“Nemo summo fit repenter”, says the Latin adage; “no one becomes great suddenly.” This principle, which governs nature and souls, emanates from the wisdom of God, who has disposed all things judiciously and guides history according to His plans.
Time was created by God. For Him, everything is present; only for us is there a “before” and an “after”. Thus, the great events of humanity are preceded by long preparations which, in the eyes of men, often seem banal, although in the eyes of the Almighty they have nothing of commonplace, for in the divine mind they are part of the same plan with the marvellous facts they precede.
In the Scriptures we find, for example, the story of Hannah (cf. 1 Sam 1:1-20), the wife of Elkanah, who, being barren, asked God to grant her a son. When her request was miraculously granted, she dedicated the child to the Lord to serve Him in the Temple: it was Samuel, the future judge of Israel, the one who would anoint King David – the young victor over the giant Goliath – from whom the awaited Messiah would descend… However, this glorious succession of events began with the anonymous prayer that, amid tears, a woman despised by everyone made one day in the Temple.
The same happened to a poor boy who was born under slavery, was saved from the waters (cf. Ex 2:10) and later condemned to death… Forced to flee Egypt and live in a strange land until reaching eighty years of age, Moses was being prepared by God to become the protagonist of events that would mark history. The splendour of his vocation, however, only appeared to the eyes of the world after the divine plans had been fulfilled.
Often such plans are generated over the course of years, in serenity, solitude, and confidence. These sublime characteristics also distinguished the existence of a holy couple, who reached old age without seeing their union blessed by any fruit. In the hands of Joachim and Anne, however, God would place His greatest treasure: Mary Most Holy.
So it was with all the great designs, all the great vocations, from Noah or Abraham to our days: amidst apparently common circumstances, God prepares great events, great births, and great turning points of history. It would even seem that He is pleased to demonstrate His power by allowing men, in their wickedness, to undermine the sustenance of the good, until disaster seems irreversible… Then He chooses a few and with them brings about a turnaround, with a glory inversely proportional to the dishonour that the wicked intended to inflict on His plan.
Thus, the serene, discreet and apparently anonymous life of Sts. Joachim and Anne invites us to ask ourselves whether today, in the midst of the triviality of our daily lives – full of confusion, bagatelles and senseless occurrences that seem to lack any consequence – the next wonder that the omnipotent hand of God will accomplish on earth is not in the process of gestation. ◊
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Salve Maria!