Third Week of Advent, Wednesday — 21st December 2022 — Gospel: Luke 1,39-45
Young Virgin Honors the Old
After the angel Gabriel’s annunciation, Mary makes her first journey. She travels from Nazareth to Judean town, it is a long and arduous journey on the hill top. Yet she goes without hesitation to visit her kinswoman Elizabeth, knowing that she is also miraculously pregnant. In the scene of their visit, the two annunciation accounts, of John and of Jesus, are merged together. In this encounter, the elderly Elizabeth represents God’s work among the people of ancient Israel; Mary represents the new mission that God will do in sending the Messiah. In Elizabeth, the old esteems the young; in Mary, the young honors the old. As a prototype of Christian discipleship, after receiving the good news, Mary hastens to share it with another.
