It is passage the meeting of two expectant mothers who experience pregnancy both through their physical journey as well as through their hopes and expectations. They overcome the obstacles standing between them and all they hoped for. Hope is anchored in their most concrete, physical reality.
The joy we see in Mary’s enthusiasm and Elizabeth’s beatitude has nothing mystical or superficial about it. It is the sheer joy of the sportsperson who reaches their goal, of the mountaineers who reaches the summit, the sick who overcomes their illness. It is a joy that comes not only from the tenacity of will, which is another way of saying the love that they have in their openness to God, but it also comes from their confidence that “the Lord would fulfil his promises.”
Without confusion or division, Mary and Elizabeth’s joy is infused with human perseverance and the movement of the Holy Spirit. These faithful women share this amazing visitation in their hearts and spirits. They are loyal in the face of adversity and their faith in the Lord’s word never wavers.
The memory of the people of Israel, to whom they belong, is intertwined with Scripture. The stories of their forefathers showed how any time it seemed that hope in the Lord’s word were fading, His promise would return with renewed vigor through one of the Lord’s messengers: Moses leading the slaves to freedom and Jeremiah and Isaac facing exile.
They recount how, against all odds, God came to them, having heard their prayers and pleas calling out to Him from the sons of Israel reduced to slavery (Ex. 3, 9) or subjugated by the Egyptians. God is no passive or indifferent bystander but a guide who illuminates the way towards the “promised land” and a new life.
The relationship with God is expressed in terms of “God with us,” which is the meaning of Emmanuel, another name for Jesus, whose birth illustrates the renewed relationship that God seeks to establish with mankind.
Carrying this tradition, Elizabeth and Mary testify to the possibility of being reborn into a new life through God; they were reborn as mothers and no longer simply daughters and wives. Inspired by the wisdom of Hellenistic Judaism, Saint John contemplates this begetting of a new human life as a son or daughter of God using the metaphor of light.
“The Light shone in the darkness. It shone and all those who received the Light became children of God: it gave them the power to become children of God.”
The power and force of the words spoken by the Lord illuminate the darkness of sterility and violence.
Closer to us today is the obscurity of the “dark decade” in Algeria. The beatification of 19 Algerian martyrs shows them as the light of our times. Reaffirming their decision to stay day after day, through their loyalty to God, to the Algerian people and to their own consciences, they allowed themselves to be reborn into a new life as sons and daughters of God, forging their identities as artisans of peace. Like Mary and Elizabeth, their faith was based solely on the conviction that God would keep his promise.
It is not just the anniversary of the meeting before the birth of Jesus, however. The story of the Visitation recalls the birth of the Word, the Prince of Peace, and it is reiterated every time we put our faith in the promises the Lord has made to us.
Let us cultivate an internal posture that opens us up to discerning, recognizing and adhering to these words so that His kingdom of justice and peace may grow ever greater.
