MAY 31, 2016 : FEAST OF THE VISITATION OF THE BIESSED VIRGIN MARY

Feast of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Lectionary: 572

Reading 1ZEP 3:14-18A

Shout for joy, O daughter Zion!
Sing joyfully, O Israel!
Be glad and exult with all your heart,
O daughter Jerusalem!
The LORD has removed the judgment against you,
he has turned away your enemies;
The King of Israel, the LORD, is in your midst,
you have no further misfortune to fear.
On that day, it shall be said to Jerusalem:
Fear not, O Zion, be not discouraged!
The LORD, your God, is in your midst,
a mighty savior;
He will rejoice over you with gladness,
and renew you in his love,
He will sing joyfully because of you,
as one sings at festivals.

OrROM 12:9-16

Brothers and sisters:
Let love be sincere;
hate what is evil,
hold on to what is good;
love one another with mutual affection;
anticipate one another in showing honor.
Do not grow slack in zeal,
be fervent in spirit,
serve the Lord.
Rejoice in hope,
endure in affliction,
persevere in prayer.
Contribute to the needs of the holy ones,
exercise hospitality.
Bless those who persecute you,
bless and do not curse them.
Rejoice with those who rejoice,
weep with those who weep.
Have the same regard for one another;
do not be haughty but associate with the lowly;
do not be wise in your own estimation.

Responsorial PsalmIS 12:2-3, 4BCD, 5-6

R. (6) Among you is the great and Holy One of Israel.
God indeed is my savior;
I am confident and unafraid.
My strength and my courage is the LORD,
and he has been my savior.
With joy you will draw water
at the fountain of salvation.
R. Among you is the great and Holy One of Israel.
Give thanks to the LORD, acclaim his name;
among the nations make known his deeds,
proclaim how exalted is his name.
R. Among you is the great and Holy One of Israel.
Sing praise to the LORD for his glorious achievement;
let this be known throughout all the earth.
Shout with exultation, O city of Zion,
for great in your midst
is the Holy One of Israel!
R. Among you is the great and Holy One of Israel.

GospelLK 1:39-56

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.”

And Mary said:
“My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord;
my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
for he has looked with favor on his lowly servant.
From this day all generations will call me blessed:
the Almighty has done great things for me,
and holy is his Name.

He has mercy on those who fear him
in every generation.
He has shown the strength of his arm,
he has scattered the proud in their conceit.
He has cast down the mighty from their thrones,
and has lifted up the lowly.
He has filled the hungry with good things,
and the rich he has sent away empty.
He has come to the help of his servant Israel
for he has remembered his promise of mercy,
the promise he made to our fathers,
to Abraham and his children for ever.”

Mary remained with her about three months
and then returned to her home.

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Today’s feast commemorates the visit that Mary, already pregnant with Jesus, made to her older cousin, Elizabeth, who was pregnant with the future John the Baptist.

Reflection

Readings: Zephaniah 3:14-18 or Romans 12:9-16b; Ps Is 12:2-6; Luke 1:39-56

This story comes in the Infancy Narrative of Luke’s gospel immediately after the account of the Annunciation when Mary was asked by the angel to become the mother of Jesus.  She had given her unconditional assent to the request, even though at first she found it difficult to understand because, although she was already committed in marriage to Joseph, they had not begun to live together.  Nevertheless, after the assurance of the angel, she put herself totally in God’s hands: “See, I am the slave girl of the Lord.  Let it happen to me just as you have said.”

It is shortly after this that Mary travels south from Galilee to a town in Judah (the province where Jerusalem was).  We are told that she went “in haste” as if keen to congratulate her cousin, who strictly speaking was well beyond the age to have a child.  She entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth.  Immediately, the child in Elizabeth’s womb leapt in joyful welcome.  It is not Mary who makes the child do this but rather the Child that Mary is carrying.

Elizabeth, inspired by the Spirit, then cries out: “Blessed are you among women and blessed is the fruit of your womb!”  And then she asks in surprise, “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.”  For there is a surprise here.  If anyone should be making the visit, it really should be Elizabeth to the Mother of the Son of God.  But no.  It is Mary with Jesus who visits.  It is an anticipation of something that Jesus will tell his disciples later on: “The Son of Man has come to serve and not to be served.”  It is part of this kenosis (kenwsis), the self-emptying of Jesus as part of his mission to communicate God’s love to us.

Elizabeth then goes on with words of praise for Mary herself.  “Blessed are you who believed that what was spoken to you by the Lord would be fulfilled.”  It is the faith of Mary in God’s word that she praises.  Although not having had intercourse with any man, her trust in the words of the angel have been vindicated – and she is carrying a Child.

It is then that Mary, in response to Elizabeth’s words, speaks her hymn of praise and thanksgiving to God, a hymn we know as the Magnificat, from its first word in the Latin version.  It is a hymn which has many resemblances to the hymn that Hannah, the mother of the prophet Samuel sings, after she, although past child-bearing age, gives birth to her son (1 Samuel 2:1-10).

First of all, Mary thanks God for taking notice of Mary in her lowliness.  She was a simple girl living in a small town, someone of no consequence in the eyes of the world.  Yet, as she rightly foresees, all ages will call her blessed because he has done such great things for her – called her to be the earthly mother of God’s Son and the instrument by which he would come to share our human nature.  And she has words for all those who submit themselves in loving obedience to God: His mercy is from age to age to those who fear him.

On the contrary, it is those who think they are powerful and strong, those who are arrogant in mind and heart, who meet their downfall, while those who accept their lowliness before God are lifted up.  “The hungry he fills with good things while the rich are sent empty away.”   The ‘hungry’ are those who are aware that they have nothing of themselves and that all is a gift from God.  The rich are those who think they have it all when in truth, they have nothing that lasts.  It is a teaching that will be go right through the Gospel.

Mary, of course, lived out this prayer all during her life as she supported and stood by her Son to the very end.  It seemed to end in disaster at the foot of the Cross but that was not the end.  New life, a life that no one can take away, was to come.

There is a choice of two First Readings.  The first is from the prophet Zephaniah and reflects the joy of the Visitation, the joy of the two cousins with their children as they greet each other.  “Shout for joy, O daughter Zion!  Sing joyfully, Israel!  Be glad and exult with all your heart, Jerusalem!”  For indeed the birth of these two children is a cause of joy for all God’s people.

“The King of Israel, the Lord, is in your midst… The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty saviour.  He will rejoice over you with gladness and renew you in his love.”   Yes, their Saviour is already in their midst but they do not know it yet.  They will have to wait another 30 years until Jesus appears on the scene and brings the Good News of his Father.  But the beginnings of the story are already here in today’s celebration.

The second First Reading suggested for today is from the Letter to the Romans.  It consists really of instructions on the spirit in which we should live our lives.  It summarises in part the teaching that Jesus will later communicate to his disciples and all those who make him their Lord.  Later, Jesus in his manhood, will communicate these lessons not just by his words but by the way he lives and relates to all those he encounters.

“Let love be sincere; hate what is evil, hold on to what is good; love one another with mutual affection; anticipate one another in showing honour.”  This is just what see taking place between Mary and Elizabeth as they meet together.  It is the way in which we, too, should behave in dealing with all the people who come into our lives.

Further on, Paul says, “Contribute to the needs of the saints (the hagioi, ‘agioi, members of the Christian community), exercise hospitality… Bless those who persecute you… Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep… Do not repay anyone evil for evil… If possible, on your part, live in peace with all…”   A challenging programme!  But we know that it is the only way to go.  Let us, then, today truly give our welcome to Jesus and do that by our every word and action.

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FEAST OF THE VISITATION OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY
TUESDAY, MAY 31, LUKE 1:39-56
(Zephaniah 3:14-18a or Romans 12:9-16; Psalm 33)

KEY VERSE: "Blessed are you who believed that what was spoken to you by the Lord would be fulfilled" (v 45).
TO KNOW: Mary was accorded the greatest honor and privilege given to a Jewish woman, that of being the mother of the long-awaited Messiah (Jesus). The sign of God's promise was that her barren kinswoman Elizabeth had conceived a son in her old age (John the Baptist). Mary was the obedient servant of the Lord, and she traveled the four day journey to the hill country of Judah (traditionally Ein Karem) to assist her kinswoman. Upon hearing Mary's greeting, the babe within Elizabeth's womb leaped for joy. Elizabeth was astonished that Mary, the mother of her Lord, should come to her. Her words echoed King David's wonderment when the Arc of the Covenant was brought to Jerusalem: "How can the ark of the Lord come to me?" (2 Sm 6:9, 14). Mary was the Arc of the New Covenant bearing her divine son in her womb. Elizabeth proclaimed that Mary was blessed because she trusted that the Lord's words to her would be fulfilled.
TO LOVE: In what ways can I follow Mary's example of joyful obedience?
TO SERVE: Mary my mother, help me to have faith in God's promises to me. 

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Tuesday 31 May 2016

Tue 31st. The Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
Zephaniah 3:14-18 / Romans 12:9-16. Among you is the great and Holy One of Israel—Isaiah 12:2-6. Luke 1:39-56. 

Readings

Mary’s Song of Joy.

Our over-familiarity with Mary’s song, ‘The Magnificat’ can sometimes breed contempt, as the saying goes. But a fresh look at this wonderful song reveals all the characteristics for which the Mother of God is known: gratitude, humility, joy, faith, hope and trust.

Mary, being a faithful and devout Jewish girl would have known about Hannah’s song in 1 Samuel 2 after she gave birth to Samuel. Like Hannah, Mary is grateful to God ‘for doing great things for her’ and for choosing her to play a part in fulfilling God’s plan of salvation.

Christians are called to be active players in God’s plan of salvation. We too are chosen by God to ‘give birth’ to Jesus in our world of today and to make God ‘real’ though our lives of Gospel witness. Today we pray that, like Mary, we may be ever grateful ‘for the great things God has done for us’ by proclaiming his greatness to the ends of the earth. Amen

www.pray.com.au

MINUTE MEDITATIONS 

Roll Up Your Sleeves

Someone once told Pope Francis that his words had inspired him to give a lot more to the poor. Pope Francis’s response was to challenge the man not to just give money, but to roll up his sleeves, get his hands dirty, and actually reach out and help.

— from Deep Adventure

May 31
Visitation

This is a fairly late feast, going back only to the 13th or 14th century. It was established widely throughout the Church to pray for unity. The present date of celebration was set in 1969 in order to follow the Annunciation of the Lord (March 25) and precede the Nativity of John the Baptist (June 24).

Like most feasts of Mary, it is closely connected with Jesus and his saving work. The more visible actors in the visitation drama (see Luke 1:39-45) are Mary and Elizabeth. However, Jesus and John the Baptist steal the scene in a hidden way. Jesus makes John leap with joy—the joy of messianic salvation. Elizabeth, in turn, is filled with the Holy Spirit and addresses words of praise to Mary—words that echo down through the ages.

It is helpful to recall that we do not have a journalist’s account of this meeting. Rather, Luke, speaking for the Church, gives a prayerful poet’s rendition of the scene. Elizabeth’s praise of Mary as “the mother of my Lord” can be viewed as the earliest Church’s devotion to Mary. As with all authentic devotion to Mary, Elizabeth’s (the Church’s) words first praise God for what God has done to Mary. Only secondly does she praise Mary for trusting God’s words.

Then comes the Magnificat (Luke 1:46-55). Here Mary herself (like the Church) traces all her greatness to God.

Comment:

One of the invocations in Mary’s litany is “Ark of the Covenant.” Like the Ark of the Covenant of old, Mary brings God’s presence into the lives of other people. As David danced before the Ark, John the Baptist leaps for joy. As the Ark helped to unite the 12 tribes of Israel by being placed in David’s capital, so Mary has the power to unite all Christians in her Son. At times, devotion to Mary may have occasioned some divisiveness, but we can hope that authentic devotion will lead all to Christ and therefore to one another.

Quote:

“Moved by charity, therefore, Mary goes to the house of her kinswoman.... While every word of Elizabeth’s is filled with meaning, her final words would seem to have a fundamental importance: ‘And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what had been spoken to her from the Lord’ (Luke 1:45). These words can be linked with the title ‘full of grace’ of the angel’s greeting. Both of these texts reveal an essential Mariological content, namely the truth about Mary, who has become really present in the mystery of Christ precisely because she ‘has believed.’ The fullness of grace announced by the angel means the gift of God himself. Mary’s faith, proclaimed by Elizabeth at the visitation, indicates how the Virgin of Nazareth responded to this gift” (Blessed John Paul II, The Mother of the Redeemer, 12).

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LECTIO DIVINA: VISITATION OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY

Lectio Divina: 

 Tuesday, May 31, 2016

1) OPENING PRAYER

Lord our God, loving Father,
Mary went with haste to visit
her cousin Elizabeth in her hour of need.
May we too rejoice in the Lord
when we can hurry to see people
to bring them the Lord
as we to share in their needs and their joys.
With Mary, may we become
a blessing to them.
We ask this through Christ our Lord.

2) GOSPEL READING - LUKE 1,39-56

Mary set out at that time and went as quickly as she could into the hill country to a town in Judah. She went into Zechariah's house and greeted Elizabeth.

Now it happened that as soon as Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the child leapt in her womb and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. She gave a loud cry and said, 'Of all women you are the most blessed, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. Why should I be honoured with a visit from the mother of my Lord? Look, the moment your greeting reached my ears, the child in my womb leapt for joy. Yes, blessed is she who believed that the promise made her by the Lord would be fulfilled.'

And Mary said: My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord
and my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour;
because he has looked upon the humiliation of his servant. Yes, from now onwards all generations will call me blessed,
for the Almighty has done great things for me. Holy is his name,
and his faithful love extends age after age to those who fear him.
He has used the power of his arm, he has routed the arrogant of heart.
He has pulled down princes from their thrones and raised high the lowly.
He has filled the starving with good things, sent the rich away empty.
He has come to the help of Israel his servant, mindful of his faithful love
-according to the promise he made to our ancestors -- of his mercy to Abraham and to his descendants for ever.
Mary stayed with her some three months and then went home.

3) REFLECTION

• Today is the Feast of the Visitation of the Virgin, and the Gospel narrates the visit of Mary to her cousin Elizabeth. When Luke speaks of Mary, he thinks of the communities of his time which lived dispersed in the cities of the Roman Empire and offers to them, Mary as a model of how they should relate to the Word of God. Once, hearing Jesus speak about God, a woman in the crowd exclaimed: “Blessed the womb that bore you and the breasts that fed you”, praising the mother of Jesus. Immediately Jesus answered: “More blessed still are those who hear the word of God and keep it!” (Lk 11, 27-28). Mary is the model of the faithful community which knows how to live and practice the Word of God. In describing the visit of Mary to Elizabeth, he teaches how the communities should act in order to transform the visit of God into service of the brother and sisters.

• The episode of the visit of Mary to Elizabeth also shows another typical aspect of Luke. All the words and the attitudes, especially the Canticle of Mary, form a great celebration of praise. It seems to be a description of a solemn Liturgy. Thus, Luke evokes the liturgical and celebrative environment, in which Jesus was formed and in which the communities should live their own faith.

• Luke 1, 39-40: Mary goes to visit her cousin Elizabeth. Luke stresses the haste with which Mary responds to the demands of the Word of God. The Angel spoke to her about the pregnancy of Elizabeth and Mary, immediately, rises in order to verify what the Angel had announced, she goes out of the house to help a person in need. From Nazareth to the mountain of Judah there are about 100 kilometres! There were no buses or trains!

• Luke 1, 41-44: The greeting of Elizabeth. Elizabeth represents the Old Testament which ends. Mary, the New One which is beginning. The Old Testament welcomes, accepts the New One with gratitude and trust, recognizing in it the gratuitous gift of God which comes to realize and to complete whatever expectation people had. In the encounter of the two women, is manifested the gift of the Spirit which makes the child jump with joy in Elizabeth’s womb. The Good News of God reveals his presence in one of the most common things of human life: two housewives who exchange the visit to help one another. A visit, joy, pregnancy, children, reciprocal help, house, family: Luke wants to make the communities (and all of us) understand and discover the presence of the Kingdom. The words of Elizabeth, up until now, form part of the best known and most recited Psalm in the world, which is the Hail Mary.

• Luke 1, 45: The praise which Elizabeth makes of Mary. “Blessed is she who believed that the promise made by the Lord would be fulfilled”. This is Luke’s advice to the communities: to believe in the Word of God, because it has the force to realize what it says. It is a creative Word. It generates a new life in the womb of a virgin, in the womb of the poor and abandoned people who accept it with faith.

• Luke 1, 46-56: The canticle of Mary. Most probably, this canticle was already known and sung in the Communities. It teaches how it should be prayed and sung. Luke 1, 46-56: Mary begins proclaiming the change which has come about in her life under the loving look of God, full of mercy. This is why she sings joyfully: “My spirit rejoices in God, my Saviour”. Luke 1, 51-53: she sings the fidelity of God toward his people and proclaims the change which the arm of Yahweh is bringing about in behalf of the poor and the hungry. The expression “arm of God” recalls the liberation of the Exodus. It is this saving force of God which gives life to the change: he has routed the arrogant of heart (1, 51), he has pulled down princes from their thrones and raised high the lowly (1, 52), he has sent the rich away empty, and has filled the starving with good things (1, 53). Luke 1, 54-55: at the end, she recalls that all that is the expression of God’s mercy toward his people and an expression of his fidelity to the promises made to Abraham. The Good News is not a response to the observance of the Law, but the expression of the goodness and the fidelity of God to the promises made. That is what Paul taught in the letters to the Galatians and to the Romans.

The second Book of Samuel tells the story of the Ark of the Covenant. David wants to put in his own house, but he is frightened and says: “How can the Ark of Yahweh come to be with me?” (2 S 6, 9). Then David ordered that the Ark be placed in the house of Obed-Edom. And the Ark of Yahweh remained three months in the house of Obed-Edom, and the Lord blessed Obed-Edom and his whole family” (2 S 6, 11). Mary, waiting for Jesus, is like the Ark of the Covenant which, in the Old Testament, visited the houses of the persons granting benefits. She goes to Elizabeth’s house and remained there three months. And while she is in Elizabeth’s house, the whole family is blessed by God. The community should be like the New Ark of the Covenant. Visiting the house of the persons, it should take benefits and the grace of God to the people.

4) PERSONAL QUESTIONS

• What prevents us from discovering and living the joy of God’s presence in our life?

• Where and how does the joy of the presence of God take place today in my life and in that of the community?

5) CONCLUDING PRAYER

Bless Yahweh, my soul, from the depths of my being,
his holy name;
bless Yahweh, my soul,
never forget all his acts of kindness. (Ps 103,1-2)

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