May 31 Sat
How does Mary teach us to serve others?
In Nazareth, the Archangel Gabriel revealed the purpose of his embassy: See, how it fares with thy cousin Elizabeth; she is old, yet she too has conceived a son; she who was reproached with barrenness is now in her sixth month, to prove that nothing can be impossible with God.
With these words, the divine Messenger revealed to Mary the mystery of St. Elizabeth's motherhood: the Lord had chosen her to be the mother of the Precursor. God wanted to heap joy upon joy. To the infinite happiness of knowing that she was the Mother of the Redeemer was added more good news—her cousin had also been blessed. And the heart of the Blessed Virgin overflowed with happiness.
In the days that followed, Mary rose up and went with all haste to a town of Juda, in the hill country. In her womb, she bore the Desired of all nations, the Messiah Israel had waited for centuries. Break into song, fair Sion, all Israel cry aloud; there is joy and triumph, Jerusalem, for your royal heart. The Lord has revoked your doom, your enemy repulsed; the Lord is there in your midst, Israel's king! Peril for you henceforth is none.
In the feast of the Visitation, which we are celebrating today, we can admire firstly the concern of the Blessed Virgin for St Elizabeth. She knows that her cousin, well on in years, needs the care of a young person, and she therefore goes with haste to bring her help and affection. This availability to serve is the immediate consequence of having found Jesus Christ.
In our lives, too, intimacy with Jesus and with Mary is necessarily shown in the help we give others. As St. Josemaría wrote: “If we have this filial contact with Mary, we won't be able to think just about ourselves and our problems. Selfish personal problems will find no place in our minds. Mary brings us to Jesus, and Jesus is the firstborn among many brothers. And so, if we know Jesus, we realize that we can live only by giving ourselves to the service of others. A Christian can't be caught up in personal problems; he must be concerned about the universal Church and the salvation of all souls."
Concern for our spiritual improvement must be bound up with apostolate. “We must, therefore, develop our interior life and the Christian virtues with our eyes upon the good of the whole Church. We cannot do good and make Christ known if we're not making a sincere effort to live the teachings of the Gospel."
“If we are imbued with this spirit, our 'conversations' with God will help others. And if we take our Lady's hand, she will make us realize more fully that all men are our brothers -because we are all sons of that God whose Daughter, Mother, and Spouse she is."
Mary brought Jesus to the house of Zachary. The unborn Baptist leaps in his mother's womb, full of the joy of the Holy Spirit. And we, too, “if we become identified with Mary and imitate her virtues, we will be able to bring Christ to life, through grace, in the souls of many who will, in turn, become identified with him through the action of the Holy Spirit.”
“If we imitate Mary, we will share in some way in her spiritual motherhood. And all this silently, like our Lady; without being noticed, almost without words, through the true and genuine witness of our lives as Christians, and the generosity of ceaselessly repeating her personal commitment, which we renew as an intimate link between ourselves and God."