Mary visits Elizabeth

Luke 1: 39-45

During those days 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.”

Discussion Questions

1. Mary said Yes. Where do you experience difficulty in saying to “yes” God’s invitations?
2. How might Mary’s confidence to lean into her personal encounter with the divine give you more courage to trust your own religious experiences?
3. Who in your life has given you an experience of spiritual hospitality? When have you given this gift to another?
4. What do you think will happen within us and arounds us if we, like Mary, agree to bear God into the world?

Biblical Context

Luke 1: 39-45
Margaret Nutting Ralph PHD

 On the fourth Sunday of Advent, for the first time in this liturgical year, we read one of the stories surrounding the birth of Jesus. To understand the full significance of the story we must know a little about birth narratives.

Birth narratives are stories about the birth of someone who later becomes very great. The story is composed, not to describe a birth exactly as it occurred, but to teach the significance of that person’s birth as it is later understood in the light of subsequent events. The story of Mary visiting Elizabeth, referred to as the visitation, is a post resurrection story. It was written after the resurrection to teach what was understood about Jesus in the light of the resurrection. This story is not primarily about Mary or Elizabeth; it is primarily about Jesus. The story of the visitation is teaching that Jesus is divine.

In Luke’s Gospel the story of the visitation follows immediately after the story of the annunciation, in which the angel Gabriel tells Mary that she will conceive a child through the Holy Spirit and that the child will be called “Son of the Most High” (Luke 1:32). Luke’s Gospel is the only Gospel that brings Mary on stage for the annunciation, and the only Gospel to picture the visitation. Both stories are teaching Jesus’ divinity.

As we read today’s story of the visitation, we already know the identity of the child in Mary’s womb. However, Elizabeth does not know what the reader knows. The fact that Elizabeth, and even the child in her womb, recognize that they are in the presence of their Lord is attributed to the Holy Spirit. “… Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Spirit, cried out in a loud voice and said, ‘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?”

By picturing Elizabeth greeting Mary with these words, Luke is alluding to an Old Testament passage. When we recognize the allusion, Luke’s teaching becomes even clearer. In 2 Samuel we read how the ark of the covenant, the symbol of God’s presence with God’s people, was recaptured from the Philistines and brought back to Jerusalem. David, in awe of the Lord’s power, says, “How can the ark of the Lord come to me?” (2 Sam 6:9). By having Elizabeth echo David’s words, Luke is picturing Mary as the new ark of the covenant, and Jesus as the God who has come to dwell with God’s people. That is why John the Baptist leaps in his mother’s womb. He too recognizes the presence of the Lord.

While the story of the visitation is primarily about Jesus’ identity, the story also teaches us something very important about Mary and about why the church honors Mary as we do. Elizabeth says to Mary, “Blessed are you who believed that what was spoken to you by the Lord would be fulfilled.”

Why does Elizabeth call Mary blessed? One reason is that Mary believed the words of the angel as they affected her personally. Mary’s faith-filled response to the angel’s announcement of Jesus’ birth was, “May it be done to me according to your word” (Luke 1:38).

However, when we read Mary’s response to Elizabeth’s words (not included in this week’s reading; see Luke 1:46-56), we see that Mary understood God’s promises to her in a much wider context than her own personal life. Mary says,

“He has helped Israel his servant,

remembering his mercy,

according to his promise to our fathers,

to Abraham and to his descendants forever/ (Luke 1:54-55)

Through Mary’s response Luke is teaching that Jesus is the fulfillment of all of God’s covenant promises to Israel. 

Hospitality heals our Estrangement

Reflection
Fr. Michael K. Marsh

This story is so familiar to us that I think we sometimes lose sight of or forget just how strange, unfamiliar, and unexpected that experience was for Mary. And I think it’s the strangeness, unfamiliarity, and unexpectedness of what happened that causes Mary to “set out with haste to a Judean town in the hill country.”

As soon as Gabriel makes his announcement and departs, so does Mary, with haste. She wastes no time. She hits the road and heads for the hills as they say. Maybe she’s excited and wants to share this good news. Maybe she wants to celebrate what is happening in her. Or maybe she’s afraid and needs a friendly face. Maybe she’s overwhelmed and needs someone to talk with. Maybe she doesn’t know what to do next and is looking for some guidance. Maybe she wants help in figuring out how to tell and deal with Joseph and her mom and dad. Maybe she just wants to get away for a little while and try to make sense of what has happened. Maybe she wants to talk with someone who will understand. Maybe it’s any one of those things, all of them, or a thousand other things that caused Mary to leave with haste.

Whatever Mary’s reasons were, you and I probably know what that’s like. Haven’t there been times in your life when you set out in haste looking for something or someone familiar to stand with you in the midst of the unexpected and unfamiliar? Who has been your Elizabeth? When have you been Elizabeth for another?

Throughout our lives we find ourselves in circumstances or situations that are strange, new, incomprehensible. They’re beyond our previous experience and more often than not they leave us feeling estranged from ourselves, an alien in our own life. You know what that’s like, right?

Maybe it was that first day, first week, first year of being a married person, a divorced person, a parent, a widow, and you didn’t know what to do but you knew you had to make room in your life for this new person you were becoming. Maybe it was a time that you did or said something that hurt another and you knew that wasn’t really who you are or who you want to be and you felt estranged not only from the other person but from yourself.

I wonder if that’s exactly how Mary feels. I wonder if her leaving in haste is the outer expression of her inner estrangement. I wonder if her leaving home reflects that she is not yet at home in herself. I don’t think Mary is running away from home, her life, or herself. I think she leaves home so she can return, and she knows that Elizabeth is the one who can help her come back to her home, her life, herself.

The trip to Elizabeth’s house isn’t a simple walk across the street or around the block. Our sacred tradition says that Zechariah and Elizabeth lived in Ein Karem, a town just outside of Jerusalem and about 80 miles from Mary’s home in Nazareth. Eighty miles; that’s about thirty hours of walking. Mary was surely looking for something in particular from Elizabeth. I don’t know what she wanted or needed but I know when I’ve been estranged from myself, I want a place of acceptance and understanding.

What I am really describing here is hospitality. Hospitality is the antidote to our estrangement. I am talking about the kind of hospitality we receive from another that allows us to be hospitable to and accepting of ourselves. The hospitality Elizabeth offered Mary was more than an open door, a warm welcome, and a place to stay. It was an affirmation of Mary’s life. It was a prayer commending Mary to God. It was a blessing that gave Mary back to herself.

“Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb,” Elizabeth says to Mary. “And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her by the Lord.”

“Blessed, blessed, blessed,” says Elizabeth. Her words of affirmation, commendation, and blessing will remain with Mary the rest of her life. They will echo in the silence as Mary ponders and treasures the words of the shepherds at Jesus’ birth. They will ring in her ears when Simeon declares that a sword will pierce her own soul. They will call her back to herself when her twelve-year old son runs away to be in his Father’s house. They will hold her broken heart at the cross. And they will sing with joy at the empty tomb.

That’s how deep and authentic hospitality works. It’s not just a word spoken or an action done at a particular point in time. It’s an event that stays with us and continues to affirm, commend and bless. It’s an event in which we recognize God’s presence and leap for joy. It’s an event that is pregnant with possibilities and new life.

I wonder in what ways you’ve experienced this Elizabethan hospitality. When has another, an Elizabeth, affirmed, commended, and blessed your life? How is that event of hospitality alive in you today?

What is gestating in you, and waiting to be born?

Selections from Breaking Open the Lectionary: Lectionary Readings in Their Biblical Context for RCIA, Faith Sharing Groups, and Lectors—Cycle B, by Margaret Nutting Ralph, Copyright © 2005 by Margaret Nutting Ralph.

Paulist Press, Inc., New York/Mahwah, NJ. Reprinted by permission of Paulist Press, Inc.

Reflection excerpt from Interrupting the Silence. Fr. Michael K. Marsh. Used by permission