Feast of the Visitation

Visitation

Two women meet,

cousins yet more than kin--

bound now to one another

by pregnant surprise.

Their unpredictable God has laughed at nature

and made the childless and the virgin bear.

She of the leaping womb, thought barren,

bears the restlessness of her God.

And the virgin unknown

becomes the magnifying glass

that makes great her God for all to see.

The women embrace;

forgotten hope surprised by life

embraces surpassing love.

Meeting they touch

the old and the new

the forgotten and the unknown

now revealed in mystery

as ancient desire and time's fulness.

The simple majesty 

of their common meeting

is remembered as the uncommon visitation

of God come among us.

Shall our own forgotten hope

protect us from surprise?

Perhaps!

Shall our fear of being known

cause us to turn and hide

from this--God's embrace?

It is possible.

Shall we trade

the restlessness of God

for oblivion?

Also possible.

But these women

Elizabeth and Mary,

desire and fulness,

call us to laugh with our unpredictable God

who comes to visit

such a warm and generous embrace

upon our quaking hearts.

Fr. Harry Hagan, OSB,  in Thirsting for God