The readings this week are full of paradoxes about where to look for great things. 

I once saw a sculpture of this scene from Luke titled The Visitation. It showed Mary and Elizabeth, two hugely pregnant women, cradling each other and their blossoming wombs in a round ark of possibility. You could almost see these women floating on the ocean of God’s promises, buoyant with joy and hope.

Mary didn’t waste a minute. She got up and traveled to a town in Judah in the hill country, straight to Zachariah’s house, and greeted Elizabeth.

The young couple would sit on their small patio at the rear of their small house. They sensed they were blessed to be present at a slow-motion miracle, the nine months waiting for their first-born child. And so, each night after dinner, they would sit together and look at the stars.

New jobs, job promotions, acceptance at your first-choice school, straight A’s, getting engaged, the mortgage approved, the account you were vying for, front row tickets to the game of the century—these are all extremely exciting moments in the course of any life, but they pale in comparison to giving birth—at least for most people, under even the worst circumstances.

This weekend usually is one of the busiest travel times of the year. Airports, bus terminals, train stations, and, of course, highways will be filled with people laden down with gifts, all trying to make it home for the holidays.

To purify and free our hearts, we turn to God’s mercy.

Elizabeth was the first to hear the voice but her son John was the first to feel the effects of grace.