31 May 2023

Feast of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary

We wrap up the month of May, the month of Mary, with the feast of the Visitation, in which we relive the Blessed Mother’s encounter with her cousin Elizabeth. But we know that the two women are not the only ones present. Jesus and John the Baptist, the fruit of their wombs are also there, and it seems, actively listening to the conversation. “For at the moment the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the infant in my womb leaped for joy,” Elizabeth says to Mary.  

What follows is Mary’s great canticle of praise, the Magnificat. She tells of all the great things God has done: lifted up the lowly, scattered the proud, filled the hungry with good things. Though in the past tense, these words carry timeless truths that would echo through the ages. In their lives, John and Jesus sought to advance this vision of justice and right relationship with God and neighbor.  

Centuries later, the words of the one we call blessed reach our ears. Through our lives, how can we today witness to what God has done, is doing, and will do?