Reflecting again this week on the episode of the Holy Visitation of Blessed Mary, Mother of God to Saint Elisabeth, as depicted in our icon, and in the light of our readings from Scripture, I am struck by the trust in God that Mary and Elisabeth felt as they met together. And why wouldn’t they trust God? God did what He said He would: He had made good on His promises. Both Mary and Elisabeth were pregnant, just as God had promised through the Archangel Gabriel. John the Baptist had leapt in the womb of Elisabeth, showing Him to be full of the Holy Spirit at Mary’s greeting which made the presence of Christ known to them, just as God relayed as well through Gabriel. Elisabeth herself felt full of the Holy Spirit, and recognized her kinswoman Mary as the Mother of God, and praised her belief and expressed her confidence that all that was told Mary from the Lord would be fulfilled. And Mary’s song, the Magnificat, expresses her trust in God as well, and does so strongly: “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior,” and also “He Who is mighty has done great things for me.” Really every verse of the Magnificat expresses Mary’s trust in God, her trust in her Son our Savior, Jesus. Undoubtedly Elisabeth also trust what Gabriel foretold of her son’s adult ministry, that John “will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God.” And although Elisabeth did not live to see the day, that is precisely what John the Baptist did; what God said would happen, did.
We can see that the joy of the Gospel shared by these two Saints, these two Holy Mothers (and shown by them to us) stems from their trust in God. And we can see that their joyful hearts feed their trust in Christ. In Christianity, demonstrated by the Saints Mary and Elisabeth, trust and joy go hand in hand.
Another Saints, Saint Paul, teaches us about trust today in the Epistle, from beginning to end. The Father, he says, has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. Therefore let us trust Him. The Father has chosen us in Christ before the foundation of the world. Therefore let us trust Him. The Father has destined us in love to be His Sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of His will. He made known to us in all wisdom and insight the mystery of His will. Therefore let us trust Him. And in Him, Paul says, we who have heard the word of truth, the Gospel of your salvation, and have believed in Him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit. This is what Elisabeth and Mary heard, this is what we have heard through the Sacraments of Baptism and Eucharist, with Scripture opened by the Holy Spirit. Therefore let us, with Mary and Elisabeth and Paul, trust Him through the Holy Spirit, Who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of our full salvation.
Likewise more Saints, the Twelve, were sent out two by two, with authority from Christ over the unclean spirits: see how our Lord Jesus bestowed upon them blessings of the heavenly places which built them up through trust in Christ. They took nothing for their journey except a covering of clothing and sandals. They pronounced peace upon those they met. The proclaimed that the Kingdom of God—the Holy Ghost—had come near. And the preached repentance, meaning that there is now available through the Holy Ghost a new way of seeing (which is what repentance, in the Greek metanoia, means at its root: to see differently, and by seeing differently, thinking and acting differently). Through Christ working in them, they cast out many demons, and anointed with oil many that were sick and healed them. As Mary spread the joy of the Gospel to Elisabeth and John and Zechariah by traveling about 100 miles to bring to them the presence of Christ and the power of the Holy Ghost operating in her, so the disciples were to imitate Mary and travel to souls in need of saving (in need of spiritual health) and share the Gospel and bring healing to many souls.
Therefore let us with Mary and Elisabeth and Paul and the Twelve, indeed with all the Saints, the whole Company of Heaven: let us trust Him Who sends us out into the world to love and serve the world, to bless the world with the blessings we have received. Let us understand that we can love; let us love that we can understand. The Lord is high and to be feared; He is the great king upon all the earth. By His grace we can perceive and know what things we ought to do; and by Him we may have the grace and power faithfully to fulfill the same. Having heard the word of truth, let us share it! Having received the Bread of heaven, let us be it for the world, that by our peace they are fed with the peace which passes all understanding, yet which fills the soul with mercy and truth. Because of our trust in God, let us always seek to accomplish the purpose God the Father set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things, all people, in Him Who is Way, the Truth and the Life, and Who lives and reigns with the Father and the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end. Amen.