The precious lesson learned from the Visitation

IMAGINE the meeting between Mary and Elizabeth, the greatest women of all time, enjoying the greatest dignity, especially Mary! (cfr. Lk 1,39-45) The exchange of greetings between the two can only reflect the highest honor and privilege any human being can enjoy. 

 Mary, already aware of being the mother of the very Son of God, goes immediately to her cousin to offer her service. What humility she is showing us! 

And Elizabeth, the recipient of such favor, could not help but exclaim: “O, most blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb.” And Elizabeth continues to express her overwhelming joy, saying: “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.” 

 And then the most important part of her greeting came out of her mouth: “Blessed are you who believed that what was spoken to you by the Lord would be fulfilled.” 

 My friends, let us again remind ourselves of how important it is to have a strong and effective faith for the will of God of be fulfilled in our lives as it was fulfilled perfectly in the life of Mary! 

 Mary is the New Eve who never violated the honor and dignity God gave her. And that’s because of her great faith that she was able to incarnate the very Son of God, again underlining a basic truth about our relationship with God—that we are meant to share the same life and nature since God wants us to be his image and likeness, children of his. 

 In spite of our weaknesses and failure, we should just try to imitate the example of Mary, ever strengthening our faith so that we too can eventually share the honor and dignity that she herself is enjoying. 

 It’s a faith that necessarily would lead us to an unwavering hope despite the confusing drama of our earthly life. More than that, it’s a faith that can drive us to an overwhelming love that is the very perfection of our humanity as it is the very essence of God. 

 Mary shows this charity by immediately making herself available to serve her cousin, practically reminding us that charity is not just sweet words and intentions, nor enjoying the honor of a privileged status. It is always expressed in deeds, in wanting to serve, just like Christ himself who once said: “The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” (Mt 20,28) 

 May it be that just as we are now a few days before Christmas, we rev up our desire to serve in a purely gratuitous way, just like what Christ and Mary did, without counting the cost and ever eager to serve in all conditions, whatever may be the cost. 

 This eagerness to serve would really identify us with Christ who is our “way, truth and life.” Definitely, to be able to serve, one has to be humble. And that’s what we see in our Lady, and of course, in Christ, first of all. Pride and all its allies would always extinguish any desire to serve others. They only are interested in serving their own selves. 

 May this Christmas fuel to the max our desire to serve, that is, to love!

“Hail, full of grace…”

THAT was how the Archangel Gabriel addressed Mary. And after a few exchanges of words, the very Son of God was conceived in Mary’s womb after she said that famous response: “Fiat mihi secundum verbum tuum.” (Be it done to me according to your word.) 

 The archangel’s greeting to Mary should give us the idea of how we too can incarnate Christ in our life as we should, since we actually are patterned after him. We need to be in the state of grace, something that, of course, given our wounded condition will never be perfect but rather a lifelong work for us. 

 We should learn how to live our whole life with Christ, doing everything with him and for him. This is the ideal way to live our life. That is how we can attract and keep the grace of God and let Christ enter into our life. 

 Again, let’s come out with plans and strategies that would put this ideal into reality. We need to submit ourselves to some plan of life that includes the appropriate practices of piety like mental prayer, recourse to the sacraments, waging ascetical struggle that would enable us to develop virtues and to properly deal with our weaknesses and temptations, etc. 

 The ideal condition should be that at any given time we are conscious of the presence of God, aware of what he is telling us since he is the one who actually directs our life. His presence should fill our mind and heart with joy and peace, with confidence and clear sense of purpose, etc. We should feel the drive to do a lot of good. 

 In short, there has to be the sensation that everyday we are progressing in becoming more and more like Christ. We get to have his mind and will, eager to reach out to others for the purpose of human redemption. For this to happen, we need to repeat Mary’s response, “Fiat mihi secundum verbum tuum.” 

 If handled properly with the right attitudes, dispositions and skills, the plans and strategies we make would not become a drag that would freeze us and put us in some kind of silo, but would rather enhance our capacity to cope even with surprises and other unexpected things that life can present to us. 

 We have to be careful of reacting to today’s rapid developments in an instinctive way only, Pavlovian style. While we cannot avoid having to react spontaneously in that knee-jerk way to these developments, it would be wrong if we get stuck in that level. That would make us slaves, not masters, of these developments and changes. We have to stay away from the bad habit of improvising always. 

 We need to come up with plans and strategies to give shape and direction to all these things. That way, we would have some clear vision of our goals and means and timetables involved. That way, we would have a better grasp of how to identify and handle issues, problems and challenges. That way, we would have a good sense of priority, especially nowadays when we are faced with many competing options. 

 Making plans and strategies may require some time and effort, but it’s an investment that is all worthwhile. The little time and effort required can actually multiply our time and make our efforts more productive at the end of the day. It’s like the little rudder, St. James talks about in his letter, that has the power to give direction to a big boat. (cfr 3,4)

The conceptions of Christ and John the Baptist

BOTH conceptions came about with clear divine intervention involved. Christ’s conception in the womb of Our Lady was completely virginal. That of John the Baptist involved a natural process though the parents were already in a condition where it would have been impossible for them to have a child. 

 But both came about because of the faith of the parties involved. Mary’s faith was pure and wholehearted, while that of Zachary was a bit doubtful. Still, faith played a major role in these conceptions. (cfr. Lk 1,5-25) 

 What all these tell us is that God and us truly share the same life because we also share the same nature, since God wants us to be his image and likeness, children of his. This is a basic truth of our faith that we should never forget. Rather, we should try our best to be consistent to it not only from time to time. It should be a constant truth that we act on in our daily life. 

 Again, it’s a matter of faith that would make this truth a reality in our life. Let’s try to follow the example of Mary who shows us how pure faith is. The faith of Zachary, though not quite perfect, still prevailed over his human doubts and disbelief. Because of this faith, the humanly impossible became possible. Faith does not suppress our human nature. It enables us to enter into God’s life and nature while remaining human. 

 Indeed, it’s faith that would enable us to do things that otherwise we would hesitate, if not refuse, to do. It’s faith that would enable us to do the very things of God. From the Book of Proverbs, we read a relevant affirmation: “Trust the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways submit to him, and he will make our paths straight.” (3,1-6) 

 We have to learn how to be keenly aware of this basic truth about ourselves, so that we can go on with our life without unnecessary doubts and fears, and so that we can do a lot of good instead of being hindered to do so. Remember that even without Christ telling us, there are a lot of things we need to do to uplift the conditions of everyone. 

 This awareness of our sharing in the life and nature of God here in this life should be cultivated, resorting to appropriate practices of piety and ongoing formation, so that we can live our life as it should be lived—with confidence, always with good intentions and willingness to do the very things of God which actually are for our own good. 

 Let’s try to approximate the faith of Our Lady and Zachary and of the many characters in the Bible who chose to believe God and in his ways despite the difficulties, sacrifices involved. Actually, if our faith is strong, whatever difficulty and sacrifice we make would always be regarded as meaningful and a source of joy. 

 With faith, there is really nothing to worry, and we would be on our way to our human perfection when God and us would definitely be together for all eternity in heaven. With faith, we would always feel light and happy, always optimistic despite whatever, and eager to do a lot of good. 

 Let’s see to it that everyday we can see some progress in this regard. We should feel the very effects of faith taking place in our daily life. Let’s make this promise a gift to God who gives us the best gift—the birth of Christ on Christmas Day!