Today’s Gospel account in Luke is one of joy. Mary and Elizabeth are celebrating the gift of new life that each of the women are experiencing in their wombs. Certainly this is a cause for celebration, but there is a deeper more profound reason for their expression of joy. The leaping of Elizabeth’s child at Mary’s greeting is certainly a catalyst. For when John leapt with joy, Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit.
Elizabeth closes today’s reading with the words: “Blessed are you who believed that what was spoken to you by the Lord would be fulfilled” (Lk 1:45).
Mary and Elizabeth are celebrating that they are to bear sons that will provide the fulfillment of the one who the prophets foretold and Micah speaks about in the first reading today, “one who is to be ruler in Israel” (cf Micah 5:1-4), the Messiah. This was a blessed moment of communion. The Love that is shared between God the Father and God the Son, is God the Holy Spirit, who is present in the sharing between John and Jesus, Elizabeth and Mary. The kingdom of God is at hand! This is what Mary and Elizabeth are celebrating, the savior of the world has come and they are to be collaborators in salvation history.
Imagine if we made some time to really ponder the significance of this wonderful event of the Incarnation of Jesus as seriously as Mary and Elizabeth did in their joyful encounter as recorded in today’s Gospel. What joy we too will experience when we open ourselves up, mind, body, soul, and spirit, to the invitation of the Holy Spirit who is revealing to us the reality that the Son of God became one with us in our humanity so that we can become one with him in his divinity.
May we ponder the reality of the gift that God has given us, his Son, and so rejoice with Elizabeth and Mary today. Blessed will we be when we believe that the word spoken to us in today’s Gospel has been fulfilled! And so we too are to go in haste and share the good news!
Photo credit: Rita Laura – Parroquia San Miguel Arcángel, Recreo, Santa Fe, Argentina – from cathopic.com
Spiritual Stepping Stones