Two Women. Two Children. Two Songs
Two women meet, one young and the other old. Two songs they sing, but
the theme is the same. Two children listen, both are still in the womb of their
mother.
It all begins. The salvation
story begins. At the start is the greeting of a woman and the leaping of a
child.
Good News cannot wait. It’s
always in a hurry. The younger woman has a glad tiding. So she hurries over the
Judean hills ‘leaping and bounding’. She
cannot wait until the message is shared. She greets the elder woman, her
cousin, but it is the child in the womb of the elder woman, who hears and
understands the message first. The child too leaps for joy and hurries to communicate
the same. The child, destined to become a great messenger of this Good News, begins his mission while
still in the womb of his mother. He begins his ministry starting with his
mother. He proclaims his first sermon to his mother, not with words but with dancing and ‘leaping’.
The younger woman has ‘the Message’, and the older woman has the messenger.
Both the message and the messenger are still in the womb of their mother.
Both the women have a song to sing. The lyrics are different but the theme is the same. The older one sings the blessedness of the younger one, “Blessed are you among women, blessed is she who believed.” The younger one looks up and proclaims the greatness and mercy of God, “The Almighty has done great things for me. His mercy is from age to age.” Both the children, still in their mother’s womb, listen. They will remember the song and the theme and repeat it thirty years later.
Mary’s child would recall the words of Elizabeth and say, “ Blessed are those who listen to the Word of God and do it”. It is the same blessedness that Elizabeth had sung thirty years ago. The child of Elizabeth, thirty years later, now grown strong and fearless, would remember the greeting of Mary and ‘the Message’ she brought and he would point out, ‘the Lamb of God’ to those around him. One of those who listened to him, Andrew, in his turn, would go and share the message with his brother Peter, “We have found the Messiah.” Peter, three years later, would proclaim the same message in his first sermon after Pentecost, and three thousand people listened and accepted the message. And on and on…the Good News has traveled, down the years, from person to person, from one generation to the next.
The song has become today the anthem of everyone who has heard the good news. They repeat it several times a day, every day, all down the centuries, to all generations. 'All generations' will continue to sing it.
Have you heard this song, and its message,
Pass it on;
It was not given for you alone,
Pass it on;
Let it travel down the years,
Let it wipe another’s tears,
Till the ends of the earth hears,
Pass it on.
