Feast of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Lectionary: 572

Shout for joy, O daughter Zion!
Sing joyfully, O Israel!
Be glad and exult with all your heart,
O daughter Jerusalem!
The LORD has removed the judgment against you, he has turned away your enemies...

Along with everything else that's wonderful about the Virgin Mary's visit to Elizabeth, we should celebrate the gift of her song, the Magnificat. It's very dear to our tradition, and is sung or recited daily during the Evening Prayer (Vespers.) It's a prayer whose depth, meaning, and beauty only grow with constant repetition. 

The song appears in Saint Luke's infancy narrative and, to my mind, is the high point of that story. After Elizabeth's greeting and Mary's song, the births of John and Jesus are almost anticlimactic. I say that because of Luke's arrangement of five incidents into a single narrative. Two incidents concern John the Baptist: his annunciation and his birth. Two concern Jesus: his annunciation and his birth. And one -- the Visitation -- concerns both. It's the third of five stories, and the crossroads or meeting point where four stories about two women and their two sons come together and become a single marvelous history. 

The Visitation also gives us a most important testimony about Mary and her Son, "Blessed are you among women and blessed is the fruit of your womb." We recite that phrase many times a day with the Hail Mary. Speaking for the city of Jerusalem, Elizabeth welcomed the Son of God and his mother.  Elizabeth's exultant greeting might be the sounding trumpets for the Lord. With no less enthusiasm, a few months later, Simeon and Anna would welcome the mother and son to God's temple in Jerusalem. 

If the Bible is a universe where we find ourselves in God's eternal presence, the New Testament is a holy city, and the Gospels are its temple: the Magnificat might be a little portion, a Portiuncula, within the temple. Here we meet our Mother Mary face to face as she opens her heart to our coming. Daily, during Vespers, we take our place there and recite with her, "My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord...."

The first verses are about God's goodness to her, and to every Christian; and we must sing with her,

...my spirit rejoices in God my savior.

For he has looked upon his handmaid’s lowliness;

behold, all ages will call me blessed.

The Mighty One has done great things for me,

and holy is his name.

Even as we sing about God's goodness to Mary and to each of us, we're soon distracted away from ourselves to glory in God's sovereign, all-powerful mercy:

His mercy is from age to age

 to those who fear him.

He has shown might with his arm,

 dispersed the arrogant of mind and heart.

He has thrown down the rulers from their thrones

 but lifted up the lowly.

The hungry he has filled with good things;

 the rich he has sent away empty.

He has helped Israel his servant,

 remembering his mercy,

according to his promise to our fathers,

 to Abraham and to his descendants forever.”