Scared, Sacred Teenager

Imagine a teenager, unexpectedly pregnant, yet because of that pregnancy, poised to fulfill a destiny for which she has been trained her entire life. It's easy to imagine her overwhelmed with tumultuous feelings, including anxiety, disbelief, hope, humility, confusion.

The story of Mary goes back even further though, to her mother, Anne. When Anne was pregnant with Mary, she had a vision that her daughter would be the mother of the messiah. When Mary was very young, three or four years old perhaps, Anne brought her to the Essene temple, to be raised specifically in preparation for that future role. The family was part of the Essene community, that portion of the Jewish people who lived in close accordance to the teachings of the Bible, revolving around the prophecy that the messiah was coming; coming soon.

I imagine that many young girls were raised with the possibility that one of them might be the mother of the messiah, so Mary was probably not alone in her training amid fellow students. The idea of becoming the mother of God would have been a familiar theme to her and everyone around her. And yet other young girls and families held the same expectation of possibility. It would have been easy to think, one of us, someday. . .

And then Mary found herself pregnant, a virgin pregnancy, and the focus of the entire community would have turned toward her.

Can you imagine the shyness, confusion, disbelief that would have swept through her, consumed her?

Thus we come to the visit with Elizabeth. Elizabeth was Mary's cousin, so they would have known each other already. Elizabeth was elderly, and she and her husband, Zacharias, were barren. They, too, had visitations telling them of the birth of a son, a long-forgotten hope, a son who would become John the Baptist.

Mary visits Elizabeth

Elizabeth had lived a long life, immersed in the teachings of the Essene community, with plenty of experience, insight, and wisdom gathered over decades. And now, who should come to her, but a frightened, confused, teenaged cousin, who was pregnant with the messiah.

It was here on this hillside, the location of the present-day Church of the Visitation, at Ein Karem, where Mary and Elizabeth met, both pregnant, both miraculously pregnant; one wise, one innocent; trusted cousins with shared beliefs and understandings; both on the precipice of changing the world, through the sons they carried.

Can you imagine the joy and relief, the awe, they both must have felt? Elizabeth would have wrapped Mary in her arms and said, "You can do this! We can do this! This is real, and it's going to be glorious." And Mary might have said, "I'm so scared. I don't know what to do! I'm not worthy." And Elizabeth might have said, "You will be amazing. You have the support of all who love you. For this moment were you born." Elizabeth would have helped ground Mary, helped her find her footing, stabilizing her for the role into which she was stepping.

And so we spent time at the Church of the Visitation, lifted up by the awe of that ancient meeting on this plot of soil, a site venerated for 2000 years, a small chapel welcoming the daily stream of pilgrims, souls come to touch this spark of divinity, this meeting of two women as they wondered at their entwined destiny, clasping each others' hands, looking into each others' eyes, humbled by the wonder of it all.

Mural at the back of the Church of the Visitation

The entrance to the Church of the Visitation