Today we celebrate the feast of the Visitation. Of course, we pray for our Sisters of the Visitation, especially for Sister Marie-Angélique, who is celebrating the jubilee of her religious consecration.
It is also the entry into the Triduum of the Visitation. Every year, we try to put ourselves better at the school of Saint Francis de Sales.
We have just heard the story of the meeting between Mary and Elizabeth in the Gospel of Saint Luke. Mary has just learned that she will be the Mother of the Saviour and she carries Jesus within her. Elisabeth, who, in her old age – when she was called the barren woman – against all odds – is also pregnant. She carries within her Jean-Baptiste.
We witness the meeting between an old lady and a young girl. The Church has always seen, in this encounter, the encounter between the Old and New Testaments, between the expectation of aging and exhausted humanity, and God her Saviour who comes to her.
Between the old humanity that no longer has hope and the absolute newness of God’s eternal youth. And that has brought joy.
With Mary carrying Jesus, it is Joy and Hope that enter the world.
It’s like a cascade of joy. At Mary’s voice, John the Baptist leaps for joy in Elizabeth’s womb, which provokes an exclamation of happiness, which provokes Mary’s exultation, the Magnificat.
This text is also the meeting between two children, even though they have not yet been born. A mysterious encounter between Jesus and John. Some Fathers think that it was at this moment that John received his vocation, his mission, from Jesus himself. This mysterious encounter tells us something about the mystery of human life from its beginning. “Before you were shaped in your mother’s breast, I knew you. Before you came out of his womb, I consecrated you,” says the Lord in the Book of Jeremiah.
On this feast day, we are invited to enter into this joy, or more precisely, to let it enter into us.
It is the joy of salvation, the joy of the humble, the joy of forgiveness, the joy of God himself, the joy of Heaven. “God is the God of joy,” St. Francis de Sales repeated incessantly.
Joy that is the response to the infinite sadness that dwells in the hearts of so many men and women. It is the joy of Hope that springs from the death and resurrection of Christ. The one that Pope Francis invites us to enter during the Jubilee Year that will open on December 24, 2024.
The text of Saint Luke also tells us that Mary set out and went with haste to the mountainous region. This eagerness, which can be translated as: “with haste” or “quickly”, “immediately”.
The Church has always recognized, in Mary’s eagerness, the expression of her charity. Moreover, when one meditates on the mystery of the Visitation while reciting the Rosary, the tradition of the Church associates it with the fruit of Charity. The Charity that pushes Mary to visit her cousin. There is no return to herself in Mary. His charity was immediate.
Following Mary, we are invited not to wait to live Charity, to go out of ourselves, to decenter ourselves.
I remember the words of Pope Francis addressed to young people in his letter, He lives Christ:
“I want to remind you of the big question. So many times in life, we waste our time asking ourselves “but who am I?” But you can ask yourself who you are and spend your whole life looking for who you are. Instead, ask yourself “who you are for”. You are for God, no doubt, but He wanted you to be for others as well. He has put in you many qualities and inclinations, gifts and charisms that are not for you, but for others. »
Saint Margaret Mary said: “True devotion to the Sacred Heart is fraternal charity.” I quote her: “If you want to become a disciple and daughter of the Sacred Heart, you must make yourself gentle and humble like him. Gentle in bearing the little annoyances, moods and sorrows of your neighbor, without getting angry at the little contradictions he will make you, but on the contrary, do him with a good heart the services you can. For this is the true way to win the good graces of the Sacred Heart.
Conform as much as you can to his humility and gentleness towards your neighbour, especially towards those for whom you have the most antipathy. Be cordial to them. Never conceive of any coldness against your neighbor.
Love wants all or nothing, it does not want a divided heart. The heart of Christ demands everything, without reserve, from those he loves. »
I would like to share these words with you, in particular, Sister Marie-Angélique, who is celebrating your Jubilee today.
Charity is now.
But perhaps what most characterizes the Virgin Mary is faith. “Blessed is she who believed in the fulfillment of the words spoken to her by the Lord,” exclaims Elizabeth.
Faith is not convictions or believing at all costs in truths that we will never understand. To believe is to enter into a relationship, it is an act by which we entrust ourselves freely to God, who is Father and who loves us.
Faith is a free response to God who freely shows himself to us. It is born of the encounter with the living God, a Love that precedes us and this transforms our whole life.
This is exactly what the Virgin Mary lives. She is the one who said “yes” to God’s invitation.
We have not finished meditating on this event. God wanted to link the salvation of the world to the freedom of a young girl. Mary’s “yes” is a true “yes”. She could have said no. St. Bernard says that “God was seeking a new entrance into the world and knocked at Mary’s door.” He could not redeem Man, created free, without a free “yes” to his will.
When Mary said yes, Jesus was conceived in her and with him, salvation entered the world. Mary’s “yes” took place in the intimacy of the encounter between the Angel and Mary. A humble event that no one has seen or known, except Mary. And yet, the whole history of humanity has been changed.
Mary’s faith is a free response to God’s initiative. It is also an act of trust that will go through dark moments, until the passion and death of Jesus on the cross. Mary’s faith goes from the joy of the Annunciation, to the exultation of the Visitation and passes through the night of the Crucifixion, to reach the light of the Resurrection.
With Elizabeth, let us marvel at this Mystery.
The Lord asks for our freedom and needs our “yes”. The Lord today is looking for hearts willing to give themselves up to his Love in a total way.
As you know, being a Christian is not only believing that God exists, nor admiring the figure of Jesus, nor being seduced by the beauty of Mary. But it is walking with Jesus, being a disciple. It is not being perfect, but trusting him and following him. With alacrity, like Mary.
On this day of the feast of the Visitation, with Saint Francis de Sales, Saint Jeanne de Chantal, let us put ourselves at the school of Mary:
Mary, source of our joy.
Mary, model of charity.
Mary, model of faith.
Mary, Mother of Hope.
Source: Homélies à la Basilique – La Visitation Sainte-Marie d’Annecy (visitationannecy.org)