The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today invite us to contemplate the role of the Holy Spirit in our journey to awaken us to joy in response to the occasions in which we experience the Presence of Christ.
Cousin joy
The reading from the Prophet Zephaniah proclaims a song of joy.The reading from the Song of Songs is a poetic springtime rhapsody.
* [2:8–13] In this sudden change of scene, the woman describes a rendezvous and pictures her lover hastening toward her dwelling until his voice is heard calling her to him.1
Psalm 33 praises the greatness and goodness of God.
* [Psalm 33] A hymn in which the just are invited (Ps 33:1–3) to praise God, who by a mere word (Ps 33:4–5) created the three-tiered universe of the heavens, the cosmic waters, and the earth (Ps 33:6–9). Human words, in contrast, effect nothing (Ps 33:10–11). The greatness of human beings consists in God’s choosing them as a special people and their faithful response (Ps 33:12–22).2
In the Gospel of Luke, Mary Visits Elizabeth.
* [1:45] Blessed are you who believed: Luke portrays Mary as a believer whose faith stands in contrast to the disbelief of Zechariah (Lk 1:20). Mary’s role as believer in the infancy narrative should be seen in connection with the explicit mention of her presence among “those who believed” after the resurrection at the beginning of the Acts of the Apostles (Acts 1:14).3
Tom Purcell comments that Mary did not need to see with her own eyes – she believed in the message of Gabriel and the power of the Lord to do what was foretold.
I suspect for most of us our faith is more like that of Zechariah and Thomas, and not like that of Mary. We tend to believe more in what we can see, what is tangible, and less in things that we cannot reduce to our normal human experience. That is why, to me, this is such a wonderful lesson – Mary. Just. Said. Yes! She didn’t hem and haw, or equivocate, or rationalize, or any of those normal human reactions. She humbly just said yes. And so, my prayer today is for the gift to just say yes.4
Don Schwager quotes “John prophecies from the womb,” by Maximus of Turin (died between 408-423 AD).
"Not yet born, already John prophesies and, while still in the enclosure of his mother's womb, confesses the coming of Christ with movements of joy - since he could not do so with his voice. As Elizabeth says to holy Mary, 'As soon as you greeted me, the child in my womb exulted for joy.' John exults, then, before he is born. Before his eyes can see what the world looks like, he can recognize the Lord of the world with his spirit. In this regard, I think that the prophetic phrase is appropriate: 'Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you came forth from the womb I sanctified you' (Jeremiah 1:5). Thus we ought not to marvel that after Herod put him in prison, he continued to announce Christ to his disciples from his confinement, when even confined in the womb he preached the same Lord by his movements." (excerpt from SERMON 5.4)5
The Word Among Us Meditation on Luke 1:39-45 shares that it was the Spirit who filled Elizabeth, revealing to her that Mary was carrying the baby Jesus. And it was the Spirit who anointed Elizabeth’s child, John, for his mission to proclaim the Messiah.
The Holy Spirit is hoping to direct your life too. As Jesus told us, he helps us to know the truth and how we should act (John 16:13). He comforts, counsels, exhorts, and encourages us (14:26). When we are weak or don’t know what to pray for, he prays with us and in us (Romans 8:26-27). Jesus himself was anointed with the power of the Spirit (Luke 4:16-21). He is the engine that drives our journey with the Lord. Why wouldn’t we want him involved in every area of our life?6
Friar Jude Winkler explains the joy of springtime love as symbolized by the dove in the Song of Songs. Zephaniah and Elizabeth connect with joy in the Divine Presence. Friar Jude affirms the faith of Mary in the words of the angel is at the core of her being blessed.
Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM, teaches that Christianity’s true and unique storyline has always been incarnation. That means that the spirit nature of reality (the spiritual, the immaterial, the formless) and the material nature of reality (the physical, that which we can see and touch) are one.
John Duns Scotus (1266–1308) took the intuition of Francis and made it into a philosophy. He said that Christ was not Plan B; God did not plan to remain absent until Adam and Eve ate that darn apple and Jesus had to come save us. Rather, Duns Scotus said that Christ was Plan A from the very beginning, the very first idea in the mind of God, as it were (John 1: 1–4). [1] God, the formless, eternal, and timeless One essentially said I am going to manifest who I am in what we now call physicality, materiality, or the universe.7
We contemplate the joy for humanity in the mystery of incarnation.
References
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