Rejoice in Hope
Rejoice in hope, endure
in affliction, persevere in prayer. Contribute to the needs of the holy ones, exercise
hospitality. Romans 12:12-13
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.” Luke 1:41-45
Piety
Mary of the Nativity, woman of faith, be with us as we try
to see the light through the darkness.
Help us to be not afraid no matter what happens or where God leads us.
Study
God certainly does not come to us at a convenient time. The
clock and the calendar continue moving ahead, month by month, day by day,
minute by minute. Tick. Tick. Tick. There is too much to do. When we are mired in
our own life’s challenges, it is very difficult to think like Matthew 25 and
put a priority on everyone else’s needs.
We are far too busy wallowing in our own problems.
What is happening to us is MAJOR! The 17G bus is late. I won’t make it home in time for dinner. What is happening to everyone else is minor.
Can’t you see how sick/busy/tired we are? We cannot donate blood today. We cannot give to your building fund
today. We cannot be concerned with the
needs of others now.
But why not? Don’t we
understand Mary of the Visitation? Weighed down with the unexpected seed of God
and how her condition threated every fiber of her meager existence in Nazareth,
did Mary drop everything to have a pity party for Mary?
NO! She dropped
everything to run and take care of her aging cousin Elizabeth, also pregnant
with an unexpected child by a now unexplainably mute husband Zechariah. The no-longer barren woman about to have her
first child just like her virgin-cousin about to have her first child. Each
full of tension. Each full of compassion, giving hope – a cardinal virtue – to
the other.
Without the hope of the Visitation, life is as barren as we
thought Elizabeth was. It takes hope to carry on in a confused,
terrorist-infected world. It takes hope to assume that God is present even when
we cannot see the road ahead. It takes hope to trust that if we keep doing what
we must do for others – even when chaos surrounds us – that the God who leads
us into the desert of darkness is also the God who will lead us to the garden of
light. Mary of the Visitation is a model of hope for us when we might be
tempted to become totally consumed with ourselves and the pressures of the
season.
Action
A few years ago, I found an out-of-print booklet of
reflections by Sr. Joan Chittister, OSB, on the Rosary. When feast days on any of the mysteries come
up, her reflections always flashback in my mind. Today is among the best. Here is Sr. Joan on Action related to the Joyful
Mystery of the Visitation:
Hope
is a cardinal virtue without which life comes up bleak and barren. It takes hope to carry on in confusion. It takes hope to assume that God is present
even when we cannon see the road ahead.
It takes hope to trust that if we just keep doing what we must do for
others, even in the midst of our own emotional chaos, that the God who leads us
into darkness will also lead us out of it.
Indeed, Mary of the Visitation is a model of hope for us when we would
become totally consumed with ourselves.
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