Reading and meditation on the Word of God on Saturday of the 6th week of Easter, May 31, 2025

Delivered by Nia from the Parish of the Good Shepherd in the Diocese of Surabaya, Indonesia. Zephaniah 3: 14-18a; Rs psalm Isaiah 12: 2-3.4bcd.5-6; Luke 1: 39-56.SISTERHOOD VISIT The title for our meditation today is:Sisterhood Visit. When brothers and sisters visit one another, they normallyexchange spirit and energy that represent their wills to foster unity, familyspirit and togetherness. Those who meet with intention to find out faults inothers, even among brothers and sisters, will just create conflict and forceviolence toward others. It is not a brotherhood or sisterhood meeting. We always believe that a sisterhood orbrotherhood visit will benefit the meeting itself and unity among sisters orbrothers. The meeting of siblings really strengthens their bonding and mutuallove. There is no way to replace one’s own sister or brother. Those who are notsiblings can do also sisterhood or brotherhood visit to show how they really needone another and the values or meaning that they nourish together from thatencounter. The holy scriptures have a lot ofevents on the meaningful meetings of persons. One of those meetings is what wecelebrate today as a feast, namely the visit of the Virgin Mary to her hersister Elisabeth. We know that every visit of a sister or brother has good andnoble purposes. In that encounter the spirit of sisterhood or brotherhood bindsthem strongly. Blood relationship and solidarity or love between them becomespiritual wealth that sustain their unity. Today, the visit of the Virgin Mary toher sister Elisabeth presents us a higher meaning  of such encounter than simply an encounterbetween sisters. If a meeting of sisters or brothers can produce goodness andmutuality between them, in the meeting of Virgin Mary and Elisabeth, itssignificance rises to the fullness of grace in which the power of the almightyGod intervened extraordinarily. This is the point of holiness. At this level the Holy Spirit worksand moves all human activities. Elisabeth who first obtained the result of thework of the Holy Spirit, rejoiced to welcome her sister Mary who was filledwith the Holy Spirit to become the Mother of God, whose motherly womb conceivedthe Son of God. This sisterhood bond of Mary and Elisabeth gives us inspirationthat our sisterly or brotherly relationships need to be empowered by the HolySpirit. This is the true sign of our being followers of Christ. The Holy Spirit animates our visit orencounter when we involve in the sacred activities such as personal renewal,repentance, works of mercy, forgiveness, consolation for the sufferings,assistance for the needy, cooperation of parties to face together calamities,and unity of faith to glorify and praise the Lord. We need to always invoke theHoly Spirit to take part in every visit of ours as brothers and sisters.  Let's pray. In the name of theFather ... O Lord Jesus Christ, bless us to always obey the guidance of yourHoly Spirit. Glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit ... Inthe name of the Father ...