December 22, 2024: Fourth Sunday of Advent 6

Gospel: Luke 1:39-45

… Mary went out with haste to a Judean town … and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the child leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit and exclaimed with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. And why has this happened to me that the mother of my Lord comes to me? For as soon as I heard your greeting, the child in my womb leaped for joy. … blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her by the Lord.”

Reflection

This Gospel is imbedded in my being after viewing in awe the statues of Mary and Elizabeth greeting each other (belly to belly) at Ein Karem Jerusalem. The power of the bond of these women and their responses to a call was palpable. Mary’s greeting ends Elizabeth’s seclusion and begins the prophetic career of John the Baptizer.  

The moment of greeting and blessing was preceded by the annunciations of conception of the two women and followed by two births and circumcisions. The immediate context, however, of the scriptures is Mary’s incarnational moment and “yes.” Mary’s traveling in haste demonstrated that she already was responding to the plan God set forth, in action and in words. We can only imagine what it was like for a young pregnant woman to travel some eighty-two miles by donkey. Was she nauseated, tired, trying to make sense of her own situation?

Elizabeth, expressing Luke’s positive attitude toward the female role in God’s activity, joins in the revelatory power of God. Her blessings give witness to the fulfillment of God’s promises.  These promises were spoken in Luke 11:28. After a woman in the crowd cried out to Jesus “blessed is the womb that bore you …” Jesus said, “blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it!” 

Action

May we each spend time today reflecting on our responses to the word of God as they are spoken to us in a variety of ways.  Do we go in haste to help another, to heed the invitation to go beyond ourselves with joy in the Spirit of God within us?