Festival of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Posted on July 2, 2021 by under
Scripture: St. Luke 6:36-42 (NKJV)
6:36 Therefore be merciful, just as your Father also is merciful.
37 “Judge not, and you shall not be judged. Condemn not, and you shall not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. 38 Give, and it will be given to you: good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be put into your bosom. For with the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you.”
39 And He spoke a parable to them: “Can the blind lead the blind? Will they not both fall into the ditch? 40 A disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone who is perfectly trained will be like his teacher. 41 And why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not perceive the plank in your own eye? 42 Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me remove the speck that is in your eye,’ when you yourself do not see the plank that is in your own eye? Hypocrite! First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck that is in your brother’s eye.
Devotion
The Festival of the Visitation is when Mary, the mother of God, visited Elizabeth, mother of John the Baptist, in accordance with the words of the angel who said to Mary, “Now indeed, Elizabeth your relative has also conceived a son in her old age” (Luke 1:36). In the appointed Gospel lesson for the Visitation, we hear the words from Mary’s song, the Magnificat: “[God] has put down the mighty from their thrones, and exalted the lowly. He has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich He has sent away empty” (Luke 1:52-53).
Christ says in today’s devotion, “Judge not, and you shall not be judged.” That is, do not judge by human standards, but learn to judge as God judges. It is God who humbles the mighty and exalts the lowly. Who is mightier than the Son of God? Yet the Son of God humbled Himself to the point of crucifixion. Who is humbler than the sinner? Yet Christ, through Baptism, exalts the sinner to be God’s child. Do not judge by human standards, but learn to judge as God judges through Christ. Everyone who is in Christ is holy, no matter how humble. Everyone not in Christ is condemned, no matter how mighty.
Prayer: Almighty God, who hast dealt wonderfully with Thy handmaiden, the Virgin Mary, and hast chosen her to be the mother of Thy Son and hast graciously made known that Thou regardest the poor and lowly and the despised, grant us grace in all humility and meekness to receive Thy Word with hearty faith and so to be made one with Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end. Amen.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
