Visitation
Two women meet,
cousins yet more than kin—
bound now to one another
by pregnant surprise.
Their unpredictable God has laughed at nature
And made the childless and the virgin bear.
She of the leaping womb, thought barren,
bears the restlessness of her God.
And the virgin unknown
becomes the magnifying glass
that makes great her God for all to see.
The women embrace:
forgotten hope surprised by life
embraces surpassing love.
Meeting they touch
the old and the new
the forgotten and the unknown
now revealed in mystery
as ancient desire and time’s fullness.
The simple majesty
of their common meeting
is remembered as the uncommon visitation
of God come among us.
Shall our own forgotten hope
protect us from surprise?
Perhaps!
Shall our fear of being known
cause us to turn and hide
from this—God’s embrace?
It is possible.
Shall we trade
the restlessness of God
for oblivion?
Also, possible.
But these women,
Elizabeth and Mary,
desire and fullness,
call us to laugh with our unpredictable God
who comes to visit
such a warm and generous embrace
upon our quaking hearts.
Fr. Harry Hagan, in Thirsting for God
