This weekend, the final Sunday of Advent, the gospel (Luke 1:39-55) invites us to reflect on Mary’s visit to her cousin Elizabeth. Following the angel Gabriel’s announcement that Mary would bear the Christ child, she hastily went to Elizabeth’s home. Both women, lowly and humble, were recipients of God’s wondrous miracles in which human impossibilities became divinely possible for God’s purpose. Mary “had no relations with a man,” yet she became pregnant with the Christ child, a potentially scandalous situation in her times. Elizabeth an older woman, became pregnant, after years of humiliating pain and derision because of her inability to conceive. Both women needed each other’s company for affirmation and to celebrate God’s glorious work in their lives.
Imagine the excitement and joy with which Mary greeted Elizabeth! At the sound of her voice, the unborn baby, John, leaped for joy in the womb, indicating the presence of the Holy Spirit in their shared fellowship. Both women welcomed each other into a soul connection, an intimate bond of loving affirmation grounded in the presence of the Holy Spirit. The child they were each carrying, were conduits of God’s vision of salvation for the world. They may not have recognized the enormity of their calling, but Elizabeth perceived that she was blessed with bearing the child who would herald the coming of Christ. She further understood that through the faith and submissiveness of her younger relative, Mary, she found favor with God, and became the bearer of the divine One. What faith and humility Elizabeth must have had to exalt Mary as “the mother of my Lord!” Then filled with the Holy Spirit, Elizabeth’s voice proclaimed prophetic outpouring of blessings on Mary and the Christ child; “Blessed are you among women and blessed is the fruit of your womb.” “Blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her by the Lord.”
Being fed with such rich spiritual blessings, Mary became emboldened, also with prophetic insight, and declared that God’s action through her, in her lowly state, was to fulfill God’s promise of inaugurating a new spiritual reality, a transformed world. Her soul, therefore, magnified the Lord, making known the glory of God’s vision of love, mercy, justice, peace, and goodwill in the world.
Prayer: Blessed are You, Holy One of God. You give us Mary and Elizabeth who by their examples of true faith, humility, obedience, and submissiveness, joyfully welcomed you and made their very beings your dwelling Place. Purify us with your grace that at your visitation, we may willingly welcome you, share fellowship with you, and magnify your name, that the earth may be impregnated with your divine love and glory. Amen.
