Feast of the Visitation

By Professor Kath Engebretson, Lead Curriculum Writer, Religious Education Excellence, at Melbourne Archdiocese Catholic Schools (MACS).

We end the month of May – traditionally dedicated to Mary the mother of God – with the engaging story of two pregnant women finding support and encouragement in each other and proclaiming, as did the prophets before them, that God is on the side of the poor and the oppressed.

As the Gospel of Luke tells it, the angel Gabriel advised Mary of her relative Elizabeth’s pregnancy. ‘And this is the sixth month for her who was said to be barren. For nothing will be impossible with God’ (Lk 1: 36–37).

Let it be with me according to your word

Mary’s fiat occurs immediately after this revelation – her acceptance of the unimaginable tidings that although she is a virgin, she will conceive by the Holy Spirit a child who will be the Son of God.

She hurries to Elizabeth’s home in the hill country of Judea, where the women greet each other with joy. We can easily imagine the meeting between Mary, the virgin chosen as the mother of the Messiah, and Elizabeth the older woman whose son will be filled with the Holy Spirit even before he is born. They have much to talk about.

A story of two women

The encounter takes place in Elizabeth’s home, a space of women’s agency. Except for Zechariah, who has been struck dumb, there are no men present. The women are the actors in the story. The only voices we hear are theirs and their excitement at their meeting is infectious.

As Mary approaches, Elizabeth experiences a sudden sharp movement of the baby in her womb. ‘For the moment your greeting reached my ears, the child in my womb leapt for joy’ (Lk 1: 39–45) she tells Mary.

The meeting and Mary’s subsequent stay at Elizabeth’s house would bring comfort and support to both women. Mary has agreed to allow God to inhabit her body in the most intimate relationship of mother and child. She must now grow in understanding of what her fiat means, not only for herself and Joseph her betrothed, but for her nation of Israel.

Elizabeth too, has many questions. What is the meaning of the unexpected blessing God has given her? What is God’s plan for her son so soon to be born? We can imagine their conversation – excited, wondering, joyful, fearful and mutually encouraging.

Proclamation of God’s salvation

At one level, we have a captivating domestic scene in which two pregnant women enjoy each other’s company, wondering at the extraordinary situation in which they find themselves, but Luke is interested in bigger themes.

In line with the prophets who have gone before them, the women proclaim the saving hand of God. God has raised up the lowly and despised, has given strength to the oppressed and upturned the authority of the powerful.

In this patriarchal society, a woman’s worth resided in her ability to bear sons. To be barren was the worst humiliation a woman could endure, and her inability to conceive made her despised even among other women.

Elizabeth embodies the barren woman motif inhabited by her foremothers, Sarah, Rachel and Hannah, and other women who mourned their childlessness, only to be unexpectedly blessed, their grief turned into joy (Johnson 2003).

The humiliated woman is lifted up by God to bear a child in her old age. ‘This what the Lord has done for me when he looked favourably on me and took away the disgrace I have endured among my people’ (Lk 1: 25).

In contrast with her husband’s doubt, Elizabeth recognises that the grace of God has come into her life. She nurtures her unborn child in secret (Lk 1: 24), and contemplating God’s grace in her own life, also recognises it in her young relative.

At Mary’s visit, she is filled with the Holy Spirit and loudly proclaims the young woman as blessed by God, for she has believed God’s promise.

The Magnificat

The Gospel of Luke puts on Mary’s lips the deeply prophetic Magnificat (Lk 1: 46–56), her hymn of praise to the Lord. She is not only one who hears the word of God and acts on it but is also cast now as witness to God’s preference for the poor, the weak, the disinherited, the despised.

Young, female, a member of an oppressed nation, she embodies the poor and powerless of Luke’s Gospel. Recalling the song of Hannah (1 Sam 2: 1–10) the mother of Israel’s great judge Samuel, Mary’s words praise God for her own blessing but also proclaim the power of God who blesses the entire nation through her.

The impossible has happened. Not a queen in her palace, not a wealthy matriarch but Mary, a poor girl from the humble village of Nazareth, is chosen to bear the Messiah and for all future generations she will be revered as the mother of God.

The women are cast in the role of prophets. Their story glorifies God who pours his grace on the most unlikely people, the God who has always intervened in human history, both in spectacular ways as well as in the quiet everyday miracle of the birth of a child.

Principals and religious education leaders may share these gospel stories for staff prayer and reflection during this Marian month. They tell a deeply human story, but also one that gives us insight into the plan of God for humanity.

Reference

Johnson, E 2003, Truly Our Sister: A Theology of Mary in the Communion of Saints, Continuum, New York.

Professor Kath Engebretson can be contacted on 9267 0228 or via kengebretson@macs.vic.edu.au.

Image: The Light of Love (2025), Year 2 student, St Christopher’s School, Airport West.