20180531
MARY THE
EUCHARISTIC WOMAN
31 MAY, 2018,
Thursday, The Visitation of the BVM
14 Sing aloud, O daughter of Zion;
shout, O
Israel!
Rejoice
and exult with all your heart,
O
daughter of Jerusalem!
15 The Lord has taken away the judgments
against you,
he has
cast out your enemies.
The King
of Israel, the Lord, is in your midst;
you
shall fear evil no more.
16 On that day it shall be said to
Jerusalem:
“Do not
fear, O Zion;
let not
your hands grow weak.
17 The Lord, your God, is in your midst,
a
warrior who gives victory;
he will
rejoice over you with gladness,
he will
renew you in his love;
he will
exult over you with loud singing
18 as on a day of festival.
“I will
remove disaster from you,
so that
you will not bear reproach for it.
14 Sing aloud, O daughter of Zion;
shout, O
Israel!
Rejoice
and exult with all your heart,
O
daughter of Jerusalem!
15 The Lord has taken away the judgments
against you,
he has
cast out your enemies.
The King
of Israel, the Lord, is in your midst;
you
shall fear evil no more.
16 On that day it shall be said to
Jerusalem:
“Do not
fear, O Zion;
let not
your hands grow weak.
17 The Lord, your God, is in your midst,
a
warrior who gives victory;
he will
rejoice over you with gladness,
he will
renew youi in his love;
he will
exult over you with loud singing
18 as on a day of festival.j
“I will
remove disasterk from you,
so that you will not bear
reproach for it.
9 Let love be genuine; hate what is evil,
hold fast to what is good; 10 love one another with brotherly
affection; outdo one another in showing honor. 11 Never flag in
zeal, be aglow with the Spirit, serve the Lord. 12 Rejoice in
your hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer. 13 Contribute
to the needs of the saints, practice hospitality.
14 Bless those who persecute you; bless and
do not curse them. 15 Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with
those who weep. 16 Live in harmony with one another; do not be
haughty, but associate with the lowly; never be conceited.
9 Let love be genuine; hate what is evil,
hold fast to what is good; 10 love one another with brotherly
affection; outdo one another in showing honor. 11 Never flag in
zeal, be aglow with the Spirit, serve the Lord. 12 Rejoice in
your hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer. 13 Contribute
to the needs of the saints, practice hospitality.
14 Bless those who persecute you; bless and
do not curse them. 15 Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with
those who weep. 16 Live in harmony with one another; do not be
haughty, but associate with the lowly;s
never be conceited.
39 In those days Mary arose and went with
haste into the hill country, to a city of Judah, 40 and she
entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. 41 And
when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the babe leaped in her womb; and
Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit 42 and she exclaimed
with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your
womb! 43 And why is this granted me, that the mother of my Lord
should come to me? 44 For behold, when the voice of your
greeting came to my ears, the babe in my womb leaped for joy. 45 And
blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was
spoken to her from the Lord.” 46 And Mary said,
“My soul
magnifies the Lord,
47 and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
48 for he has regarded the low estate of
his handmaiden.
For
behold, henceforth all generations will call me blessed;
49 for he who is mighty has done great
things for me,
and holy
is his name.
50 And his mercy is on those who fear him
from
generation to generation.
51 He has shown strength with his arm,
he has
scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts,
52 he has put down the mighty from their
thrones,
and
exalted those of low degree;
53 he has filled the hungry with good
things,
and the
rich he has sent empty away.
54 He has helped his servant Israel,
in
remembrance of his mercy,
55 as he spoke to our fathers,
to
Abraham and to his posterity for ever.”
56 And Mary remained with her about three
months, and returned to her home.
39 In those days Mary arose and went with
haste into the hill country, to a city of Judah, 40 and she
entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. 41 And
when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the babe leaped in her womb; and
Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit 42 and she exclaimed
with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your
womb! 43 And why is this granted me, that the mother of my Lord
should come to me? 44 For behold, when the voice of your
greeting came to my ears, the babe in my womb leaped for joy. 45 And
blessed is she who believed that there would bee
a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord.” 46 And
Mary said,
“My soul
magnifies the Lord,
47 and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
48 for he has regarded the low estate of
his handmaiden.
For
behold, henceforth all generations will call me blessed;
49 for he who is mighty has done great
things for me,
and holy
is his name.
50 And his mercy is on those who fear him
from
generation to generation.
51 He has shown strength with his arm,
he has
scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts,
52 he has put down the mighty from their
thrones,
and
exalted those of low degree;
53 he has filled the hungry with good
things,
and the
rich he has sent empty away.
54 He has helped his servant Israel,
in
remembrance of his mercy,
55 as he spoke to our fathers,
to
Abraham and to his posterity for ever.”
56 And Mary remained with her about three
months, and returned to her home.
MARY THE EUCHARISTIC WOMAN
SCRIPTURE
READINGS: [ ZEPH 3:14-18 or ROM 12:9-16; LK 1:39-56 ]
“Shout for joy, daughter of Zion, Israel, shout aloud! Rejoice, exult
with all your heart, daughter of Jerusalem! The Lord has repealed your
sentence; he has driven your enemies away. The Lord, the king of Israel, is
in your midst; you have no more evil to fear.” Indeed, when the Lord
is with us, we have no reason to fear. Like the Israelites, we are
imprisoned by our sins and are suffering the consequences of our follies.
The Good News is that God has forgiven us and He is setting us free. The
words of consolation of the prophet also apply to us for he said, “Zion, have
no fear, do not let your hands fall limp. The Lord your God is in your midst, a
victorious warrior.” With God on our side, we know we can win every
battle.
This prophecy is fulfilled in a very real way with the incarnation of
our Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus is regarded as the visitation of God.
Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist, the precursor of our Lord under the
inspiration of the Holy Spirit, prophesied this when he said, “Blessed be the
Lord God of Israel, for he has visited and redeemed his people, and has raised
up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David.” (Lk 1:68f)
And when Jesus raised the son of a widow at Nain, the crowd who witnessed the
miracle exclaimed, “A great prophet has arisen among us!” And “God has
visited his people.” (Lk 7:16) Jesus is truly the visitation of God. In
the incarnation, Jesus shows Himself as our Emmanuel, God with us. By His
incarnation, passion, death and resurrection, we see the mercy and love of God
in person.
To perpetuate His presence with us forever, He sends us the Holy Spirit at
Pentecost. The same Holy Spirit that anointed Him with
power to do good when He was on earth, now empowers the Church to continue the
work of Jesus, and through the ministry of the Church, makes Jesus present in
the Sacraments, especially in the Eucharist. The Church, through the work of
the Holy Spirit, continues the saving work of Christ. Never again would
the Church be left alone. We can sing with the prophet in the
responsorial psalm, “My strength and my courage is the Lord.” With joy we
will draw refreshing water from Christ’s fountain of salvation.
This was the basis of Mary’s joy when she sang the
Magnificat. “My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord and my spirit exults
in God my saviour; because he has looked upon his lowly handmaid.” Not
only Mary, but John the Baptist also leapt for joy. “For the moment your
greeting reached my ears, the child in my womb leapt for joy. Yes, blessed is
she who believed that the promise made her by the Lord would be
fulfilled.” With the Lord in our midst, we know that all things are
possible. The Lord of Hosts will be our warrior who will win the battle
against our enemies for us. No matter how bleak or hopeless the situation
appears to be, we need not give up hope for we know that the arm of the Lord is
not shortened. Mary declared that victory is certain because “He has
shown the power of his arm.” This faith in God’s presence in her
life is the cause of her perseverance in the face of trials, tribulations,
persecution and disappointments. Whether it was in Egypt, or at the foot of the
cross, Mary knew that God was in charge. Together with her son, she would
have said, “Into your hands, I commend my spirit.”
We too need not fear that God is not with us. However,
we must learn to let go and trust in Him. We must remember the words of
Elizabeth, “Blessed is she who believed that the promise made her by the Lord
would be fulfilled.” Like Mary, we need to live in expectant faith. God
is faithful and we can trust in His mercy and love for us.
So what prevents God from working in us? It
is our self-reliance, the refusal to trust in Him. We rely on man rather
than on God, on our own strength than in God’s power. This is what Mary
said, “He has routed the proud of heart. He has pulled down princes from their
thrones and exalted the lowly. The hungry he has filled with good things, the
rich sent empty away.” How often have we been destroyed by our arrogance
and pride! God comes to the aid of those who are humble and who turn to
Him in prayer. And what greater strength can we find than in the
Eucharist, our source of consolation. Spending time before the Eucharist
and receiving Him at Mass is the most privileged way of feeling the presence of
God in our hearts. Just as the Holy Spirit was the cause of the
Incarnation and Elizabeth’s recognition of Jesus in the womb of Mary, so too,
through the Eucharist, we once again receive the Spirit of Jesus in our hearts
and are filled with joy because Jesus lives in our hearts just as Mary carried
Jesus in her womb.
Having received Him in our hearts, we must now become like Mary,
a Eucharistic person to others. We are called to also become God’s
visitation to others in their lives, bringing them joy, hope and love.
Mary in today’s gospel showed herself to be that Eucharistic woman. She
did not keep Jesus to herself, but without hesitation brought Jesus to
Elizabeth and John the Baptist. Pope John Paul II often called Mary the
“Eucharistic woman” and Pope Benedict XVI likened the feast of the Blessed
Virgin’s visitation to Elizabeth as the first Eucharistic procession in
history. What, then, does it mean to become a Eucharistic person?
Firstly, like Mary, we must give ourselves to
others. The whole life of Mary was to give herself in service to God
and to His people. She saw herself as the servant of the Lord. Her
only concern was people. Even though she was chosen to be the mother of
the Messiah, she did not even spend time to savour her election but immediately
set out to help her cousin Elizabeth who needed her assistance. We see
this generosity of Mary also at the wedding in Cana in Galilee. She went
beyond her role as guest in extending her assistance to the wedding
couple. If we want to be God’s visitation to others, then charity is the
way to help people to encounter God’s love through us. This explains why
the social arm of the Church is important in the mission of the Church.
It is not enough for the Church to proclaim the Word of God unless it is also
accompanied by actions. Service to the poor has always been a priority in
the work of evangelization. This is what St Paul wrote, “If any of the
saints are in need you must share with them; and you should make hospitality
your special care. Treat everyone with equal kindness; never be condescending
but make real friends with the poor. Do not let your love be a pretence, but
sincerely prefer good to evil. Love each other as much as brothers should, and
have a profound respect for each other.” (Rom 12:13,16)
Secondly, we must give Christ to others.
More than just giving material things and food to the poor, the real poor are
those who do not have Christ in their lives. Give them Jesus. The request
of the Greeks to Philip remains ever real in the heart of every man, “We wish
to see Jesus!” (Jn 12:21) Many are hungering for a true encounter
with Jesus. Many never experienced Jesus as a real person and
friend. That is why joy is lacking in many of us because we have never
encountered Jesus as a person. John the Baptist, even in the womb of
Elizabeth, leapt for joy because he met Jesus. Similarly, we see the joy
of Mary and Elizabeth when they shared with each other what the Lord had done
for them. Sharing Christ with each other, especially testifying to His
works in our lives, inspire faith and gives people hope.
Unfortunately, many of us know how to pray to God only when we are in trouble
and when our favours are answered, but we never proclaim to the world as Mary
did of God’s marvels in our lives. There is no better way to give Jesus
to people than to testify about what the Lord has done for us.
By doing what Mary did, we too become missionaries like her.
Indeed, Pope Emeritus Benedict calls Mary as the Mother of Missionaries.
He said, “In the Virgin Mary who goes to visit her cousin Elizabeth, we
recognize the most limpid example and the truest meaning of our journey of
believers and the journey of the Church herself.” We too as Church and as
individuals must bring Christ and His message to every man and woman.
This requires that we be courageous like her to reach out, be creative and
adventurous in making the gospel relevant to the modern man and woman.
The work of the New Evangelization demands that we find new ways and means to
proclaim Christ to the world. The danger for us Catholics, is that we
have become complacent. We simply take our numbers for granted but we are
not proactively engaging the world; not even our confused and disenchanted
Catholics who have left the Church to join other denominations or even other
religions. In the name of fidelity to tradition, we have not made radical
moves to bring about a creative fidelity to our inherited Catholic Tradition in
the way we minister to our Catholics in catechesis and in the work of
evangelization. We need to bring the new and the old from the treasury of
our storehouse. Like Mary, we must give the gift of Jesus whom we have received
to the world, for Jesus is the answer to all the yearnings of man.
Written by The Most Rev William Goh,
Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore © All Rights Reserved
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