Happy Feast of the Visitation!
Following the Annunciation, with the Christchild newly alive in her womb, the Blessed Mother must have felt the need to process and cherish all that was taking place in and through her. Nevertheless, instead of retreating into a perfectly understandable period of adjustment and preparation, Mary immediately reached out to help her cousin.
From the angel’s message, Our Lady knew that Elizabeth had “conceived a son in her old age” (Luke 1:35). She knew, too, that this would mean not only the jubilant fulfillment of her cousin’s longing for a child but also the physical and emotional burden – however welcome – of bearing a child late in life. Elizabeth’s joy and Elizabeth’s need both called to Mary, who set off without hesitation for the hill country.
This in itself would be reason enough to celebrate today. After all, it shows that our Blessed Mother goes out of her way to be present to those who need her, even before they ask. But the Visitation brings with it so much more.
True to the irrepressible abundance of God’s generosity, even Elizabeth’s miraculous motherhood and Mary’s responsive love only express a portion of the beauty in this feast. For Mary does not arrive alone. Her “yes” to God means that God Himself is incarnate within her, and her “yes” to her cousin’s need means that she carries this Presence to Elizabeth and her unborn child, John the Baptist.
I can only imagine Elizabeth’s joy at conceiving a child after so many years – and at a point in her life when the possibility, even under the best of circumstances, would have been impossibly remote. Not only did God answer her prayers – not only did He use this answer to herald the long-awaited Messiah of her people – but as if these things weren’t already far beyond her hope or expectation, He followed this answer with His own presence in her home: “Who am I,” Elizabeth wonders aloud on Mary’s arrival, “that the mother of my Lord should come to me?” (Luke 1:43)
The Feast of the Visitation shows us how much and how tenderly God wants to bless us, even in and through each other. Mary reminds us that in reaching out to those in need, we become vessels of God’s merciful Presence. And Elizabeth reminds us that even when our prayers seem to go unanswered, God is preparing to visit us with the unsurpassable joy of His presence.
May God bless you on this glorious feast!
