The loss of joy does not make the
world better - and, conversely, refusing joy for the sake of suffering does not
help those who suffer. The contrary is true. The world needs people who
discover the good, who rejoice in it and thereby derive the impetus and courage
to do good. – Pope Benedict XVI
Gospel
Text: (LK 1:39-45)
Mary
set out in those days
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,
“Most
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.”
God’s greeting to Mary that we
translate as “Hail Mary” literally means rejoice, be glad: it is an invitation
to know joy. How easily we might think of God’s plan for our lives as somehow
burdensome, our calling as fraught with the fears and anxieties which become
obstacles to so many of the young today. With Our Lady we hear the angel’s
words: “do not be afraid, you have found favor with God” (Lk.1:31). How much we
need to hear those words again today in all our callings.
In this joyful mystery we glimpse how
God invites and does not impose, seeking our consent so that we are ready to
say freely and wholeheartedly with Mary in each of our lives: “let it be to me
according to your word” (Luke 1:38). How much I pray today that every one of us
may see like Mary that we have a part to play in God’s plan for salvation. In
Pope Benedict’s words “bringing forth Christ to the world.”
A new generation surely needs our
encouragement, our prayer and looks to the example of our perseverance and joy.
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