayer and suffering, and the miraculous birth of the Virgin Mary, the Mother of God. Fr. Patrick's homily explores the Nativity of the Theotokos, the Archangel Gabriel, the Presentation of Mary in the Temple, and how Joachim and Anna offered their long-awaited blessing back to God.

Two men go up to the temple to pray, returning at last to the place from which Adam had been cast out. But only one of them truly prays. The Pharisee trusts in himself, speaking to himself and about himself, while the publican can scarcely lift his eyes from the ground. He has nothing to present but his need: “God, be merciful unto me.” And it is he who goes home justified.

This is the prayer of the persistent widow who cries out day and night, and the trust of the little child who simply receives the kingdom. We have already been given everything; there is nothing left for us to grasp. We have only to give ourselves back to God — however small and unworthy the offering may seem — and He joins our poor sacrifice to the sacrifice of Christ. Then we discover that we were never empty at all: the kingdom is ours, and our cup runs over.

And if we must be thieves, let us be like the thief upon the cross, who had nothing left to take and nothing left to give but a moment of belief. At the very threshold of death, he stole Paradise by trust.

Christ weeps over Jerusalem before He enters the temple and casts out those who have made His house a den of thieves. Their sin is older than the temple itself: from Lucifer to Adam, from Judas to us, fallen man reaches out his hand and takes. We grasp because what God has given somehow seems not to be enough. Yet He has already given us everything — He has given us Himself.

Against this ancient thievery Christ sets prayer. Prayer is the opposite of taking: it is the offering of ourselves back to the One from whom everything has come. We exist to worship, to give thanks, to join our voices with Christ and all creation in a sacrifice of praise. When we cease to offer ourselves, we begin to imagine an emptiness within us and reach for something to fill it. But there is no emptiness. We have received the Spirit of Christ; our cup overflows. Our life is not found by grasping for more, but by giving ourselves to God.

Six times the Gospels tell of the miraculous feedings, and six times we are invited to see beyond the bread. The crowds are hungry, and Christ has compassion on them — but the miracle is a sign of a deeper hunger, and of the only food that can finally satisfy it. Christ gives us His own flesh and blood, the living Bread come down from heaven. Yet receiving Him is only the beginning of the sign.

“You give them something to eat.” The disciples have almost nothing, but Christ does not ask them to feed the multitude from their own strength. He takes what is given, blesses it, breaks it, and makes it enough. So it is with us: taken, blessed, broken, and given to the world. We are fed with Christ so that, filled with His love and the power of His Spirit, we might feed His sheep and become His continuing work of reconciliation in the world.

We stand beside two ordinary fishing boats and discover that God builds His kingdom not apart from the common work of our hands, but through it. Christ calls fishermen to become the foundation of His Church, not because the path before them will be easy, but because His grace makes even the heaviest burden light. The overflowing nets, the straining boats, and the fearful wonder of Peter all reveal the same mystery: the life of obedience is full to the point of breaking.

We too are sent. If we entrust ourselves to His word, our nets may tear, our boat may seem ready to sink, and the glory of His presence may undo every illusion of comfort. Yet this is not cause for fear but for hope, for His yoke is fashioned in love, and His strength is made perfect in our weakness. Let us say with Peter, "At Your word," and follow wherever the Sender leads.

We are the sheep that wander, the coin that cannot lift itself, and the child who finally turns toward home. Yet before any step is taken, the Shepherd is already searching, the Father is already running, and heaven is already preparing to rejoice. Repentance is not the anxious effort to persuade God to love us, but the awakening of trust that He never ceased to love us at all.

The oldest temptation is not merely pride or desire, but the quiet suspicion that the Father cannot be trusted. That lie isolates us from God and from one another, until we become the lonely one separated from the ninety-nine. But when trust is restored, communion is restored. Our tears become a bright sadness that gives way to joy, for the One we feared is the very One who has always been seeking us.

The mystery of Corpus Christi does not end at the altar—it unfolds within the lives of those who receive it. The eternal Son took our flesh so that He might give us His flesh, drawing us into communion with Himself and making us partakers of the divine nature. The Bread from heaven is no mere symbol but the true Body and Blood of Christ, transformed by His own life-giving Word and the power of the Holy Spirit.

In receiving this heavenly food, we do not merely receive Christ as individuals; we become His Body together. The Eucharist gathers us into one, binding us in the love that Christ revealed when He gave Himself unto death. As we partake of His sacrifice, we are strengthened to live that same sacrificial love, no longer scattered by sin but united in the communion of His Church.

The Fathers remind us that this gift is nothing less than heaven opened upon earth. Christ places into our hands the very Body that was crucified and raised in glory, giving Himself wholly to those who hunger for Him. To receive this mystery worthily is to be illumined, strengthened, and transformed until, by His mercy, we become ever more fully what we receive: the Body of Christ in the world.