The Feast of the Visitation: Celebrating Moments of Encounter
The King of Israel, the LORD, is in your midst,
you have no further misfortune to fear.
On that day, it shall be said to Jerusalem:
Fear not, O Zion, be not discouraged!
The LORD, your God, is in your midst,
a mighty savior;
He will rejoice over you with gladness,
and renew you in his love,
He will sing joyfully because of you,
as one sings at festivals.
-Zephaniah 3:15-18
In his Gospel, Saint Luke tells us that after the Annunciation, Mary “went in haste” to see her kinswoman, Elizabeth, the mother of John the Baptist (see Luke 1:39-56). This is the event that is at the heart of the Feast of the Visitation. And yet, as with so many of the Church’s festive celebrations, the significance of this feast extends well beyond a simple remembering of past events.
First, the story of Mary’s visit to Elizabeth is a story of a quintessentially human encounter, as two women come together to share life and faith. As Sr. Fran Ferder, FSPA, reflected in her article “A Tale of Two Visitations,” the biblical text “throbs with the energy of women’s voices pregnant with life and hope.” She continues:
“Theirs was not just ordinary ‘visiting.’ They proclaim! Calling upon the memory of the women who have gone before them, they speak with excitement and confidence about spiritual matters. Revelation is in their words, and prophetic witness shines through their message. It is a rare portrait of two otherwise insignificant women meeting and greeting, touching one another on the inside, and shouting God’s goodness. It is preaching at its soul stirring best.”
If we pay attention to the orations and Readings that prayed and proclaimed on the Feast of the Visitation, we recognize a second dynamic at work in this encounter: a recognition—grounded in memory—that God keeps God’s promises. The spirit of revelation and prophecy that Ferder points out us for us is firmly grounded in the experiences of the People of Israel as they watched and waited for the coming of the Zephaniah’s “mighty savior” (3:17) and of the “holy One of Israel” foretold by Isaiah (12:6).
“The Visitation” by Romare Bearden
Both Mary and Elizabeth had experienced God’s miraculous intervention in their lives in ways that left them permanently changed and, ultimately, transformed history. This is why Pope Francis could share these insights about the experiences of these two women:
“The Gospel scene bears all the dynamism of God’s visit: when God comes to encounter us, he moves us inwardly; he sets in motion what we are until our whole life is transformed into praise and blessing. When God visits us, he leaves us restless, with the healthy restlessness of those who feel they have been called to proclaim that he lives and is in the midst of his people. This is what we see in Mary, the first disciple and missionary, the new Ark of the Covenant who, far from remaining in the reserved space of our temples, goes out to visit and accompany.”—Homily (December 12, 2016)
We would make a mistake if we believed that the dynamic that is at the heart of the Visitation is something consigned to history. God comes to each of us, both in privileged moments (such as in the liturgy, reading Sacred Scripture, and in prayer) and in countless small ways each day. The challenge for us is to become ever-more attentive to those moments of encounter and to the grace—the call to do and be more—that God is always extending to each of us.
In the end, the Feast of the Visitation is not only a time to remember the story of holy women who share faith and life, glorifying the God who had intervened in their lives in prophecy-fulfilling ways. We are also being invited to a greater mindfulness of our own moments of divine encounter and to consider how those moments inform and transform our proclamation of the Good News of God’s mercy and abiding presence.
Holy Mary, Our Lady of the Visitation, and Saint Elizabeth, pray for us.
Almighty ever-living God,
who, while the Blessed Virgin Mary was carrying your Son in her womb,
inspired her to visit Elizabeth,
grant us, we pray,
that, faithful to the promptings of the Spirit,
we may magnify your greatness
with the Virgin Mary at all times.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God, for ever and ever. Amen.
-Collect for the Feast of the Visitation
