Gospel: The Visitation

Today is the Fourth Sunday of Advent and the Gospel will be proclaimed from the narrative according to St Luke (1:39-45).

Mary set out and travelled to the hill country in haste to a town of Judah, where she entered the House of Zachariah 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,

"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."

On this last Sunday before Christmas, our Gospel reading prepares us to witness Christ's birth by showing us how Jesus was recognized as Israel's long-awaited Messiah even before his birth. The Gospel turns our attention from the ministry of St John the Baptist to the events that preceded St John the Baptist's birth. The story of St John the Baptist's parents, St Elizabeth and St Zachariah, are only reported in St Luke's Gospel. St Luke pairs the birth of St John the Baptist and the Lord Jesus, establishing St John's early connection to the Messiah.

Our Gospel reading recalls Mary's actions after the announcement of Jesus' birth by the Angel Gabriel, Mary goes to visit St Elizabeth, her cousin, who is also pregnant with St John the Baptist. St Elizabeth greets the Blessed Mother with full recognition of the roles that they and their unborn children will play in God's plan of salvation. If we were to continue to read the verses that follow in St Luke's Gospel, we would hear Holy Mary respond to St Elizabeth's greeting with her song of praise, the Magnificat. Both women recall and echo God's history of showing favor upon the people of Israel.

In St Luke's Gospel the Holy Spirit helps reveal Jesus' identity as God to those who believe. St Elizabeth is filled with the Holy Spirit and sings Mary's praise because she bears the Lord. We sing these words of praise to Mary in Hail Mary. Even St John the Baptist, the unborn child in St Elizabeth's womb, is said to recognize the presence of the Lord and leaps for joy.

It is appropriate in this season of Advent that we consider the role of the Blessed Mother in God's plan of salvation. St Elizabeth describes Mary as the first disciple, as the one who believed that God's word to her would be fulfilled. Holy Mary's faith enabled her to recognize the work of God in her people's history and in her own life. Her openness to God allowed God to work through her so that salvation might come to everyone. Because of this, the Blessed Mother is a model and symbol of the church. May we be like Mary, open and cooperative in God's plan for salvation.

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