I imagine a lot of love and humour in the visit of Mary to Elizabeth.
It’s likely that the situations of both women would have fuelled gossip in their little villages and among family and friends, and now we meet Mary seeking solidarity and refuge in the home of her cousin Elizabeth.
It’s helpful to recall the enthusiasm and excitement of their greeting: the child John in Elizabeth’s’s womb “leaped” for joy and Elizabeth was “filled with the Holy Spirit”.
Perhaps these two didn’t meet all that often, but when they did it was as friends and conversation would have carried on where they had left off at the last visit.
The humour I imagine is in the fact that the man of the house Zechariah was silent giving Mary and Elizabeth space to laugh and chat thus making his house their own. All of this in the midst of what must have been difficult circumstances for each of them.
Their shared humour came from their confidence that in their unexpected pregnancies God was at work.
And don’t miss the Opening Prayer of today’s Mass, familiar to us as the concluding prayer of the great Angelus: The word became flesh, and dwells amongst us.
Pour forth, we beseech Thee, O Lord,
Thy grace into our hearts;
that, we to whom the Incarnation of Christ, Thy Son,
was made known by the message of an Angel,
may by His Passion and Cross,
be brought to the glory of His Resurrection.
Through the same Christ our Lord. Amen.
An Invitation:
- Take a moment to have a chat with Jesus about humour in your life. Some people only laugh at others lacking the kind of lightness that is a sign of healthy living.
- Pope Francis is well known for his sense of humour and light-hearted quips. But Pope Benedict also knew the importance of humour, and shared this when he commented: “A writer once said that angels can fly because they don’t take themselves too seriously. Maybe we could also fly a bit if we didn’t think we were so important!”
I always understood that it was John the Baptist who leaped in Elizabeth’s womb at his recognition of Jesus in Mary’s womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. Luke 1:39-45
Such a powerful Gospel.