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.