Fr. Lawrence Jagdfeld, O.F.M., Administrator
Two pregnant women meet. Their first moments together find both of them praising God for fulfilling the promise made to Adam and Eve millennia before. God is sending a Savior. Each of them has been told something highly improbable. One of them is beyond the years of childbearing, yet she is "great with child." The other has never been intimate with a man, yet she too is bearing a new life. Nothing is impossible with God.
The Feast of the Visitation gives us the opportunity to reflect with these two women on God's fidelity. Their faith tells them that God is doing something wonderful through them. Both of them have placed their love and trust of God before the skepticism with which most of us would have reacted. They are quite alone in the world; they have only each other. Yet that seems to be enough.
The younger woman seeks out her older cousin for reassurance. The older woman welcomes the younger woman in her hour of need. Both are facing difficult situations. They have each other; they have their faith in God.
God will not abandon us just as God did not abandon Mary and Elizabeth. Friends and family may shun us because of their inability to deal with the consequences of our illness and/or disability. God stands with us. As members of CUSA, we, like Mary and Elizabeth, also have one another to support us and pray with us. The Feast of the Visitation is a feast of such prayer and support.