A Reflection for the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Find today’s readings here.
“For at the moment the sound of your greeting reached my ears,
the infant in my womb leaped for joy.
Blessed are you who believed
that what was spoken to you by the Lord
would be fulfilled.”
My close friends and family are scattered across the country (and even across an ocean) these days.
I think of them when I read about Elizabeth’s explosion of joy at the sight of her cousin Mary in today’s passage from the Gospel of Luke. After all, Mary is doing with Elizabeth what I get to do every so often with my long-distance loved ones: She’s visiting her.
And that’s where today’s feast, the Visitation, gets its name.
Something unique and unrepeatable is happening between Elizabeth and Mary: Two pregnant women are not only recognizing the presence of new life in one another, but they’re also recognizing the role God has played (and will play) in human history through the babies they carry. Elizabeth has a knowing sense of Mary’s “yes” to God, the one that cemented her as the mother of Christ.
But, perhaps more relatably to us, they are also just two family members who are happy to see one another, happy to share in each other’s good news after time apart. In their joy, I see a slice of how I feel in moments of reunion. It’s a reminder that sometimes the people in our lives are the best reminders of grace we have. The sight of another human being, one we love and admire, can help us recognize and appreciate that we are in the presence of God.
Today’s Gospel describes that recognition is described in a sensory, visceral way. Joy is not something to be contained here; instead, Elizabeth describes sights and sounds that move her—and her growing baby. That baby, who we’ll come to know as John the Baptist, is literally jumping for joy in a way his mother can physically feel. The Gospel reminds us that not only should our encounters with God be joyful; that joy can be expressive, physical, loud, clear.
This weekend, I’m at my five-year college reunion. I’m in the presence of so many people I love, some I see and speak to all the time and others I haven’t seen in five years. Seeing them and being reminded of our bond, I look grace right in the face. As the Gospel says, I’m leaping for joy, moved by knowing that God’s love is all around me.
