Visitation of the BVM, Monday – 31st May 2021 — Gospel: Lk 1, 39-56
Detecting God’s Movement in the Other
The Feast of the Visitation recounts Mary’s visit to her cousin Elizabeth. It reminds us of the importance of personal relationships between people and the need to be positively and joyfully involved in the lives of others. Both Mary and Elizabeth reflected these words in their lives. As women, they were concerned for each other. They sensed the presence of God in each other. They are willing to be joyful for the other person and to place the other person ahead of themselves. From the first moment that Mary hears that her cousin Elizabeth is pregnant, she knows that she should go and assist her aging relative. Even though Mary has just been told that she is to be the mother of the Messiah, she desires to help Elizabeth. Elizabeth, like Mary, does not focus on her own privileged position of having a special child, but she acknowledges the specialness of her younger cousin. Mary and Elizabeth are people who are not self-centered, rather they are able to detect the specialness of others. They were aware of God’s movement in the other and so are willing to think of others before themselves.
