The Feast of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Friday, May 31, 2024

Luke 1, 39-56

Mary set out and traveled to the hill country in haste to a town of Judah, where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the infant leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Spirit, cried out in a loud voice and said, “Most blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. And how does this happen to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? 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.”  And Mary said: “My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord; my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has looked with favor on his lowly servant. From this day all generations will call me blessed: the Almighty has done great things for me, and holy is his Name. He has mercy on those who fear him in every generation. He has shown the strength of his arm, he has scattered the proud in their conceit. He has cast down the mighty from their thrones, and has lifted up the lowly. He has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent away empty. He has come to the help of his servant Israel for he has remembered his promise of mercy, the promise he made to our fathers, to Abraham and his children for ever.”  Mary remained with her about three months and then returned to her home.

The Angel Gabriel announced to the Blessed Virgin Mary that the Holy Spirit would overshadow her and that she would conceive in her womb the Son of God.  The Angel did not tell her any details about the course of her pregnancy, or where the Child was to be born, whether she should live with Joseph her husband (for he had not yet brought her to his house), or about how or where or by whom the Child was to be raised.  He does reveal to her, in the context of praising God’s power in the wonderful conception of his Son in Mary’s womb that her relative Elizabeth had become pregnant in her old age.  But then he departed.  For the Virgin Mary, to hear that someone might stand in need of aid amounted to an order and so she joined the next caravan traveling to Jerusalem and left it near the town where Elizabeth and her husband, the priest Zechariah, lived.  And there, Mary knew, she could learn how to perform the will of God with regards to his Son, now growing within her. 

“When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the infant leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Spirit, cried out in a loud voice.”  Because Elizabeth had secluded herself in the house for six months, she would have heard Mary’s voice in her room as Mary was entering the house.  Zechariah, a town elder, would have spent the day by the town’s gate with the other elders and he would have seen her first.  Since he was now deaf and dumb he could not greet her properly but he would have brought her to his house.  Mary would have called out to Elizabeth when she entered the house, not seeing her right away and Elizabeth would have emerged.  The infant, John the Baptist, heard Mary’s greeting through his mother’s ears.  That is, her sweetness and humility so filled Elizabeth with joy that her child felt it too, but also the Infant Jesus was already speaking through Mary’s voice so that they issued their greeting together.  Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit in that instant and felt rapturous happiness.  We can think of Elizabeth’s six months of seclusion as a period of preparation for meeting Christ and learn from this example of how we ought to spend some time before Mass, before we even come to church, preparing for Holy Communion.

“Most blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb.”  The Church applies the praise of Judith, who saved Israel from the Babylonians, to the Virgin Mary: “You are the glory of Jerusalem, you are the joy of Israel, you are the honor of our people” (Judith 15, 10).  Her peerless faith and her obedience to God in all things made her the perfect woman to give birth to God’s Son and to raise him.  As Elizabeth declares, “Blessed are you who believed that what was spoken to you by the Lord would be fulfilled.”  

Mary’s response to Elizabeth shows her awe of what God has done: “My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord; my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has looked with favor on his lowly servant.”  She knew herself to be the lowliest servant in God’s household and yet he has chosen her for the highest responsibility.  “From this day all generations will call me blessed.”  Far from hiding the honor bestowed upon her by Almighty God, she freely acknowledges it and also the place she will hold in the history of the world.  This tells us that she understood very well that she carried God’s Son, who would save the world, in her womb.

“Mary remained with her about three months and then returned to her home.”  Mary assisted her relative for three months, placing herself among the house servants.  But then she leaves just as the time arrives for the birth of John the Baptist.  This is written in a way that is mysterious and abrupt.  It seems that she had to return to Nazareth at that time for her own wedding feast with Joseph, when he would lead her to his home and they would set up housekeeping.  It is hard to think of another reason for why she would leave just then.  She stayed as long as she could and then made her return.  Her own pregnancy might have also begun to show by then.

As we celebrate this feast let us pray for the gift of a strong faith so that one day we shall hear the praise of Jesus at the end of our lives: “Well done, good and faithful servant!  Because you have been faithful over a little, I will place you over much. Enter into the joy of your Lord!” (Matthew 25, 21).