Today’s Gospel is a very familiar Gospel, commonly called the Visitation. Mary, the mother of God, comes to visit Elizabeth. Luke tells us that Elizabeth, like her husband Zechariah, is “filled with the Holy Spirit.” This Spirit guides Elizabeth to proclaim: “Most blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb.” Most of us first learned these words when we learned the “Hail Mary.” The first part of this prayer is taken from the greeting of the angel Gabriel to Mary in the Annunciation: “Hail, favored one! The Lord is with you.” (Luke 1:28). So almost all the words of the Hail Mary are taken from this first chapter of Luke’s Gospel.
Mary is called blessed because she has been chosen and set apart for a particular vocation, to be the mother of God. Mary’s response is one of faith and trust in God even when she does not completely understand the ways of God: “How can this be… Behold, I am the servant of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word” (Luke 1:34, 38). God chooses people throughout history not for salvation, since God offers the gift of salvation to all, but for mission and service. Each of us through our baptism have also been called to be God’s chosen instruments for mission and for service. We are called to be instruments of God’s peace and reconciliation. We preach with words but even more with our actions. Like Mary we may not completely understand the ways of God but like her we respond: “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word.”
Today as we hear the story of the visitation we pray for all expectant mothers. It is a time of joy but also of anxiety. May God be with them and bless the fruit of their womb. Amen!