July 20 – Saint Anne: Listening to the Word
JULY 20 - Saint Anne: Listening to the Word
Blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear. Truly I tell you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see, but did not see it, and to hear what you hear, but did not hear it. (Matthew 13.16-17)
In the Gospel proclaimed for the feast of Mary’s parents on July 26, we hear these words from Scripture. Yes, blessed are you, Anne and Joachim, for what your eyes have seen and your ears have heard. In Mary, you gave a dwelling place to the Son of God. Blessed is your daughter – not only because she carried and nursed Jesus, but because she kept his word in her heart.
This was Jesus’ response to a woman who, raising her voice in the crowd, said to him, “Blessed is the womb that bore you and the breasts that nursed you!” But he replied, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it!” (Luke 11.27-28).
Is this not what Anne taught Mary – to listen to the Word and to treasure it in her heart? Many works of art, statues and paintings show Anne introducing her daughter to the Scriptures. Above all, she teaches her to be attentive to God’s word, to reflect on it at all times. In this way, she prepares her to speak the great “yes” of her life, when the angel announces that she will be the Mother of the Messiah: “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word” (Luke 1.38).
On this fourth day of the novena, let us remember that Saint Anne planted in her daughter’s heart a deep love for the Word of God – a sign of the importance of passing on the faith within the family. Anne stands at the threshold between the Old and the New Testament, much like John the Baptist, who prepared the way of the Lord with a baptism of repentance. She placed within Mary’s heart all the hope of Israel.
This invites us to ask: What do we pass on – and how? Is the Word at the heart of our lives, more than just words? Is it not a living presence to be heard, a person to be loved, the Word of life? “And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth” (John 1.14).
Saint Anne, walk with us as we read the Scriptures with care and love, as you did with Mary, so that our hearts may be transformed by the love of the Word made flesh.