Bible for Catholic Nerds – The Visitation and the Birth

The Visitation and the Birth

After the narration of the two annunciations of John and Jesus, the Evangelist Luke presents the meeting of the two mothers. In the two chapters of the Gospel of the Infancy, Luke collects the material of the Judeo-Christian tradition; oral testimonies, perhaps written documents reworked by his literary and theological ability. As we can see from this account of the visitation, as soon as she received the announcement of salvation, Mary gets up and sets out to bring the announcement of salvation.

For Luke, Mary is the model of the disciple: she sets out. The theme of the journey of the road is very important for Luke, it is what he experienced with Paul; he lived with him on the way, he was always on the way during his life. He experienced the encounter with Christ as ὁδός = hodós = the way. One way, one method and that is why in his Gospel he insists on these details; we see that from the beginning, Mary, the model of the disciple, who listens to the Word and trusts completely to the Word, thanks to faith, sets out to communicate to others what she has received. The angel told her that her relative Elizabeth was expecting a baby and she is already in her sixth month.

Mary thinks Elizabeth will need help and, after being introduced as the mother of the future king, Messiah, Mary has feet-on-the-earth, she does not feel like a queen or first lady, but starts on her way to be the servant, to be of help to her relative in the last months of her pregnancy. Mary does not yet know that she has conceived the child. The angel simply told her “you will conceive a son”; she gave her availability and at that moment, when she accepts, conception takes place. Mary does not know. She finds out through the words of Elizabeth who welcomes her, moved by the Spirit. She feels the six-month-old baby literally jumping in her womb (the Greek text says). And the mother is filled with the Holy Spirit, greets Mary, calling her ‘Most blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb.’

How does Elizabeth know that Mary is expecting a baby? It is a prophetic revelation dictated by the Spirit. Elizabeth does not know it from human knowledge, but from inspiration and says “Blessed are you who believed that what was spoken to you by the Lord would be fulfilled.” She considers her own humility and marvels that ‘the mother of my Lord should come to me.’ Elizabeth knows that Mary is the mother, not just of any child, but of the Lord. It’s quite a prophetic episode guided by the Spirit. And it is from this meeting that Mary receives confirmation of what the angel had told her. Many kilometers away, with no human source of information, Elizabeth knows what happened to Mary.

Mary is now convinced of it and starts singing with joy. At this point the evangelist reports the text of the Magnificat: “My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord; my spirit rejoices in God my savior. For he has looked upon his handmaid’s lowliness… The Mighty One has done great things for me….”

Probably, Luke found the text of the Magnificat already written; perhaps he learned it in the Judeo-Christian community of nearby Jerusalem in those years, in which he was a participant in the life of this Christian community. Perhaps he found it written; perhaps he heard it sung, he memorized it and learned it. It is a liturgical text born in the Christian community, the strongly Judeo-Christian community of the early years of the Christian life. It is a psalm of praise and thanksgiving with apocalyptic image of change. God is praised because “He has thrown down the rulers from their thrones but lifted the lowly. The hungry he has filled with good things; the rich he has sent away empty. He has shown might with his arm, dispersed the arrogant of mind and heart.”

It is the song of the church; it is a prayer of a Judeo-Christian type, composed of many biblical elements from the Old Testament and adapted to the new Christian condition that expresses the mentality of Mary. Luke puts this ecclesial prayer in the mouth of Mary to express the feeling of recognition and gratitude, of praise for the Great, who works wonders with the humble.

Then follows the narrative of John’s birth. Three months later, the long-awaited child is born and his birth is accompanied by wonders. The most important is the fact that the father regains speech. The old Zacharias, at the time of the announcement of his son’s birth, nine months earlier, had become mute from his disbelief. The moment John is born, he gives back the speech to his father.

John is presented in the evangelical tradition as ‘the voice of the one who cries out in the desert,’ the voice that prepares the way for the Word of God made flesh, Jesus himself. John, who is the voice, gives the voice back to his elderly father; the old priest of the Old Testament, admonished by the revelation of the novelty. John the Baptist is circumcised on the eighth day and receives the name “John,” which means ‘gift of God,’ ‘God has given grace.’ And opening his mouth prodigiously, the elderly father intones another prayer. We found here the ‚’Benedictus,’ another ecclesial song, of the Judeo-Christian community.

Also, in this case, we can say that Luke found a text in the community and he adapted it. It is a prophetic text that announces the one who prepares the coming of the Messiah: “The daybreak from on high will visit us….” Sun rising from above… We always see the sun rising from below… rise from below… Here, instead, another type of sun that rises coming down from above. After these events, Mary returns home. Luke organized the infancy narratives by placing side-by-side two narratives relating to the announcement and then two narratives relating to the birth. In the middle, the visitation, and, as a corollary, the two songs. In chapter 2 begins the story of the birth of Jesus, it begins in parallel with John’s.

It is only Luke who gives us the news of a census organized by the emperor Caesar Augustus, while Quirinius was governor of Syria. Historical documentation on this fact is not very reliable. There are some doubts related to the dating of this event, but we can take the information as reliable, but Luke intends, above all, is to emphasize that in the framework of the great history of humanity, amid the works of the powerful on earth, there is the influence of the Lord who, through the humble and the little ones, enters history.

Everything serves this project of God; even the census serves the plan of salvation. When it comes to taking a census, we know that it is not necessary to go to the place of birth to be registered; everyone gets registered where they live. The census is used precisely to know which people are present in this area at such a time. Therefore, the news that Joseph moves from Nazareth to Bethlehem to be registered is important because it is not consistent.

It means that Joseph wants to be an inhabitant of Bethlehem. It is very probable that he is in Nazareth incognito. Bethlehem was the city of David, therefore, a hotbed of fundamentalists, also of rioters, of dangerous characters, those of the party opposed to Rome who continued to dream those pretenders to the throne, possible kings in opposition to Herod. Joseph, the first-born of a Davidic family, wants to be outside these centers of revolution, but at the moment when there is a need to register for the Roman Empire, he prefers to let people know that he is in Bethlehem and therefore, begins to move. It is not true that everybody moved for the census; they all stayed in their homes and it is Joseph who goes to Bethlehem to reside in the city of David, even though his wife Mary was at the end of her pregnancy.

He does not come to Bethlehem to an unknown city because he is from there, and therefore he has relatives, he has family in Bethlehem. The fact that tradition placed the birth of Jesus in a cave, corresponds perfectly well with the reconstruction of the urban environment of Bethlehem. It was, in fact, a city characterized by cave houses, a bit like the stones of Matera, in Italy. Natural caves were used as the main body of the house to which a forepart was added, perhaps an upper room with some wall to protect the entrance, but the habitually used places were inside the rock, they were caves that pilgrims can still visit in the Holy Land today. Under the Basilica of Nativity, there is a large cave house that belonged to the family of Joseph, a wealthy family related to David, a house for people who live in poverty according to the scheme of the time.

For us today, it is a situation of poverty, but in the ancient economy, and in that urban context, it was a normal house or rather a beautiful large and organized home. Therefore, Joseph is received in his family environment, and the child is born and placed in a manger “because there was no room for them in the inn.”

Unfortunately, we have been reading ‘inn’ for forty years and adding the old poem of the bell tower that strikes at the different hours of the evening. We have created the fable of the search for an ‘inn’ completely full, with no place available, and in the end, they have to go to the countryside, in a stable or in a cave.

This is all inconsistent fantasy. This is not what Luke’s evangelical narrative says who, however, is not interested in a detailed reconstruction. It simply says that Joseph, together with Mary, went to the city of David which is Bethlehem, the moment of childbirth came and Mary gave birth to her firstborn son, wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and placed him in a manger because the accommodation— the living room, the dining room, ‘καταλύμα’ = kataluma says the evangelist in Greek. It is the main room of the house. Does it seem like the place for a woman in childbirth? Where do you place a woman about to give birth? In a private and warm and welcoming private environment, and that type of room is the stable. Many of us, if they have memories of 50 or 70 years ago in the countryside, they can still imagine such a condition.

A winter birth in the countryside took place in a stable because the stable was the naturally heated environment, and with a more welcoming environment than a cold room in the house. The mention of the manger refers to a natural place. The women who lived in the stone houses of Matera (a city in southern Italy where the houses were carved out of limestone) used the drawer of the dresser as a cradle for children, since the rooms were very small. By opening the drawer next to the bed, there the baby was placed, and the manger is the enveloping environment that can naturally accommodate a newborn child, that is, the hay that gives a base of softness, and the natural warmth produced by animals.

The fact that the evangelist emphasizes only this detail is to say that the child, when he is born, is placed in the place where the food is put. The baby wrapped in swaddling clothes, placed in the manger, it is simply left there. There is no description of the environment; there is no underlining of poverty or misery; only the essential data.

Luke’s interests are the shepherds. It is the shepherds who interest the evangelist because he goes far longer to tell the announcement of the birth to the shepherds. The shepherds are out of Bethlehem. The child is born in the city. The shepherds are out of the city, in the countryside, guarding the flock. The angel of the Lord shows them the glory of God envelops them; a technical language that almost recalls the Easter apparition, the light of the Easter morning announcement. At night, a divine light envelops the shepherds, is a messenger who brings you the ‘εὐαγγελίου’ = gospels = the good news: a messenger brings them the ‘εὐαγγελίου’ = gospels = the good news: “For today in the city of David a savior has been born for you.”

Three very important Christological titles: the Messiah is presented in Greek; Christ is called ‘kyrios’ = Lord, a divine title, and qualified with the title of Savior. It is the function he performs. The shepherds have been told practically everything about the identity of that child. A multitude of the heavenly army joins the messenger angel and sings the glory of God, and announces peace for people object of divine benevolence. The ‘good will’ is God’s will, is God who loves humanity for which He grants peace and that child is peace in person.

Once the angelic light disappears, the shepherds talk among themselves and say: “Let’s go to Bethlehem.” After having received the announcement, as Mary had done, even the shepherds set out. They have heard a word and are going to check the truth of that word. They arrive and find the sign, but the sign was something very simple, elementary, common: “You will find an infant wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger.” The extraordinary announcement coexists with the simplicity of the environment, the condition in which they will find this extraordinary person.

We are used to the images of the nativity scene to imagine the shepherds bringing gifts to the child and we have added all our fantasies: from the woman who brings the capon to make a substantial broth to those who offer the swaddling clothes fascinates her, wood to make fire, the lamb, something to eat… and so on. That’s not what the evangelist says. The shepherds in Luke’s narrative bring nothing to Jesus; they go to see what they have heard and they see that things are just as they heard them and they are amazed, and they go home telling others what they have heard and seen.

Notice that the fundamental senses are involved. The shepherds listened to the word, saw the word concretely, and told others what they had heard and then seen, and whoever listened to the shepherds, who are the preachers of the Gospel, was amazed at what was announced. This is the synthesis of the story of evangelization. The shepherds, who are of interest to Luke, are the pastors of the Church; they are the evangelizers, those who have listened to the announcement, have verified from personal experience that this is the case and have communicated their experience to others.

It is the proclamation of the gospel. The story of the nativity of Jesus for Luke is the image of the transmission of the Gospel and at the center of the episode, Mary is once again the figure of the ideal disciple: “and his mother kept all these things in her heart,” by putting together the details to understand the overall picture. This is what the disciple must do: listen, verify, announce and meditate on the profound meaning of what happened.