From the Gospel according to Luke. Lk 1:39-45
Mary set out and traveled to the hill country in haste to a town of Judah, where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the infant leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Spirit, cried out in a loud voice and said, “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. Blessed are you who believed that what was spoken to you by the Lord would be fulfilled.”
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. Blessed are you who believed that what was spoken to you by the Lord would be fulfilled.”
The Gorpel of the Lord
Gospel of Joy
We could define today’s Gospel as the Gospel of Joy. A joy that originates in the miraculous work of God, who brings life through two women: one barren and the other a Virgin. Two cases impossible for men, but for God, there are no barriers. He can always do more.
Even the child in Elizabeth’s womb rejoices, and surely Jesus also rejoices in Mary’s womb, though He cannot manifest it physically.
When God arranges an encounter, it is always an encounter of joy. Let us also remember the first meeting between man and woman, which Saint John Paul II described as the greatest celebration of humanity, when man exclaims, “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh.”
Let us delight in the joy of the encounters God arranges. Our marriage is a precious encounter where it is God who makes us one.
Applied to Married Life:
Laura: Ruben, knowing that it was God who planned our meeting from all eternity, I can’t help but live it with more joy.
Ruben: Well then, Laura, let yourself be carried by that joy, because that joy comes from God.
Laura: You are the most important thing to me. With you, I need nothing else.
Ruben: I in you, you in me, and the Lord and Our Mother within us. Can we be happier? I don’t think so.
Laura: Neither do I.
Mother,
Thank you for showing us where the true source of our joy lies: in God and within each other. Praise be to God, who has united us, and we are joyful.