Yesterday we celebrated the feast of the visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary. This makes for an interesting end of the week in the Catholic calendar. This past Thursday was 40 days after Easter, meaning that it was the Solemnity of the Ascension of Our Lord into heaven. If you are wondering how you missed it and worried that you missed a holy day of obligation, don?t fret, you do not have ascension deficit disorder! The Solemnity has been transferred to today; 43 days after Easter. Of course, this means that we cannot count, but hopefully more people are able to participate in the feast this way.

I thought that we might discuss the Feast of the Visitation today, though, because I for one know that I had no idea what this feast was for a long time after I became Catholic. I just knew that it had something to do with Mary. Here is the story:

Mary and Elizabeth are cousins, both women are pregnant; Mary of course with Our Lord and Elizabeth with John the Baptist. In that day, when a woman is with child her female relatives gather around and help her out as she prepares for labor. This is why Mary travels into the hill country south of Jerusalem to be with her cousin. We get a glimpse at her kindness, knowing that the journey is difficult and her pregnancy is coming along, too, she did not have to travel to Elizabeth.

For the timing of the feast, why is it now, we go back to the tradition that Our Lord was conceived on the very day that he would later die, so the Annunciation is very close to Easter (the date of Easter is attached to the moon cycle so it moves and they don?t always match up), but the Annunciation is always on March 25, 9 months before Christmas. We know that shortly after this time is when Mary would have made the journey to Elizabeth, we also know that the Feast of the Birth of John the Baptist falls on June 24, and the Visitation falls between these two events, kind of right there in the middle on May 31.

When the women greet each other for the first time, the Gospel of Luke tells us that John the Baptist leapt in his mother's womb for pure joy, for he knows that the Lord is near. There is a quickening of life in the presence of Jesus, and John is actually given grace at this moment to fulfill his prophetic mission. We might say that, for John, this was his own baptism, the moment he was cleansed from original sin.

In response, Elizabeth utters the words "Blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb!" Mary has been recognized for what she is; she is not a Mother like other Mothers, she is the Mother of God. Her maternity takes place not only in the natural order but also in the order of grace. She has become a living tabernacle, an ark of the covenant. St. Luke actually goes to great pains to point this out. He notes the detail that Mary is in the hills south of Jerusalem for 3 months, just like King David left the Ark of the Covenant in the same hill country for 3 months. Luke also tells us that John the Baptist leaps for joy, just like King David leapt for joy in front of the Ark. When King David encounters the Ark for the first time after getting it back from his enemies, he wonders, "how can the ark of the covenant come to me?" this is the exact same question that Elizabeth asks of Mary!

The Visitation makes clear that Mary has become the ark of the new covenant. The old covenant was God's promise to the Israelites to never leave them or forsake them, to love them faithfully, and to prosper their nation. The New Covenant is God?s promise of grace and friendship, forgiveness of sins and new life. This new covenant is earned for us by Our Lord at the Cross. For this reason, we honor and bless the Virgin Mary. The old ark had within it the 10 commandments, Mary carries within her the Word of God made flesh. The old ark had the staff of Aaron that miraculously budded and proved that he was a priest, Mary carries within her our great high priest. The old ark had a jar of manna from the desert, Mary carries within her the Bread of Life. For this reason, St. Athanasius prays: "O noble Virgin, truly you are greater than any other greatness. For who is your equal in greatness, O dwelling place of God the Word? To whom among all creatures shall I compare you, O Virgin? You are greater than them all O [Ark of the] Covenant, clothed with purity instead of gold! You are the ark in which is found the golden vessel containing the true manna, that is, the flesh in which divinity resides"