Visitatio
Second Joyful Mystery
Visitatio
The Visitation — Mary Carries the New Covenant to the Hill Country
Continuing in the Gospel according to St. Luke, we come to the first chapter, verses 39-45. St. Elizabeth, the Blessed Virgin Mary's kinswoman, was known to be barren, yet now in her old age she is pregnant with St. John the Baptist. Mary's journey through the hills of Judea resembles the journey of the Ark of the Covenant as it made its way to Jerusalem before King David.
These scriptural echoes point to who Mary truly is: the Ark of the New Covenant. For Jesus Christ is the New Covenant, His precious Blood the Blood of the Covenant and His Body the Body of the Covenant. Body and Blood separated are the sign of the sacrificial death by which every covenant in Scripture is sealed, and His true death would come soon enough. Mary is the Ark; Jesus is the New Covenant established between Man and God.
The old Ark held the tablets of the Law, a jar of manna, and the rod of Aaron the high priest: the word of God, the bread from heaven, and the priesthood. Mary held in her womb the Word made flesh, the true Bread come down from heaven, and the great High Priest Himself. St. Luke draws the parallel deliberately, and once you see it the whole scene is lit up. Read side by side:
As we meditate on this mystery we get a better sense of the love Mary had for her kinswoman. To pack up and hurry out to Elizabeth at the news of her pregnancy is a strong love, a selfless love, the kind that cares for another before oneself. Mary, newly carrying the Lord, does not turn inward to guard her own wonder; she goes in haste to serve. That is the shape of charity toward our neighbor.
Pray each verse of St. Luke's account, then the Ave Maria, letting the words of the Gospel and the Magnificat carry the decade.
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