Visitation: A Ministry of Presence

As we celebrate today the Feast of the Visitation, my thoughts linger on the joy of today’s readings. Certainly the event of the Visitation was a joyful one. We hear Elizabeth sing. We hear Mary sing. Both women exclaim in song the profound joy that has overwhelmed them. So we have today the first part of the Hail Mary and the Magnificat because of this event.

The visitation was not just the Blessed Mother, now conceiving the child Jesus in her womb, dare to go up the mountains of Judea to visit her expecting relative, Elizabeth. If there was great joy in the event, it was because God has first visited His people. Prior to Mary’s journey, the Angel Gabriel came to her and announced to her that she would become the mother of Jesus. Her assent opened the floodgates of grace, as her womb became the New Temple where the Most High has chosen to dwell. Yahweh, the God worshipped at Sinai is no longer felt through manifestations of cloud, lighting and thunder. The God that worked wonders has chosen to come in flesh.

It was this holy presence inside the Blessed Mother that brought about the joy of the events. It was a presence welcomed by Mary but also moved her to go out of her way to visit a relative in a distant place. God’s presence in us is meant to be shared. If God is truly present in us, He fills us with great joy and peace, so much so that it overflows. Truly, deeply, profoundly happy people emanate a joy that shines through everything.

The Visitation then is the sharing of the presence of God by Mary. The Child in her womb caused John the Baptist, though still in the womb, to move with joy, as if dancing at the presence of his Lord. The Child in her womb overshadowed both women with the Holy Spirit that filled their hearts with joy and their mouths with songs.

The question for us today is how much do we make God present in the very places we live and move, and to the very persons we meet everyday?

The Holy Trinity

Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Matthew 28:16-20.
The eleven disciples went to Galilee,
to the mountain to which Jesus had ordered them.
When they all saw him, they worshiped, but they doubted.
Then Jesus approached and said to them,
"All power in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations,
baptizing them in the name of the Father,
and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit,
teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.
And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age."

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Reflection

The Trinitarian mystery is the center, the deepest and most profound tenet of our Christian faith. It separates us from all other faiths and is the cause between the separation of the Jews and the early Christians. It is a mystery because although we can grasp the concept of it, we cannot fully explain and exhaust its richness, much like we know that there is such a thing as the Pacific ocean but we cannot imagine in our minds its full expanse and depth.

Profound though it is, Jesus revealed it to us, that God is not only Father, but He is also Son, and is also Spirit. It is a sublime truth not because it describes God's relationship to us but because among the three Persons in the Trinity we see the greatest truth of God. God is love. Within Himself love is alive and dynamic because a relationship of love requires more than one person.

The image of the Trinity, therefore, does not just speak of One God in Three Divine Persons, but above all, it speaks to us that God is a family. That is the best human analogy we have of the Trinity. As a Church, we cannot but humbly ruminate on this mystery as we grow in its truth.

The Spirit of Salvation

Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint John 20:19-23.

On the evening of that first day of the week,
when the doors were locked, where the disciples were,
for fear of the Jews,
Jesus came and stood in their midst
and said to them, "Peace be with you."
When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side.
The disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord.
Jesus said to them again, "Peace be with you.
As the Father has sent me, so I send you."
And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them,
"Receive the Holy Spirit.
Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them,
and whose sins you retain are retained."

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Reflection

You can say that early Christians have a preoccupation with the first day of the week. The Resurrection happened on such a day. Now, even the appearance of the risen Jesus also fell on such a day. The first day of the week, of course, is Sunday. St. John the Evangelist, takes things a little bit farther, and to stress an important truth of faith, lumped all the events that we know of Easter, together in one day: the Resurrection, the appearances, and the giving of the Holy Spirit.

For St. John, the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, signified in Jesus' breathing on the disciples, is the fruit of His Passion, Death, and Resurrection. God acts as One. The Son and the Spirit working in unity with the Father for our Salvation. The breathing forth remembers the events of Creation, when the Spirit of God hovered over the primordial waters and when Yahweh breathed life into man. The great work of Salvation that begun in Creation is accomplished today. God, through the Son, did not only give us His flesh and blood, but now has given us the fullness of His Spirit.

Pentecost is the defining moment of Salvation when we are fully confirmed in the Trinity. We have not only become adopted sons and daughters of the Father, nor partakers of Jesus' Divinity in His Body and Blood, but now we have become Temples of the Spirit. Salvation is all about God taking us into Himself, uniting us into Himself, and loving us into Himself. The power, authority, and gifts that the Spirit showers upon us in the Church, is but natural consequence of our entry into God.

The Dignity of Human Work

“It is an honor for the Congregation if a Salesian dies with his work boots on,” St. John Bosco is often quoted as saying. My fifteen years of Salesian formation in the seminaries and houses that I have been in have always placed emphasis on the importance of manual work. While I was in high school in DBTC, our older peers have told us, “a Bosconian is never afraid to get his hands dirty.” This culture that honors and values manual work has taught me the hidden gems that come with sweat and physical fatigue.

This memorial of St. Joseph the Worker, also our national Labor Day, is given to us to rest in order to ponder the value of human work. Even the readings of today’s mass contribute to this effort as the first reading from Genesis reminds us that God, in the beginning, was at work in creation. He continues to work even today. His power is seen working in nature and in human hands.

While our culture today exalts convenience and efficiency in our unrelenting quest for comfort and time, the Church invites us to see in human work that struggles and takes time, the human reflection of God’s creative power. Work gives humanity its dignity as it is the expression of his ingenuity, creativity, and fruitfulness. It is the expression of human power and sovereignty given him by God, to cultivate the earth and so enjoy its fruits. Workaholics enjoy the thrill of being productive. Retirees struggle with the prospect of being less productive. The young have to deal with the pressure and expectation of being productive. But it is not the fruits of our labor that really matters but the love with which we infuse our labor. Love empowers and directs work. Without love, all work becomes tasteless and useless labor. It was by love that God created everything.

We remember today the issues that hound our workers, especially the blue collar workers and the rank and file, who silently grind the hours away for the sake of providing for their families. While many are not living their dream jobs today, they are enlivening their dreams for family through work that not many want to undertake. It is with special concern that the Church continues to commiserate with those who suffer injustice and abuse, as she challenges governments and corporations towards social justice. Human society should not be carried by the shoulders of slaves and victims. Our society could only be human when we treat everyone, especially our workers, humanely and with dignity.

It is with hope that I call out my brother Salesians, religious, and clerics, to examine how we treat our lay mission partners, our scholars and recipients of our ministry, whether we teach them the value of human work through our example of industry and whether we give them the dignity and justice that is inherently theirs.

Jesus was fully human not just because He came from Mary’s womb but also because He was taken in by Joseph’s house and possibly learned the trade in Joseph’s workshop. If Jesus endured the rigors of working for the Kingdom, it was because Joseph handed on to him the manliness capable of building God’s house. May we follow in their footsteps and not shy away from our share of tasks and responsibilities in building the Kingdom and Family of God.