FEAST OF THE VISITATION
While pregnant with Jesus, Mary visited her cousin Elizabeth. Upon Mary’s greeting, Scripture retells that the child within Elizabeth’s womb–John the Baptist–“leaped for joy”.
John sensed Jesus.
How can we read this passage and fail to recognize the life and presence of a human person within the womb? This day, my heart has been weighed with the sorrow of abortion in North America. And the words, “You reap what you sow” have been playing through my mind.
THE flesh is lazy and idolatrous. But half the battle is recognizing this, and the other half then, is not fixating on it.
It is the Spirit who puts to death the deeds of the flesh (Rom 8:13)–not self-centered bemoaning. Fixing our eyes on Jesus in a gaze of trust, especially when we’re weighed down by personal sin, is precisely the means by which the Spirit conquers the flesh.
Humility is a gateway for God.
The image of this is the thief on the cross. He hung by the weight of his sinful flesh. But his eyes were fixed on Christ… And thus, Jesus–whose gaze was fixed on him in extraordinary love and mercy said, “Amen, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise.”
Even though we may hang by the weight of our failures, we need only turn to Jesus in a glance of humility and honesty, and we will be assured to hear the same.