"Now it happened that as soon as Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the child leapt in her womb."
I've thought about that line from Luke often. The child in the womb leapt. On this day when hundreds of thousands of people will march for children in the womb, those words have great meaning. The child leapt.
I also can't help but think what a wonderfully appropriate reaction the unborn John had to the presence of Jesus. He leapt. There is something unrestrained and joyous about it that has long fascinated me.
Christianity is, after all, a leaping faith. Without us doing much of anything to deserve it, God's Son came into the world for the purpose of our salvation. That's about the best reason to leap I've ever heard.
But I fear in looking at my life and my faith that I haven't been much of a leaper. My faith has always been quieter, more book bound. It's said that Saul was tossed to the ground and found faith. Me, I sat comfortably down on a cushioned chair to read the fathers of the Church in the university library. I sat there for hours for weeks on end reading until the librarian kicked me out at midnight. Sometimes if I was in the middle of a certain sentence or thought I'd stand under the overhead lights in the parking lot trying to create or conquer one more objection to Christianity.
I've always been a little jealous of those who came in to Christianity with Alleluias, hand waving, and being so filled up with Christ's love that every time they open their mouth they just can't help but talk of anything but Christ.
My entrance to Christianity was highlighters, reference books and some late night questioning of patient Jesuits.
To this day, I see some walk up to receive the Body and Blood of our Lord and their faces look like a house with every light on. It's beautiful. And I know it reflects poorly on me but I've sometimes been jealous of that look. Jealous of that feeling, all that light.
But I console myself with saying perhaps we all leap in different ways with different spans. Heck, I was born a Catholic and then ended up a Catholic so certainly my leap isn't one fit for highlight reels. I console myself with thinking that leaping is done in many ways.
I count as some of my greatest leaps swallowing my tongue when something terrible was on its tip, getting up fifteen minutes before my children to make them breakfast (I don't like mornings), and saying a quick prayer of gratitude when I wasn't feeling grateful at all.
I am not one whose leap will astound anyone. My response to Christ's love is gratitude and an attempt at steadfastness. I pick my children up from school every afternoon, I try to listen to them and take what they say seriously even though I know they don't know their multiplication tables, and I quietly say the rosary at night before bed with my wife.
While some lives are epic songs of salvation, mine has been a murmured and repititious prayer. I suspect many of ours leaps have gone unnoticed by most.
But today, we march right up under the nose of the Supreme Court on what might just be the coldest day of the year and remind them that life is sacred. I know that few will mark my presence there. But I know God will notice. And maybe if all of us leap at the same time, the world might just notice too. And move right under our feet.
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I’m like you. I’m one of those shy Catholics who doesn’t run around waving her arms and shouting Alleluia. But we can’t all be extroverts. The wonderful thing about the church is that it has room for all of us. You will find me in the corner quietly praying.
Oddly this passage on John leaping in the womb helped the Church see that Origen was not dealing with a full deck. He said the reason John leapt inside his mother at Mary’s approach was that John knew Christ for centuries in a pre natal life as an angel. “Commentary on the Gospel of John” BookII/25…” our argument about John, to the effect that as Isaiah’s voice declares: he is an angel who assumed a body for the sake of bearing witness to the light.”. Errr…no… Isaiah was using “angel” as meaning messenger not as meaning literally an angel. Step away from the Plato treatise, Origen, and put your hands on your head.
Your article today really touched me…... I don’t think it matters much about the quality or characteristic of the leap. I believe the Lord is smiling because you DID leap .
The power of God, The Holy Spirit, and the Presence of Our Lady and Our Lord caused John to leap for Joy! Elizabeth says, “how is it that The Mother of My Lord has come to me?” John and Elizabeth were open to receive this Power! I love contemplating The Visitation of Our Lady to Elizabeth! I think of The Consecration to The Sacred Heart of Jesus and The Immaculate Heart of Mary! Daily I ask Our Mother, how is it The Mother of My Lord has come to me? I am humbled and my heart leaps for Joy! Everyday I say “yes” to My Lord and My Lady! May The Most Sacred Heart of Jesus have mercy on us and may The Immaculate Heart of Mary pray for us! For The Triumph and fulfillment of These Most Blessed of Hearts, we pray Oh Lord! May the whole world be converted and we will live in peace and leap for Joy!!
Your line, “My entrance to Christianity was highlighters, reference books and some late night questioning of patient Jesuits,” made me smile - I can identify with it! The subject of your post, though, made me think of a poem (“The Visitation”) by Alfred Joyce Kilmer that I posted on my blog on Tuesday, the anniversary of Roe v. Wade. The poem fits the pro-life movement so perfectly, despite having been written somewhere around a century ago. I think you’d appreciate it. (There is leaping in it - but murmured prayers, as well.) http://tablereading.wordpress.com/2013/01/22/on-life-before-birth/
Help! This may not be the place to post this question but “the child lept in her womb” prompted me to pose the question here. Today, watching a news program, across the crawl came this: Lawyers for Catholic Hospitals argue that a fetus is not a baby. Did we see this correctly?? We watched for any follow-up, but nothing. Could this have been worded incorrectly? Pray it was.
Trusting in God’s Wisdom, Goodness, and Mercy
There once was a man who proclaimed he did not believe in God. “God could never love anyone and if he existed, I would insist that he prove it to me”, he often proclaimed to friends. “God takes lives all the time and the poor and down-trodden are first on the menu”, he would say further. Even though the man was often kind to people all throughout his life, he believed that one should live life to the fullest in every way. He also believed strongly that a woman had every right to an abortion, and if she chose to do so, it was her business only.
One day the man found himself in front of an abortion clinic watching women walk in as protestors were praying and begging the pregnant women not to go in the clinic. A woman who was protesting began talking loudly to a young pregnant woman who was walking into the clinic. This immediately enraged the man and he began yelling at and cursing the woman who was protesting and others began to join in.
The young woman walking into the clinic became scared and upset at both the woman protesting and the man, and immediately turned and ran away from the clinic. This enraged the man and others even more and they escalated their yelling and insults toward the woman protestor. The woman protestor cried and left the scene.
Many, many years later the man was in a serious car accident and was thrown from the car. As he lay dying, many people consoled him as an ambulance rushed to the scene. A young priest who had also been called to the scene began to perform last rites. The man, although in terrible pain and very terrified, gruffly said to the priest, “Don’t waste your breath with that prayer, Father, I’m not a Catholic and even if I was, God has never gone out of his way to help me – take a good look”.
The priest gently smiled at the man and stopped saying the last rites. After a few seconds, the priest began to softly recite the Divine Chaplet of Mercy. “For the sake of His Sorrowful Passion, have Mercy on us and the whole world”, he recited over and over. The man peacefully passed into darkness.
Suddenly, a great light engulfed the man along with great love. The man was more afraid than ever as he knew he was in the presence of God. He asked what was happening and who it was that he was speaking to. He asked this because he could only see one form but felt there were others in the area as well.
“I am Jesus, Son of the Living God, and you have been born to a new life. We are here to judge your life on earth”. Immediately, as in a video, the man began to see his entire life in review. The good and the bad.
Many times when he helped the poor; other times when he freely partook in sins of the flesh. Many times when he helped the elderly, and other times when he intentionally hurt people. The life review seemed to stop as quickly as it had started and the man felt ashamed.
Quickly, however, the man recovered, and recalled what he had said to friends during his life. “What chance did I have when my creator never showed any effort to reach out to me with love?” “Why did you not even try a little to help save me from myself?”
The Lord looked lovingly at the man and played back the life scene in front of the abortion clinic. The man was mortified as he watched himself become enraged. He was overcome with resign and asked the Lord what happened to the woman protestor who had left the scene those many years ago.
The Lord responded, “She was called to me a few days later, she had accomplished her mission”.
“And what of the woman that decided not to have an abortion that day?” he asked.
“She bore a healthy son and passed to me after childbirth, she had accomplished her mission”.
The man looked down and felt very sad. He slowly looked up and softly said to the Lord, “I wish I would have met her son; that I could know what he looks like and see how he turned out in life”. But, I never did, and yet you show me these images anyway.” Lord, can you not show me one instance in my life where you went out of your way even a little bit to show the extent of your love for me”?
“You met her son at the twilight of your life”, said the Lord, “He will be joining us soon – he has accomplished his mission”. “Come, let us go to heaven”.
The man felt happy, relieved, and curious all at once, and felt compelled to ask Jesus two final questions. “Who was this woman’s son and what was his mission?” asked the man.
“He was a simple priest who believed in God’s Mercy, and you were his mission”, responded three voices.
- Jesus to St. Faustina – Divine Mercy in My Soul - Diary, 1541
“It pleases Me to grant everything souls ask of Me by saying the chaplet. When hardened sinners say it, I will fill their souls with peace, and the hour of their death will be a happy one. Write this for the benefit of distressed souls; when a soul sees and realizes the gravity of its sins, when the whole abyss of the misery into which it immersed itself is displayed before its eyes, let it not despair, but with trust let it throw itself into the arms of My mercy, as a child into the arms of its beloved mother. Tell them no soul that has called upon My Mercy has been disappointed or brought to shame. I delight particularly in a soul that has placed its trust in My Goodness.
Write that when they say this chaplet in the presence of the dying, I will stand between My Father and the dying person, not as the Just Judge but as the Merciful Savior”.
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