Mary and Elizabeth: Spiritual Friends

Mary and Elizabeth 2: Spiritual Friends

“When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the child lept in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit and exclaimed with a loud cry,”

Elizabeth: “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb,..”

“And Mary said,”

Mary: “"My soul magnifies the Lord,

and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior.” Luke 1:39-56.

This visit of Mary to Elizabeth in Luke is one of our most descriptive scripture passages about what it is like to be and have a spiritual friend or soul mate, seeking to see Christ in each other. The response by our neighbor may sometimes be just as miraculous as being able to respond with the joy of the Magnificat.

The story tells us that seeing Christ in our neighbor is a gift of the Holy Spirit. We are to put ourselves in position to receive this gift of the Holy Spirit, then see Christ in our neighbor, and then honor Christ in our neighbor. The Spirit enables us to look and listen for and honor the Christ in those whom we visit. The promise of this story is that when we reflect the Christ in our neighbor back to him or her, he may also see the Christ in himself and be enabled to live out, and even sometimes sing out, the Magnificat.

What does it mean to "sing out the Magnificat?"

"My soul magnifies the Lord,

and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,

for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant."

The words are very clear. It is living out a life of gratitude and praise and being open to God working in our lives even in times of great stress. Our role model is an unmarried, pregnant young girl who is enabled by the love of her older relative to express her faith in her God so eloquently. The fruit of the spirit which springs forth when we see Christ in each other is gratitude and praise. This is our sign that we are indeed being open and honoring God in each other.

What a difference we could make in our own lives as well as our neighbor's if we could each be an Elizabeth to the Marys we daily visit at home and in our work. When we see Christ in our neighbor, our true self, our God connection within us will also "leap for joy!"

Seibert, The Living Church, May 25, 2003

Merton: Mary, Elizabeth 1

Thomas Merton: Mary Elizabeth 1

“Then it was as if I suddenly saw the secret beauty of their hearts, the depths of their hearts where neither sin nor desire nor self-knowledge can reach, the core of their reality, the person that each one is in God's eyes. If only they could all see themselves as they really are. If only we could see each other that way all the time. There would be no more war, no more hatred, no more cruelty, no more greed." Thomas Merton, Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander, 140-142, Doubleday:1966.

Merton ‘s mystical experience captures what spiritual friends seek to accomplish, seeing the light of Christ in each other. I am reminded of the visit of Mary, the mother of Jesus, to her even more pregnant relative, Elizabeth in Luke 1:39-56. As Elizabeth, carrying John the Baptist, hears Mary's greeting to her, the baby in her womb leaps for joy. Elizabeth is then filled with the Holy Spirit and greets Mary with the words: "Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb." Mary then breaks into the song of praise and thanksgiving which we call the Magnificat, “My soul proclaims the greatness of the lord." How wonderful when we meet our neighbor that the creative part within us, the Christ within us, leaps for joy to perceive the Christ within our neighbor. What does this story tell us occurs in our lives and the lives of our neighbor when this happens? We are filled with the Holy Spirit and our neighbor is empowered to say or sing or live out the Magnificat.

Some of us are like Mary, just beginning to bear children. Many of us are like Elizabeth, beyond the child-bearing age. Some of us have never borne children, but this story of these two saints as well as Merton’s story still speaks to us. God is speaking to the birthing, the creative part of us which empowers us to see the Christ in ourselves and the Christ in our neighbor.1

1 Seibert, The Living Church, May 25, 2003

Watch for the Light

“The spiritual Experience, whether it be of faith, hope or love, is something we cannot manufacture, but which we can only receive.” Philip Britts, “Yielding to God,” Watch for the Light, p. 111-112. Plough 2001.

Watch for the Light is a daily reading for Advent and Christmas by some of the best-known spiritual writers, Bonhoeffer, Dillard, Donne, Eliot, Hopkins, Kierkegaard, L’Engle, Lewis, Luther, Merton, Norris, Nouwen, Underhill, Yancy and many others. The short essays are three to five pages long making this an Advent and Christmas reading that will take fifteen to thirty minutes to read and digest. This is a daily reading where we decide to devote a little more time to our Advent meditation with some of the most beloved spiritual writers. I am a major underliner, so I went back through the book to look for the most underlined essay. It was difficult since there were many underlined passages in every writing. One favorite was the essay “Yielding to God,” by the British poet, Philip Britts. Britts writes that Mary’s example for us of “let it be with me according to your word,” is the essence of the Christmas story. Jesus is conceived out of surrender and born not out of “the head of Zeus” like Athena, but in a lowly stable with all the animals and the cold and the dirt.

Britts writes that Christ was born into poverty to heal the poverty of our hearts. Christ did not come as a moral tune up or as self-improvement guru or spiritual teacher. He came to show that the same breakthrough can occur in our hearts today just as “ the word becoming flesh” changed the world over 2000 years ago.

Joanna. Joannaseibert.com