Exultant Joy

”The Almighty Has Done Great Things For Me,” painting  by Maria Lang

I wish we had more stories about Mary and Elizabeth, extraordinary women.  I wish we had more details about their lives.  And yet.  What is unavailable provokes openhearted imagination, memory, and hope. In a natural visit between relatives, the visitation of the Spirit transforms and magnifies the story.*

 Mary, newly pregnant, goes to visit her much older cousin, Elizabeth, who is in the last three months of her pregnancy.  Both are extraordinary, surprising pregnancies.  I imagine Mary, in her awkward circumstances, going to offer assistance and receive counsel.  We don’t hear of that though.  We don’t hear about morning sickness and delivery plans. Rather, the first encounter is an encounter with the Holy Spirit, flooded with passionate exultant joy and praise.  It is a spiritual visitation. 

Immediately, the baby later called John the Baptist, leaps in Elizabeth’s womb.  Stunningly, there is exultant recognition by the baby, then his mother.  Elizabeth is filled with the Holy Spirit, and expresses affirmation of Mary’s faith, in awe that “the mother of my Lord comes to visit me.” Mary responds with exultant praise, rejoicing that her soul magnifies the Lord.  She continues what has come to be called the Magnificat, a song of ecstatic vision. Mary extols the wondrous mission of her son, who would later be named Jesus.  With strength and mercy, she says, he will redefine power and fulfill God’s promise made to Abraham and his descendants. 

The high drama awakens the memory and the drama of other spiritual visitations, from the Tower of Babel to the Resurrection.  The young girl Mary is in select company of others who responded to divine visitations, including Abraham, Moses, and Jeremiah, and continuing to Pentecost and Paul.  Mary’s vision is a revelation that connects to the visionary chapter in the book of Revelation where Jesus will make all things new.  Entering Jerusalem before his death, Jesus wept because the people did not recognize his divine visitation.  But the promise is clear that in the future, in the new Jerusalem, God will be at home. “God himself will be with them and wipe every tear from their eyes.”  (Rev. 21:3-4)

The brief account of the visitation in Luke’s gospel ignites my soul to the sweep of history and the joy of the indwelling Spirit.  Jesus is the eternal Word, present and active. Divine visitations continue to happen, offering mercy and truth.  The Spirit floods faithful friends, new and old, in pairs and in groups.  I experienced it yesterday, sharing an Advent meal with an old friend. I experienced it recently on retreat at Dayspring, when the Spirit fell on the group of strangers who became a holy community in two days.  Made new.

Let’s stay alert. Let’s recognize the opportunity of divine visitations.  Let’s respond to God’s Big Vision of redemption and hope with exultant joy. The world waits.