A Penitent Blogger
Joyful visitation
In today’s Gospel (Lk. 1:39-56) we have the familiar scene of the Visitation, as Mary visits Elizabeth right after receiving the Annunciation by the Archangel Gabriel.
It is a truly joyful event: even the child in Elizabeth’s womb (who will be known as John the Baptist) leaps for joy.
But not everyone may receive all parts of this Gospel passage with joy, especially where Mary says the following:
He hath put down the mighty from their seats….
and the rich he hath sent empty away.
It may seem, therefore, that this might not be a joyful visitation for those entrusted with positions of authority or blessed with earthly wealth.
Then again, perhaps it should not be so joyful for the unborn John the Baptist, because after the unborn child now in Mary’s womb begins his public ministry, John will lose both his own superstar status and his head.
What would be an "unjoyful" visitation? A verse later in Luke’s Gospel (19:44) alludes to this, when our Lord foretells all kinds of catastrophes for his listeners “because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation.”
On the other hand, Peter and the Apostles are later chastised and physically beaten, but go forth “rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name” – the name of Jesus (Acts 5:41b).
Peter and the Apostles recognized in the humiliation and brutality they suffered a time of visitation: an opportunity for manifesting the salvific will of God at work in their lives and in the world.
In times of divine visitation, when God becomes involved in our lives, he shakes things up: he scatters the pride of our own imagination and he puts down the might we may think we have in our selves, but he exalts those acknowledge their lowliness before him.
Mary and Elizabeth, as well as Peter and the Apostles, recognized the time of visitation: they saw God at work in their lives and rejoiced in it - no matter what - because their focus was on God’s will and God’s glory and not on their own.
May we acknowledge our own lowliness before God, may we always be seeking not our own will and glory but God’s will and glory, and thus may we recognize with overwhelming joy the times of our visitation: our loving God at work in us.
It is a truly joyful event: even the child in Elizabeth’s womb (who will be known as John the Baptist) leaps for joy.
But not everyone may receive all parts of this Gospel passage with joy, especially where Mary says the following:
He hath put down the mighty from their seats….
and the rich he hath sent empty away.
It may seem, therefore, that this might not be a joyful visitation for those entrusted with positions of authority or blessed with earthly wealth.
Then again, perhaps it should not be so joyful for the unborn John the Baptist, because after the unborn child now in Mary’s womb begins his public ministry, John will lose both his own superstar status and his head.
What would be an "unjoyful" visitation? A verse later in Luke’s Gospel (19:44) alludes to this, when our Lord foretells all kinds of catastrophes for his listeners “because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation.”
On the other hand, Peter and the Apostles are later chastised and physically beaten, but go forth “rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name” – the name of Jesus (Acts 5:41b).
Peter and the Apostles recognized in the humiliation and brutality they suffered a time of visitation: an opportunity for manifesting the salvific will of God at work in their lives and in the world.
In times of divine visitation, when God becomes involved in our lives, he shakes things up: he scatters the pride of our own imagination and he puts down the might we may think we have in our selves, but he exalts those acknowledge their lowliness before him.
Mary and Elizabeth, as well as Peter and the Apostles, recognized the time of visitation: they saw God at work in their lives and rejoiced in it - no matter what - because their focus was on God’s will and God’s glory and not on their own.
May we acknowledge our own lowliness before God, may we always be seeking not our own will and glory but God’s will and glory, and thus may we recognize with overwhelming joy the times of our visitation: our loving God at work in us.
posted by Penitens | 11:35 AM
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