Radical Encounter

What a wondrous sight to behold!

An extraordinarily rare biblical vignette in which the patriarchal voice is silenced (Zechariah has been struck dumb) and the greatest canticles of praise ever uttered by human beings are placed on the lips of two pregnant women.

The reproductive power to which women were solely reduced to in an androcentric milieu; such an ignominious male-oriented culture which forced mothers like Hannah to pray not for a child but specifically for a son (I Sam. 1:11), has been radically transformed and politically revolutionized by God through Elizabeth and Mary.

An inspiring gynocentric episode where two women mutually acknowledge their intrinsic worth devoid of male validation. All those women who are victimized find their hope encompassed in the cadences proclaimed by Mary and Elizabeth. This is the quintessential event depicting the gushing of life when the Virgin and the Sterile meet. Thus Fr. K. M. George eruditely remarks;

“In the tradition of the church, Mary is the symbol of humanity. As humanity bearing the true image of God greets the apparently barren world, a movement of life happens, a joyful and vital response in the womb of creation. This is essentially an artist’s gesture to call forth life where it is least suspected, out of the apparent barrenness of the inanimate creation.”

Relish the symphony of salvation effused by the meeting of the 𝑽𝒐𝒊𝒄𝒆 (John 1:23) and the 𝑾𝒐𝒓𝒅 (John 1:1) made possible when two women showed the audacity to overstep the regressive constraints of their times.

Blessed Feast!
Dayroyo Fr. Basil

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