Leap!
A Reflection on This Friday’s Gospel, Luke 1:39-56 – 31 May 2024
And the ransomed of the LORD shall return, and enter Zion singing, crowned with everlasting joy; They meet with joy and gladness, sorrow and mourning flee away. (Isaiah 35:10 NABRE)
Today is the Feast of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin. It is the celebration of homecoming. Imagine the joy, the exultation, of any long-anticipated reunion. As a child, my parents and I watched Prisoners of War returning from Vietnam. Many had been in the infamous Hoa Lo Prison (the Hanoi Hilton), in harsh conditions, for nearly a decade. Several, overcome with joy, knelt, and kissed the ground as they walked from the plane steps onto American soil before being wrapped in the loving arms of their families. As a commander redeploying Soldiers from combat operations, I also watched joy explode as Soldiers reunited with their families. When the two come together it is like a dam bursting. Delight, beyond description, animates every aspect of the two as they embrace. Infectious happiness spills out and floods all present with the same intense gratitude and wonder. As the Psalmist writes, “our mouths were filled with laughter; our tongues sang for joy.” (Psalm 126:2 NABRE)
This is the joy St Luke recaptures in recounting the visitation, the welcoming, not just of the Blessed Virgin and her aunt, St Elisabeth, but of the Christ and His cousin St John. Imagine longing for a Messiah in Israel under the boot of yet another conqueror. Imagine God’s longing to redeem His people. You get a sense of this longing in Jesus’ lament over Jerusalem, “… how many times I yearned to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her young under her wings.” (Matthew 23:37 NABRE) Now consider the joy of standing at the brink of liberation, the deliverance of mankind from sin and death.
The Greek word used to describe St John the Baptist’s “joy” is agalliasis (ἀγαλλίασις). The translation to “joy,” falls short of describing the extreme exultation and thrill at this homecoming. St Luke records that St Elisabeth cried out to Mary,
“Most blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. And how does this happen to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For at the moment the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the infant in my womb leaped for joy.” (Luke 1:42–44 NABRE)
St John the Baptist, before his eyes can see the world, recognizes the Christ, and exults.
St Bernard in his Advent Homily, On the Proclamation of His Birth, describes how all creation held its breath and burst with delight at Mary’s “Yes,” and St Elizabeth’s announcement. That joy reaches forward in time such that St Bernard proclaims 1100 years later,
“My soul has melted at these words. Yes, and my spirit burns within me as it hastens with its usual desire to communicate this joy and exultation to you” (St Bernard of Clairvaux, On the Proclamation of His Birth)
St Bernard describes our joy in Jesus as linked to the need to proclaim that happiness to anyone who will listen. Our contentment, and peace in Christ should also, “melt our souls,” cause us to “leap,” and impel us to evangelization.
At the Easter Vigil, the Deacon or a Priest proclaims the Exultant. We hear,
Rejoice, let Mother Church also rejoice, arrayed with the lightning of his glory, let this holy building shake with joy, filled with the mighty voices of the peoples. (Roman Missal)
At every Mass, we experience the exultation of a true homecoming. The veil between heaven and earth splits as we welcome the Lord with the joy of those ransomed from sin, those restored to right relationship with God, those about to receive the Lord. Our hearts should “leap” with joy as we approach the Eucharist in anticipation of Jesus’ divinity flooding us in the most intimate of embraces. If our walls don’t shake with the voice of our joy at Holy Mass, how can we expect anyone to grasp the Real Presence? Whispered responses, mumbled hymns, distracted thoughts and talking do not convey that joy. Let the walls shake!
Every Mass is a visitation, a homecoming! Allow the joy of our visitation to animate your entire being. Leap!
“May the world of our time, … be enabled to receive the Good News not from evangelizers who are dejected, discouraged, impatient or anxious, but from ministers of the Gospel whose lives glow with fervor, who have first received the joy of Christ”
(Pope Paul VI, Evangelii Nuntiandi, 80)
Endnotes:
Bernard of Clairvaux. Sermons for Advent and the Christmas Season. Ed. John Leinenweber. Trans. Irene Edmonds, Wendy Mary Beckett, and Conrad Greenia. Vol. 51. Athens, OH; Collegeville, MN: Cistercian Publications; Liturgical Press, 2008. Print. Cistercian Fathers Series.
New American Bible. Revised Edition (NABRE). Washington, DC: The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, 2011. Print.
The Roman Missal: Renewed by Decree of the Most Holy Second Ecumenical Council of the Vatican, Promulgated by Authority of Pope Paul VI and Revised at the Direction of Pope John Paul II. Third Typical Edition. Washington D.C.: United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, 2011. Print.