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Meditation: Luke 1:39-56

The Visitation of Mary

Blessed are you who believed! (Luke 1:45)

Don’t you find it remarkable that God chose to bring about his work of redemption through two human babies and their mothers? Jesus was still in Mary’s womb, yet in his presence, Elizabeth and her own unborn son, John, were filled with the Holy Spirit the moment Mary arrived. This short but powerful scene gives us a glimpse of the forceful love of God, who simply can’t wait to pour out his life. What a foreshadowing this is of the glory of the risen Christ, who wants to pour out his Spirit on all people!

Elizabeth’s pure and humble response to the work of God in their lives must have brought great comfort to Mary. In Elizabeth, she finally found someone with whom she could share her joy and awe at what was happening in her. Who else at this time could understand the song welling up within Mary’s heart (Luke 1:46-56)? Rather than being jealous of her younger relative’s exalted position, Elizabeth rejoiced with Mary and embraced her own supportive role. For her part, Mary did not wait for Elizabeth to come to her but hastened to her side.

While this meeting between Mary and Elizabeth is unique, there is something here that we can all experience. As baptized believers, each of us is capable of bearing Christ to others. If our eyes were opened to the glory of this truth, we too would rejoice and be humbled in the presence of so holy a vessel as a sister or brother in Christ. Even nonbelievers would move us to great reverence because they too are created in God’s image and have just as much potential of being filled with the Holy Spirit. If God has so highly honored human beings this way, how can we fail to show them equal honor?

God used Jesus, even when he was just a fetus in the womb, to pour out divine life. Everyone, no matter how young or old, no matter how strong or weak, has been created as a dwelling place for God. So how can we long for God’s presence and yet disregard him in the people all around us?

“Lord Jesus, as you opened Elizabeth’s eyes in the presence of Mary, open our eyes to those who also bear Christ. Help us to honor the potential of each person to be filled with the Holy Spirit.”

Zephaniah 3:14-18; (Psalm) Isaiah 12:2-6

31 May 2010

The Visitation

It seems that Saint Luke in his Gospel made great strides to delineate Our Blessed Lady as the New Ark of the New and Everlasting Covenant, the human Tabernacle of the Lord.

Notice some of the scriptural parallels:

In the Old Testament are these words:
‘The cloud covered the tabernacle of the testimony, and the glory of the Lord filled it’ (Exodus 40:32).
And in the New Testament:
‘The Holy Spirit shall come upon you, and the power of the Most High shall overshadow you. And therefore also the Holy which shall be born of you shall be called the Son of God’ (Saint Luke 1:35).

In the Old Testament:
‘And David was afraid of the Lord that day, saying: How shall the ark of the Lord come to me’? (2 Kings [2 Samuel]6:9).
In the New Testament:
‘And whence is this to me that the Mother of my Lord should come to me’? (Saint Luke 1:43).

In the Old Testament:
‘And David danced with all his might before the Lord: and David was girded with a linen ephod. And David and all the house of Israel brought the ark of the covenant of the Lord with joyful shouting, and with sound of trumpet’ (2 Kings [2 Samuel]6:14-15).
In the New Testament:
‘Behold as soon as the voice of your salutation sounded in my ears, the infant in my womb leaped for joy’ (Saint Luke 1:44).

In the Old Testament:
‘The ark of the Lord abode in the house of Obededom the Gethite three months’ (2 Kings [2 Samuel]6:11).
In the New Testament:
‘Mary abode with her about three months’ (Saint Luke 1:56).

Saint Thomas Aquinas wrote in his Summa Theologica that ‘Mary would not have been a worthy Mother of God if she had ever sinned’, thus we must profess with the Doctor Angelicus: ‘You are wholly beautiful, my love and without blemish’. We are sinners, and so, we can also say with Saint Elizabeth: ‘Whence is this to me that the Mother of my Lord should come to me’? Nevertheless Our Blessed Lady would like to be invited to our house, not only the house in which we reside where she can guide us in family matters and parenting skills, but also the inner house, the temple of the soul. She brings Jesus with her. There she perpetually sings her Magnificat. And since she stayed in the house of Zachary for three months, we know that when invited, she will always arrive with a charitable heart. Let us permit Our Lady and her divine Son to take up residence at our inner house, where together they can clean this house of all temporal desires, that this house may always be called a ‘house of prayer’ (Saint Matthew 21:13).