You have no further misfortune to fear, for the Lord your God, is in your midst. Today we commemorate the visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, one of the few Marian feasts that are “human.” For unlike the Assumption or Immaculate Conception, feasts that celebrate a divine intervention in the life of Mary (interventions that exalts Mary, so to speak), the Visitation celebrates something that Mary did. When the archangel Gabriel announced to Mary that she had been chosen to be the mother of the redeemer, she questioned the possibility of that happening given the fact that she was a mere maiden with no knowledge of a man. Archangel Gabriel understood Mary’s questioning, and in the angel's efforts to explain to her how God can make possible something that appears impossible in human standards, the angel also revealed to Mary that her cousin Elizabeth, who was advanced in years and was past the age of child birth, was in her sixth month of pregnancy. It was a revelation that obviously had a hand in Mary saying YES to God's proposal (cf. Luke 1:36). But it was also a revelation that was good news to the ears of Mary. The Lord God had finally lifted the veil of shame and misfortune that had covered the face of Elizabeth her cousin. Moreover, her age notwithstanding, Mary understood that what the Lord had done for Elizabeth foreshadowed the plan God had for His people (cf. Luke 1:54). 
Whereas Mary must have been still struggling to make sense of what the angel had told her concerning her becoming the mother of the redeemer, she did not let her own concerns prevent her from recognizing the good fortune that had smiled upon her cousin. It is for this reason that Mary set out to visit with her cousin in order to congratulate and share in Elizabeth's joy. It was a gesture that started out as rather ordinary – Mary heading out to visit her kin - but ended up being a vehicle of God’s blessings. For when the words of Mary’s greeting reached the ears of Elizabeth, the infant John the Baptist leaped with life inside Elizabeth’s womb.
We celebrate this feast, this event of Mary visiting her cousin Elizabeth, because it reminds us of what our call is. As brothers and sisters, one to another, we have a filial obligation towards one another. Unlike Cain, Mary recognized that she was her cousin's keeper and had a responsibility of sharing in both her joys and sorrows. She recognized that Elizabeth's joys were not hers alone but rather that of humanity. Moreover, God visiting Elizabeth was a foretaste of what God was about to do to humanity as a whole, as Mary's song of praise makes clear. In setting out to visit with her cousin Elizabeth, Mary sets an example for us on how to be brothers and sisters, and how to be each other’s keeper. What she did was very basic, something that any of us can do. Mary is referred to as Blessed, not because of the mighty things she did, but because of her simple acts of charity such as visiting with her cousin. The good news for us is that the bar she sets for us is one that all of us have the ability to reach.