the visitation: women and children first

the story of the visitation reads like an opera. all the spoken lines are poetry, but beyond the sheer beauty of the language, a lot of rather surprising things are going on.

would it have been unusual "n those days" for "mary" to "set out and [go] "with haste to a judean town in the hill country, where she entered the house of zechariah and greeted elizabeth"?

"when elizabeth heard mary’s greeting," not only did "the child [leap] in her womb," but "elizabeth was filled with the holy spirit and exclaimed with a loud cry." in other words, elizabeth is described as a prophet. her words became the beginning of the marian praise song we call the hail mary:

"blessed are you among women,
and blessed is the fruit of your womb."

mary responds in song as well, with the magnificat, often set to wonderful music:

“my soul magnifies the lord,
and my spirit rejoices in god my savior,
for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant.
surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed;
for the mighty one has done great things for me, and holy is his name.
his mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation.
he has shown strength with his arm;
he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts.
he has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly;
he has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty.
he has helped his servant israel, in remembrance of his mercy,
according to the promise he made to our ancestors,
to abraham and to his descendants forever.”

how often outside of musicals and the gospel according to luke do women speak in such song? but of course they are speaking of a very great event indeed. the newly-conceived messiah, jesus, is making the first of many fateful trips to jerusalem if indeed that is where elizabeth and zecheriah reside, and he whom the universe cannot contain is contained in the womb of a young women about whom elizabeth says, "blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her by the lord.”

but it is not only the women who know and are beginning to understand the profound significance of this visit between cousins. elizabeth says, "as soon as I heard the sound of your greeting, the child in my womb leaped for joy."

this first visit of jesus to jerusalem is a very different event from his last, when the children will still greet him as the king (see the gospel for palm sunday), but the king and priests and roman government will not greet him with joy. is it any surprise that the first one to meet the risen lord will be another woman, mary magdalene?

women and children seem better to understand the nature of real power than do those who consider themselves the powerful.