Fr. Don's Daily Reflection - May 31, 2024
Psalm 62: “In you alone is my soul at rest. My help comes from you.”
“Who am I that the mother of my Lord should come to me” (Luke 1:43)? In the Gospel event that we call the Visitation, these words are Elizabeth's response to a visit from her cousin Mary. The pregnant and elderly Elizabeth doesn't give a self-centered response: “Where were you? It's about time” but “How did I ever deserve this?” Elizabeth receives the gift of Mary's time and effort as an unexpected, most welcome kindness, a gift.
Daily life offers all of us opportunities to give generously and also to receive with gratitude and joy what others give. In our day the phone, letters, FaceTime, Zoom, the Internet as well as convenient mobility make it possible for us to bring consolation, light, even some excitement to the lives of the lonely, the ill, the neglected, the aged, the suffering.
Yet even with so many technology-enhanced opportunities for communication and contact, we still plead "no time". Visitation in some form or other of those who would benefit from it is a snap for us today compared to what it was in Mary's time. What keeps us from doing more of it? Perhaps it's our lack of identification with the selflessness of Christ, something he learned at least partly from his mother.
Psalm 27: “I believe I shall see the Lord’s goodness / in the land of the living.
Wait for the Lord; be strong; / be stouthearted, and wait for the Lord!”
