Visitation of Mary

May 31, Monday 

NINTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

 

  Luke presents Mary as the Ark of the Covenant coming to Jerusalem to show that God is present among his people to bring them joy. This is why the child leaps (that is, dances for joy) in Elizabeth’s womb. With Christ, God comes to live not in a temple of stone but in the hearts of people. Through Christ living in Mary God’s victory over evil has begun. A person in whom Christ lives – a Christ-bearer, a Christopher – brings Christ to others, and with Christ, joy and love.

 

First Reading: Zephaniah 3:14-18

So sing, Daughter Zion!
    Raise the rafters, Israel!
Daughter Jerusalem,
    be happy! celebrate!
God has reversed his judgments against you
    and sent your enemies off chasing their tails.
From now on, God is Israel’s king,
    in charge at the center.
There’s nothing to fear from evil
    ever again!

Jerusalem will be told:
    “Don’t be afraid.
Dear Zion,
    don’t despair.
Your God is present among you,
    a strong Warrior there to save you.
Happy to have you back, he’ll calm you with his love
    and delight you with his songs.

 “The accumulated sorrows of your exile
    will dissipate.
I, your God, will get rid of them for you.

 

Gospel: Luke 1:39-56

Mary didn’t waste a minute. She got up and traveled to a town in Judah in the hill country, straight to Zachariah’s house, and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby in her womb leaped. She was filled with the Holy Spirit, and sang out exuberantly,

You’re so blessed among women,
    and the babe in your womb, also blessed!
And why am I so blessed that
    the mother of my Lord visits me?
The moment the sound of your
    greeting entered my ears,
The babe in my womb
    skipped like a lamb for sheer joy.
Blessed woman, who believed what God said,
    believed every word would come true!

And Mary said,

I’m bursting with God-news;
    I’m dancing the song of my Savior God.
God took one good look at me, and look what happened—
    I’m the most fortunate woman on earth!
What God has done for me will never be forgotten,
    the God whose very name is holy, set apart from all others.
His mercy flows in wave after wave
    on those who are in awe before him.
He bared his arm and showed his strength,
    scattered the bluffing braggarts.
He knocked tyrants off their high horses,
    pulled victims out of the mud.
The starving poor sat down to a banquet;
    the callous rich were left out in the cold.
He embraced his chosen child, Israel;
    he remembered and piled on the mercies, piled them high.
It’s exactly what he promised,
    beginning with Abraham and right up to now.

Mary stayed with Elizabeth for three months and then went back to her own home.

 

Prayer

Lord our God, loving Father,
Mary went with haste to visit
her cousin Elizabeth in her hour of need.
May we too rejoice in the Lord
when we can hurry to see people
to bring them the Lord
as we to share in their needs and their joys.
With Mary, may we become
a blessing to them.
We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Reflection:

Walking on the road 

The month of May began with the Feast of St. Joseph and ends with the feast of Blessed Virgin Mary. Today the Church celebrates the Visitation of the Mother of God to her cousin, Saint Elizabeth. Yesterday, on the Feast of the Holy Trinity, we reflected on a God who is a constant relationship of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, wants to relate with the humans, to set out on the journey.

That is precisely what Mary did when she visited Elizabeth her cousin. Mary travels to the hill country – to the house of Zachariah and Elizabeth. The most common of the reflections on the visitation talk about Mary’s readiness to help her cousin who became pregnant in her old age. But recently I have come across a fascinating reflection on Mary’s travel to the hill county.

Mary herself was in need of a change of environment. She was pregnant and her explanations would not have convinced even Joseph, if not for the intervention of the angel. She would soon be exposed at least among her neighbours and friends for being pregnant outside of the wedlock. And that would mean her own life in danger. Where could she find someone who would understand her? Angel Gabriel had given her the answer. Zachariah and Elizabeth would be the only couple who would understand her and accommodate her.

Mary promptly leaves for the house of Zachariah, where she would stay for three months. In fact, Mary received everything she needed at that very moment of the meeting between the two future mothers.

Luke presents Mary as the ‘Tabernacle of the Holy Trinity’ here: She is carrying – God the Son in her womb. When Mary utters her greetings to Elizabeth, she is filled with the Holy Spirit, says the Gospel. And Elizabeth cries out aloud: How does this happen to me that the Mother of my Lord should come to me?” For Mary, that was an occasion of echoing the message of the Angel at the time of the annunciation and a moment of strengthening her own faith in the God of Israel.

Elizabeth gives a perfect example for instilling the distressed with appreciations and encouragement. She had all the reasons to give a long lecture to this unwed, pregnant teenager. But, she does something different. When one is filled with the Holy Spirit, he or she can only appreciate, encourage, love and accept. How often do our words and actions bring sleeplessness and anxiety to people around us?

Mary and Elizabeth are ordinary people like anyone of us. But these ordinary women show us a path to follow, which we too can walk, if we ask for it every day, if we pray for it with faith.

 

Video available on Youtube: Walking on the road