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

Think about the day that you received the most exciting news of your life. Did you grab your phone to immediately tell your mom or your best friend the news and how it made you feel?

That’s the lens through which I am viewing today’s beautiful passage from Luke --processing mind-boggling news by sharing it with a person you love. That’s probably what motivated a pregnant Mary to spend several days riding a donkey through the hill country of Judah to visit Elizabeth.

“My spirit rejoices in God my savior for he has looked upon 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.”

I can almost hear how joyful Mary must have sounded in proclaiming this passage to Elizabeth, perhaps as they did something mundane such as getting water from the village well or cooking a meal. That’s when women often confide in each other.

The visitation makes both Mary and Elizabeth so relatable. They’re like the women I know who get through life by sharing with and supporting each other.

I’m fascinated by Elizabeth, the wise older cousin who was perhaps the only person Mary knew that could understand what was going on. “The Magnificat” is so lovely and poetic that it’s easy to forget that it is also a risky statement of Mary’s special relationship with God. She could only have spoken this way to someone who would not think she was delusional. 

This story also reminds us that God made us social creatures who relate to him through our relationships with people. A Mary who hid in a cave instead of explaining what was happening would not have been venerated for centuries as a universal mother.

Like Mary and Elizabeth, we need to accompany people in times of joy and sorrow and to allow others to accompany us.

Is there a way you can do that today?