FEAST OF STS. JOAQUIM AND ANNE – JULY 27TH TUESDAY (Mt 13: 36-43)

1.  Those who wished to follow Jesus should not merely satisfy themselves from what they read and hear from the Scripture. The levels of understanding differ from person to person. They should go in for deeper study to understand God’s word.

2. This is the only one of Matthew’s three sowing parables where Jesus identified who the sower is. Here the sower is the son of man, God’s seeds represent the sons of the kingdom, and field represents the world. The Son of Man is no less that the king himself who plants and grows kingdom citizens in his world at his discretion.

3. The gathering and burning of the weeds represent the gathering of all men and women out of his kingdom for judgment. It may be seem that the sinner escapes the consequences of it in this world but it cannot be carried on in the next. 

4. By tradition Joachim and Anne are considered to be the names of the parents of Mary, the Mother of God. We have no historical evidence, however, of any elements of their lives, including their names. Any stories about Mary's father and mother come to us through legend and tradition.

5. We get the oldest story from a document called the Gospel of James, though in no way should this document be trusted to be factual, historical, or the Word of God. The legend told in this document says that after years of childlessness, an angel appeared to tell Anne and Joachim that they would have a child. Anne promised to dedicate this child to God (much the way that Samuel was dedicated by his mother Hannah -- Anne -- in 1 Kings).

As Christians all of us have the obligation to preach the word of God. When we preach the word of God we should be careful not to give our own interpretation and water down the message of Christ. We should try to understand the context in which the text was written and then give it to people matching to today’s context. This needs a deeper study on scripture, personal time with the Lord and most of all the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. If one of the elements is missing we might fail to give God’s word convincingly to the people.

Courtesy
Holman’s New Testament Commentary

The Pulpit Commentary

William Barclay’s Commentary

http://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=22