Two Songs, One Theme

        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 beginning 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 to share. 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 in the womb leaps in joy at the message the younger woman brings.  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’ while still in the womb. 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 the one who blessed her. “My soul glorifies the Lord, my spirit rejoices in God my savior.” Both the children, still in their mother’s womb, listen. They will remember the song 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,” Blessed is she who believed.” The child of Elizabeth, thirty years later, now grown strong and fearless, would remember the greeting of Mary and ‘the Message’ she brought. He would be the first to exclaim, “ Look, there is the  Lamb of God.” One of those who listened to this message was  Andrew. He at once went  and shared  the message with his brother Peter, “We have found the Messiah.” Peter recognized  the Good News and proclaimed loudly, “You are the Christ, the son of the living God”, and  three years later, in his first sermon after Pentecost, he would proclaim the same message and bring three thousand people to accept  that message.

And on and on…the Good News has traveled, down the years, from person to person, from one generation to the next, from one corner of the earth to the other. But it all began with the greeting of a woman and the leaping of a child. Both had a song to share and each had a child to sing it. The two songs have become the anthem of everyone who follows  the message and is repeated all throughout the day, all over the world,  over and over again, down the centuries, from one generation to the next.

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 resonate in another’s ears,
Till the ends of the earth hears,
Pass it on.                                                                                                      - Fr TVGeorge sdb