Reflection for Thursday May 31, the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary: Luke 1:39-56

Gospel: Luke 1:39-56

Mary set out and traveled to the hill country in haste to a town of Judah, where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the infant leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Spirit, cried out in a loud voice and said, “Most blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. And how does this happen to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?

For at the moment the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the infant in my womb leaped for joy. Blessed are you who believed that what was spoken to you by the Lord would be fulfilled.”

And Mary said: “My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord; my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has looked with favor on his lowly servant. From this day all generations will call me blessed: the Almighty has done great things for me, and holy is his Name. He has mercy on those who fear him in every generation. He has shown the strength of his arm, he has scattered the proud in their conceit. He has cast down the mighty from their thrones, and has lifted up the lowly. He has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent away empty. He has come to the help of his servant Israel for he has remembered his promise of mercy, the promise he made to our fathers, to Abraham and his children forever.”

Mary remained with her about three months and then returned to her home.

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Reflection:

What are you going to do if a very close relative whom you have not seen for quite some time would give you a visit? You would be very happy for sure and even if you don’t have much you would still find time to give her/him the best accommodations and treatment that you could give her/him.

This must have been the feeling of Elizabeth when she was visited by her cousin Mary who at that time was also pregnant with the baby Jesus in her womb. They shared a lot of stories about themselves. They strengthened each other’s morale, love and bond. Thus, the Blessed Mother stayed with her cousin until she gave birth.

Through Mary and her cousin Elizabeth, this Feast of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary imparts us so many lessons about human relations and life itself which we sometimes take for granted. Here are three lessons:

1. Even if there’s already social media platforms such as facebook etc... where we could somehow be updated of what’s going on with our friends and relatives. There’s no substitute with face to face human interactions. Therefore, we still need to go out of our way to visit our relatives and close friends whom we have not seen for quite some time.

2. We need to strengthen them morally and spiritually.

3. We need to bring good tidings to them and share whatever we have no matter how small.

4. We need to be open to listen to them: their triumphs and frustrations about life or anything under the sun that they would tell us.

We sometimes forget these acts of kindness and compassion which can do so much to uplift a weary person one way or the other. But many of us are so busy that we have no more time for them. Yet we have time to do facebook, we have time to aimlessly surf the internet and tinker with new gadgets which robs us of human relation and empathy. – Marino J. Dasmarinas