Today March 20

Today is the (old) feast day of St. Joachim, father of Mary, husband of Ann. Don't think it positively hypocritical of me to accept the fact of his name from apocryphal writings, while rejecting nearly everything else. Why would I do this? For the same reason I maintain that St. Catherine of Alexandria existed, despite the lack of sound historical documentation and the legendary nature of her story. She was a real person. It doesn't make sense that a Church so under persecution would make up a person out of whole cloth and open themselves up to even more derision. It doesn't make sense that a historical Church so dependent on the truth of its history would just make up a pretend saint. We already know that a father to Mary existed. Tradition provides at least his name. The rest is conjecture. I believe he was a good man, and he may have had this daughter rather later in life, as it is said. And he may have been feeling hurt by the others and especially the priests who ridiculed his infertility. He supposedly laid low, not even returning home after his Temple visit. An angel appeared to him and told him to meet his wife at the Golden Gate. An angel appeared to Ann at the very same time. It could happen. There is a tradition that they met there, at Jerusalem's Golden Gate. They then went home and in the Golden Legend's innocent words, "patiently awaited the arrival of their child." Hey, wait, I think they skipped something! And so darling Mary was conceived . . . naturally, immaculately, wonderfully, fearfully. And born and raised and brought to maturity. No man "knew" her, but her father shepherded her into life, as all good fathers do. Praise him.