December 21, 2024

Luke 1:39-45

Today Mary, bearing Jesus within her, travels to see her cousin Elizabeth, who is pregnant with John the Baptist.  When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, “the infant leaped in her womb.”  Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit and cried out loudly, “Most blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb…Blessed are you who believed that what was spoken to you by the Lord would be fulfilled.” 

This is a conversation between two women who have hearts open to the Holy Spirit, they are filled with the Holy Spirit, and they can talk about Spirit with each other.  They understand each other in a way no one else has yet, with the possible exception of Joseph.  Isn’t Elizabeth the first to recognize who Jesus is?  As Mary Magdalene was the first to recognize the risen Jesus.

Throughout the Middle Ages, women were derided as lesser beings, descendants of Eve who was blamed for the incident with the apple and the snake.  And yet God saw otherwise. Over and over again, he chose to speak through women – Hildegard of Bingen, Teresa of Avila, Julian of Norwich, and many others whose names are unknown and unsung.  Although not considered important in society, if their hearts were open to God, the messages of Spirit strummed in their hearts. They were open, they received, and they were compelled to speak or write.  Blessed are these women. Their thoughts were not on their own importance but rather on loving and yearning for God. Think how male-dominated the Church was in those centuries, and yet God chose to speak through women over and over.  Let us be true to Spirit, wherever that leads. Amen.