A passionate meeting between Anna and Joachim, from whom Mary was born
Yesterday, on July 26, we should celebrate the Memorial of St. Anna and Joachim - parents of the Blessed Virgin Mary. But it was a Sunday that takes precedence in the liturgical calendar.
Therefore, today I would like to share with you a brief reflection on a beautiful icon: Joachim and Anne Meeting at the Golden Gate
Giotto's fresco from the Scrovegni Chapel in Padua, depicting the scene of the Meeting of Anna and Joachim at the Golden Gate, belongs to a series of forty frescoes decorating the interior of this small, poor in terms of architectural elements of the chapel. Its only decoration are the paintings by Giotto, created in the years 1303 - 1306. They run around the entire interior in three levels and show scenes from the life of the Mother of God, scenes from the life of Mary and Jesus, up to the Resurrection and the Last Judgment visible above the entrance and personifications of virtues and vices made in the an grisaille technique, i.e. in gray to imitate sculptures.
In later centuries, many icons depicting this theme were created.
Here is a little-known story of how Our Lady's parents found out that it is God's will that they will have a daughter. THAT daughter. And how they kissed at the gate ...
"Meeting at the Golden Gate" is a very intimate icon. Against the background of the gate or between the two towers of the city, implicitly Jerusalem, we see two elderly people kissing passionately.
The world around them shines with gold because the gate where they meet is named after the gold. Their outer garments are red, but their tunics are green or blue. This colorway can be read as hidden in their marital passion (red) God's action (blue or green as the color of the Holy Spirit), which reaches down to eternity (gold). Who is this couple and why are they showing affection in public?
Joachim and Anna's long wait
We know their names from apocryphal works, especially from the Protoevangelium of St. James (2nd century). The woman is Anna and the man are Joachim. According to the tradition of the Church, they are the parents of the Mother of God. In the history of their marriage, the biblical story of faithfulness to the Lord repeats itself, even though He refuses the pair to have children.
The day finally comes when they both have an extraordinary guest. Joachim is then in the desert, among the shepherds. Anna arrives home. They both hear from the angel who visits each of them that they will have a child, a daughter, thanks to whom God's great works will be accomplished. They both react the same - they run to meet their spouse and share this happy news.
They just met at the gate and greeted themselves with a kiss. According to the apocryphal text, it was Anna who first spoke what the angel announced to her. Joachim, although returning with the flocks from which he was to make a generous sacrifice in the temple, instead of going straight to the temple, first spent the night with his wife.
Immaculate, born of Love
Then theologians have tried to create theories that Mary was conceived during a kiss at the gate, however, for me, it is shortness of the story. Apparently, some of the iconographs had a similar opinion, because some icons depicting the meeting of Anna and Joachim behind their backs show two towers, the roofs of which are joined by a strip of intensely red fabric. Its layout is a bit like a bed, although in my opinion the color is more important - a symbol of love, also the carnal one.
Mary is born immaculate, that is, the one in whom the likeness to God remains perfectly preserved, because this is how we should understand the lack of taint of sin of first parents in her humanity. And she is born of human love, the passion of two spouses, which they were not afraid to show themselves physically close to in a place as populous and important as the city gate. In the eyes of the people coming and going out of it, the eyes of the old men who sat in this place, and of the guards guarding the gate.
Passion and fertility - an unpredictable duo
It is an icon that indicates the beauty and value of the physical dimension of the relationship between wife and husband. After all, it is thanks to passion, on the icon expressed by a kiss and the colors, and the desire to give birth to a child, that She who conceives and gives birth to God comes into the world.
The fertility of Anna and Joachim is also indicated in some of the icons by the presence, most often behind the back of a man, of a green tree. It often has three branches, as if it were a reference to the Triune God who is the source of all fatherhood on earth (see Eph. 3:15), and therefore of all begetting.
There are also such representations in which in the upper left corner you can see a cloud from which a hand comes out in a gesture of blessing. I must admit that this detail touches me a lot, maybe because I see in it the gesture of a loving father who, on the wedding night, after the newlyweds, gently and smilingly close the door of their bedroom.
As if against all those who would like to unequivocally classify the physical dimension of marital love as sinful, because it is unclean, this icon speaks of its great value. It is in this space, when passion and openness to life meet in it, great things happen. Things that can change the world and give it new hope.
Tomorrow we will continue our reflection on the Holy Mass
fr. george