Divine Visitation

“Therefore there will be a visitation also upon the heathen idols, because, through part of what God created, they became an abomination, and became traps for the souls of men and a snare to the feet of the foolish.”

Wisdom 14:11

I have always loved the visitation story of Mary and Elizabeth. The part that is so amazing to me is the pure and immediate response that both St Elizabeth and St. John the Baptist had when they came into the presence of the Lord. St John the Baptist leapt in his mother’s womb. This was a response of pure joy that came over him at being in the presence of Jesus, God made man. For Elizabeth her response was an immediate proclamation of the Savior, the long awaited Messiah. 

The fact that this story is called the visitation is interesting to note. I’ve always understood it to mean the visiting of Mary to Elizabeth in the hill country. But the Old Testament understanding of the word “visitation” precedes this event and it is through this definition that I invite us to take another look at this story. In the verse above from the Old Testament book of Wisdom, we see this word referring to a sort of Divine illumination or judgement of sorts. Almost as if it were what happens to us at our final judgement. The main thing I want to focus on is that the visitation is between God and man.

The Greek word for visitation is episkope, which means an investigation or inspection. Furthermore it can refer to an act by which God looks into and searches out the ways, deeds, character of man in order to adjudge them their lot accordingly, whether joyous or sad. With this, we can see from the verse from the book of Wisdom that the word visitation in the Old Testament is understood through this definition. If this is true, then the understanding of this word would have been similar, if not the exact same, with the early Church. To describe the meeting of Mary and Elizabeth as a visitation would mean the focus was on the meeting of God and man, where the thorough investigation by the Divine of the soul of the man occurred for the reason of adjudging the lot of the man.

As we take another look at the story of Elizabeth and Mary in light of this understanding of the word visitation, there are a couple things I’d like to point out. The first is that when Mary goes to the hill country to stay with Elizabeth there is an initial meeting between the two women, both having an unborn child in their womb. There is something to be said here about these unborn children. The fact that this meeting was referred to as a visitation means that the unborn child in Mary’s womb was in fact a real person and was in fact God, even while in the womb. From here we can infer that the unborn child in Elizabeth’s womb was in fact a person and was in fact a man, even while in the womb. Thus this visitation story occurred between God and man.

If we then look at the response of St. John the Baptist, he leapt with joy. From the womb of his mother, this unborn child was able to react, revealing to us that he was in fact a human person, with a soul and a body, from within the womb. St John the Baptist’s soul was in the presence of the Lord and his body reacted, the fullness of his human personhood being present from the womb.

Secondly, let’s look further into St John the Baptist’s response and why he was able to rejoice in the presence of the Lord. The visitation, or Divine searching, of St. John the Baptist’s soul by Jesus reveals to us that after the Lord thoroughly investigated St. John the Baptist’s soul in that one moment, his soul was found unbound by sin and thus was able to respond in joy.

Jesus is also brought into the presence of St Elizabeth, who had her own personal visitation with the Lord. At this event, St Elizabeth’s soul was thoroughly searched as well and judged by the Divine, and her response was the joyous proclamation of the Savior and the honoring of Mary. Much like St. John the Baptist, St Elizabeth was able to proclaim the truth of God and praise Him. 

These two responses by St John the Baptist and St Elizabeth show us what the Lord found in each of their souls. If you remember from the definition of episkope, the searching of the soul was for the purpose to adjudge, whether joyous or sad. All proper judgement is to be given by the Divine after the complete searching of the soul of man. The Lord is the only one who can judge because he has the power to search the soul completely. His judgement is always just. Therefore, in the visitation story there is a judgment that takes place with the searching of the souls of St Elizabeth and St John the Baptist when they came into the presence of the Divine. 

At our own visitation, if we are found to be tied down by our sin, our response to this thorough searching by God will be sadness because we are tied to our sin, unable to ask for forgiveness due to shame or pride. In this judgement, we will fully know how we have offended God and our neighbor, but we will be unable to allow our Savior to save us. Conversely, our visitation may be a joyous occasion and we will rejoice in the Lord as our response to having our soul’s searched by God. In this judgement, we will see what we have done wrong, but we will not be chained to our sins because we will have accepted the saving power of God. St Elizabeth was not tied down by her sins so she was able to rejoice in her Savior and allow him to free her from all her chains to sin.

If we fast forward further and use this understanding of the Divine visitation as a guide, we can see that all interactions with Jesus, even during his ministry, would have been similar experiences. The response of different people whether it be the Pharisees or the tax collectors, the sick or the well, all reveal to us the heart of the person and whether or not they are open to being saved by Jesus. You see if we go through life and don’t think we need a Savior, we will be building up our walls of pride. As these walls get higher and higher, until they eventually imprison us to our sins. We all sin, there is no doubt about that, but it’s important to note that we must also be willing to let Jesus be our Savior. When we encounter Him at our own visitation, will we respond in sadness or joy?

“And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the child leaped in her womb; and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit and she exclaimed with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb” And why is this granted to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For behold, when the voice of your greeting came to my ears, the child in my womb leaped for joy. And blessed is she who believed that there would be fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord.”

Luke 1:41-45