Two women, both pregnant, greet each other—and an instantaneous bond is formed between and deep within them, confirming their identities as bearers of life. In this astonishing moment of communion, each is strengthened in her calling.
This is the story of Mary and Elizabeth, but it is also the story of each of us. Truth always encompasses both the particular and the universal—which is why the ancient biblical account stirs such deep chords when women hear it.
In Luke’s description of Mary’s visit to Elizabeth, profound joy is predicated upon fear. The angel has just announced to the younger woman that she is to give birth; and she has accepted God’s calling to a pregnancy out of wedlock, in ancient Judea a crime of adultery against one’s betrothed. The punishment for such a sin, as Mary would have known, was death by stoning. This cultural background gives pointed meaning to the report that Mary “went with haste into the hill country . . .” The image is not so much Christendom’s traditional view of a young mother-to-be paying a visit to a beloved kinswoman but of a terrified, unmarried woman (perhaps, indeed, only a teenager) fleeing for her life to the temporary asylum of a “safe house” in the hills. The aged Elizabeth, the woman whom Mary seeks out for comfort, protection, and advice, is herself caught up in tenuous circumstances: well advanced in years and beyond the biological age of childbearing, Elizabeth must certainly have had her own collection of fears and hopes about her forthcoming delivery.
Both are women on the fringe of their society. The stirring words recalling their encounter and the spark of Life that it caused to leap within them weave a story of hope overcoming deathly fear. It is a reaffirmation of the importance of our mutual support, our community as women, in enabling us to continue bearing life into the world.
—Rosemary Catalano Mitchell and Gail Anderson Ricciuti, Birthings and Blessings: Liberating Worship Services for the Inclusive Church (New York: Crossroad, 1992), 19
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