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Prepare the way of the Lord...

Taken from pfsgm meditations on the Visitation

“Mary set out and traveled to the hill country in haste…”

(Luke 1:39)


The angel departs; Mary is left in a silent room. She is the most important woman in history – the mother of the Messiah, the queen-mother of the King of the Universe, the living Temple of God. In human terms, she would be well within her “rights” to expect a little attention; to spend her Advent waiting for the rest of the world to come to her and help her prepare for the birth of Christ.


Instead, she runs off to the hills to help her elderly cousin prepare for the birth of her own son.


As we journey through Advent, we have much to learn from the way that Mary chose to “prepare the way of the Lord” (Luke 3:4): by helping someone else in need, both physically and spiritually.


Physically, because Mary – here as at the wedding of Cana – is a practical woman who pays attention to practical needs. Gabriel doesn’t say, go visit your cousin, he just says, your cousin is pregnant, and Mary instantly understands that the elderly Elizabeth will need of a younger set of hands.


Spiritually, because she brings Someone with her: God Himself, at whose presence Elizabeth’s child leaps in the womb for joy.


The “hill country,” therefore, can be symbolic of the very “heights” of charity – a charity that is willing to share not only goods but God.


Friar Volantino gives a compelling example of the difference: selling everything you have and giving the money to a poor family is already a beautiful and praiseworthy thing to do, but sooner or later, the money will run out – and even if it doesn’t, money can’t touch the depths of the human wound: suffering, loss, age, sickness, death. But if (while being attentive to people’s physical needs) we can also draw them closer to God in the Scriptures, in the Church, and especially in the Sacraments, we are helping them achieve everything that money can’t buy: peace, joy, a sense of meaning, and ultimately the defeat of death, as every week we profess our faith in the resurrection of the flesh.


The more we dwell in the Scriptures, the more that we understand our faith, and the more we are able to “give a reason for the hope that is in us” (cf. 1Pet 3:15), the more we will be able to imitate Mary in visiting others with the truest charity: helping them “give birth” to God’s mission in their lives and come at last to the Life we’re all longing for.


“Besides physical hunger, man experiences another hunger, a hunger that cannot be satiated with ordinary food. It’s a hunger for life, a hunger for love, a hunger for eternity... Jesus gives us this food.” (Pope Francis)

 

Advent Challenge, week 2:

a) as you pray with the Mass readings this week, consider how you might be able to use these passages to help someone else.

b) Ask for an open heart to notice the needs of others – and when you do, try to imitate Mary in helping them spiritually as well as physically.


Image: Carl Bloch, "The Meeting of Mary and Elizabeth"

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