Mary and Elizabeth

This is the fourth Sunday in Advent. The reading is Luke’s account of Mary’s visit to Elizabeth. There are many details of that story that we’d like to know but simply aren’t there, so many things we wonder about Mary’s thoughts and why and how she went to visit Elizabeth. Perhaps God knew that the two women needed time and each other to process the impending births of their sons and the significance of those births. Both women are blessed by the visit. It is the work of the Holy Spirit and is, in many ways, the first church. What went on in this visit is what goes on in the church.