December 21, 2022

Luke 1:39-45

Today we celebrate the visitation. As a child I would pray the rosary every day. I remember the joyful mysteries and mediating on the journey of Mary to her Cousin Elizabeth. We have drawings of the two women meeting with joy on their faces. Look at how these two women believed in the promises made to them by God. All this may be true. Let me read it from the Zambian experience.

It is not uncommon in the Zambian culture that when we have a teenage pregnancy, that child is sent to the village. Sent away so to say in shame to a place nobody knows her. After the child is born, the young lady returns with a baby but the baby is never claimed as her own. No no, she went to the village to bring to the city a poor child from another relative. So the child grows up calling his or her mother by her name. Everyone knows what is going on but no one says it. That teenager who is sent away … let us think of her. She is sent away from her ‘boyfriend’ the one person who might console her. At a moment when the young lady needs her mama, she finds herself alone. Sometimes these young ladies leave their children in the village and come back to finish up school. There is no joy but fear!

I like to make the life of our blessed mother as practical as I can so that I can relate. She knows a truth that she cannot explain, she finds herself totally alone in a strange land. Lord have mercy. And yet through it all she seeks signs of Gods abiding presence. Sometimes we may need to work extra hard to find God’s presence. The child in Elizabeth’s womb lept for joy. Well babies kick all the time, but if you have a difficult pregnancy, every kick is a gentle reminder of the blessing you have received. My prayer today is when you find yourself all alone in a land and place you never expected to be, work a little harder to see God.