Reflection and painting by Madelaine Schumann;
Member of the Diocesan Mission Council
First Reading Micah 5:1-4;
Second Reading Hebrews 10:5-10;
Gospel Luke 1:39-45
When Mary was visited by the Angel Gabriel and heard that she was called to carry and mother Our Lord and Savior, she treasured these things in her heart. She carried this secret somehow knowing, not to cast her pearls before swine. So, she pondered these things in her heart. Must she have been bursting with excitement to share this news with someone, as she awaited the fulfillment of these promises.
It was with Elizabeth that Mary was able to share her joy, for Elizabeth had experienced her own miracle. She was blessed by the Lord, in carrying John well after her child-bearing years had passed. She alone understood and shared in the joy of Mary’s news. She was Mary’s confidant, and Mary’s secret was safe with her. Elizabeth was someone who truly understood the mystery and miracle that was unfolding.
If Mary had spoken openly of all she had been told; that she was bearing a King who would reign supreme; the long-awaited Messiah, if she had shared with her family and friends just what the Angel Gabriel had told her, she most probably would have been thought psychotic in a disillusioned world so far from God’s Kingdom. Yet Mary was able to share her secret joy with her cousin Elizabeth and both were blessed in this beautiful encounter, as Elizabeth’s baby leaps for joy in her womb, at her greeting. She recognises ‘the mother of {her} Lord’.
O what a beautiful moment it must have been for Mary to be so affirmed by God through her older cousin. To find assurance that a miracle of God was truly taking place, and, indeed for both women. A miracle that would change the world forever.
May we all say ‘yes’ to God’s call as Mary did in her fiat. May we all carry the light of Christ as we seek to be filled with the spirit of God’s love, mercy and radiant joy.
Bless the Lord o my soul,
and all that is within me,
bless his holy name. Ps 103:1
