Fourth Sunday – Advent Cycle C

Reflecting on Luke 1:39-45

Church of the Visitation in Ein Karem, Israel

Today’s Gospel, the visitation of Mary to her cousin Elizabeth, tells us that Mary, a woman alone and with child, made a seventy-mile journey from Galilee to Ein Karem, in the hill country of Judea.  Today a Catholic church stands at that site. Its many paintings depict Elizabeth and Mary, and other women of their time, as they went about the sacred business of keeping alive their religious traditions.  It is surely the most “feminine” church in Christendom.

When Mary, now the ark of the covenant, the carrier of the Savior, arrives at her cousin’s home, she sings her Magnificat.  What seems to be most on her mind, curiously, is not the news of her astonishing pregnancy, or even that her aged cousin is now with child.  Instead, she wants to talk about God’s power to lift up the lowly and to fill the hungry with good things.

What did she see on that dangerous road that brought God’s justice to mind?  Did she see the executed Jews, whom the Romans crucified along well-traveled paths as reminders of the “pax Romana”?  Did she see widows and orphans crying for food, cast far away from the safety nets of husbands and fathers?  The unborn John sensed the presence of the true Prince of Peace, and jumped for joy when the tiny embryo arrived in the house.  That should end any discussion of when life begins.

There leaped a little child in the ancient womb.  And there leaped a little hope in every ancient tomb.

(from The Visit by the Medical Missionary Sisters)

Sharing God’s Word at Home:

Do you remember a time when you were so excited about your good news that you rushed to find a loved one so that you could share it?

Advent - Cycle C