So Mary entered Elizabeth’s house and greeted her.  And what was Elizabeth’s response?  It was the joyful astonishment that the honour of this Visitation should have been paid to her.  “…why has this happened to me”, she exclaimed, “that the mother of my Lord comes to me?” (NRSV, Luke 1:43, our emphasis).

And that question is our question too.  Why has this happened to us, that Our Lord should have come down into this world of ours from the “bosom of the Father”? (King James Bible, John 1:18).

Why has this happened that “He came unto his own, and his own received him not” (King James Bible, John 1:11) – that he was persecuted, flogged, crowned with thorns, spat upon and slain?

Yes, why has it happened to me that he suffered in Gethsemane, was flung by Pilate to the mob, was torn upon the Cross and left there to die?

The answer is Love, just Love: that is the whole message of the Gospel, there is nought else beside that.

It was love that brought him to visit our world then: it is love that brings him to visit us now at his Altar; as he comes down to us today into our workaday world from the bosom of the Father.