The
Visitation
Feast
day: 31 May
A young girl was travelling along the wild
tracts of a hilly country. She was hastening to a certain town named Ain Karim,
and carrying in her bosom a burden so precious, that if certain people knew of
it she would pay for it with her life. That was two thousand years ago.
Nobody need think twice to know who this young
girl was. The Virgin Mary of Nazareth who was on her way to her cousin
Elizabeth. The precious burden she was bearing was the Son of God himself -
bearing him in her womb. Braving hardship and danger she sped on her way,
because above the awareness of danger and hardship was a nobler consciousness,
that of love and service.
“And there entering in she gave Elizabeth
greeting.” Mary opened her lips and greeted Elizabeth. There is nothing special
about the fact of greeting. It is something that is so ordinary, that everybody
takes it for granted. So, if it is so normal, why does the evangelist Luke make
special mention of it? The Gospels, as you know, are very concise accounts of
Our Lord’s life and usually you should not expect to find household details
mentioned therein. And so, why mention a simple affair as “and there entering
in she gave Elizabeth greeting?” We have the answer from the lips of Elizabeth
herself. She told our Blessed Mother, “As soon as the voice of your greeting
sounded in my ears, the child in my womb leaped for joy!” And the evangelist
adds, “And Elizabeth herself was filled with the Holy Spirit.” Therefore, Mary’s
word of greeting was no ordinary salutation. When your friend greets you it gives you some
happiness, but it does not bring about your sanctification and salvation. But
with Mary it was different: as soon as she opened her mouth, John the Baptist
was sanctified and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. Mary’s words were
like the words of Baptism. Mary’s word was like a sacrament simply because
Jesus was acting through her. He was waiting for Mary to utter her words to
exercise his saving action on others. It seemed he could hardly wait.
If it were not for the presence of Jesus the
words of our Blessed Lady would have had no effect. It would have been only a
friendly social gesture. But Jesus
waited for her to speak for him to act. He willed to act through her, or rather
together with her, resulting in the sanctifying of Elizabeth and the child she
was carrying. It looked like the Saviour couldn’t wait. Already present in the
womb, Jesus meant salvation, strength and mercy. During the three years of his
public life, Our Lord Jesus walked through the flood of physical pain and moral
shame, healing them all with a word, with a touch, with an act of his will.
Then
the young Mary sang her great canticle of joy and self-knowledge in God: “My
soul glorifies the Lord...the Almighty works marvels for me...all generations
will call me blessed...” Mary was not able to respond this way at the
Annunciation when the angel greeted her with, “Hail, full of grace.” But the
elderly Elizabeth’s words of delighted recognition, namely, “Blessed are you
among women and blessed is the fruit of your womb,” prompted Mary’s “Magnificat”. It seems that such a deep
and joyful realisation can be the fruit of a simple good deed or generous word
spoken to someone in need. Again and again, to our astonishment we discover
that it is in the poor, in those who need our help, that the Lord is waiting to
fill us with the joyful fact that we are blessed and healed. Like Mary, then,
according to the prophet Isaiah, we shall experience enlightenment of some kind
but also “our wound will quickly be healed over” (Isaiah 58, 6 – 8).
The Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary
--------------------------------------Oliver
Treanor ------------------------------
The Virgin Mary’s
joyful song extolling God’s goodness – the Magnificat
– is such an extraordinary hymn it is included in the Prayer of the Church
every evening of the year at Vespers. It is a richly textured composition of
many Old Testament passages announcing the mercy now brought to fulfilment in
the Virgin herself and the Child she carries. This prayer is recommended for
many reasons, not least because it is the Gospel (Lk 1, 46 -55) inspired by the
Holy Spirit, the saving Word of life and light that overcomes evil. It also
embodies the soul of the Immaculate one who is all things to God who is all in
all to her. Obedient daughter of the Father, beloved Mother of the Son,
faithful Spouse of the Paraclete, no one is better placed to worship God than
the one who relates to him in the fullness of every meaningful human relationship
possible.
That the Magnificat is the perfect devotion is
clear from St. Augustine’s criterion of authentic prayer – his gold standard,
as it were: “If we are praying in the right way”, he maintained, “we say
nothing that has not already a place in the Lord’s Prayer”, since to pray in a
way unrelated to the Our Father would be to pray “in a fleshly, unspiritual
manner”, inappropriate for “people reborn in the Spirit” (Letter 130). When we
place the Magnificat alongside the Pater Noster and compare them in content
and form we discover something interesting. Their subject-matter is perfectly congruent, each point matching its
corresponding one precisely, while their form
differs in one significant detail only – and in this Mary’s prayer complements that of her Son. Whereas the
Our Father is intercessory – a
pleading for those things Christ wished us to request – the song of Mary is
acclamatory: it affirms that the Father will
in fact, does in fact, provide all
that is appropriate to those who ask him.
So: the hopeful
children dare to petition the “heavenly one” as their Father; the Mother affirms they are correct and should do so
glorifying the Lord and rejoicing in God their Saviour. In the Pater we implore that his name be kept
holy – with which Mary readily concurs, for truly, she says, “holy is his name”. Then we ask for his
kingdom to come so that his will might be done; she proclaims it already has:
“he puts forth his arm in strength, he scatters the proud, casts down the
mighty, raises the lowly”. In her Son and his, God’s victory over sin and death
is, even now, in our midst. “Give us our daily bread”, we intercede; to which
the Woman who brings the Living Bread asserts from experience that indeed “he
fills the starving with good things.”
“Forgive us our
trespasses” – uttered quietly and vulnerably because of wounds still fresh and
tender; to which Mary, sensing the pain and the need, proclaims three times a mercy more tender still
that will always be fresh and deep: “His mercy is from age to age”, “He remembers
his mercy”, “his mercy promised to Abraham and his sons forever”. She who would
one day stand by the Cross already knows the weight of that mercy in her womb. Finally,
the Lord’s Prayer petitions for the ultimate request: “not into temptation but deliver
is from evil”, today, everyday and at the end. Mary’s affirmation of this is equally
conclusive: the ultimate consolation, serene and confident and beyond dispute: “He
protects Israel his child”, echoing Hosea and the Pentateuch, the great voices that
prepared for the voice of Mary articulating the last word of the Word of God that
she proclaims and affirms from her heart in every generation.
