Why the Visitation of Mary isn't working for me...

In prayer this morning our leader had chosen "the visitation" or where Mary visits Elizabeth to reflect on and frankly it pissed me off.

http://artsandfaith.com/index.php?showtopic=20124

Mary Visits Elizabeth.

During those days Mary set out and traveled to the hill country in haste to a town of Judah, where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the infant leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth, filled with the holy Spirit,^s cried out in a loud voice and said, “Most blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb.^t And how does this happen to me, that the mother of my Lord^* should come to me? For at the moment the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the infant in my womb leaped for joy. Blessed are you who believed^* that what was spoken to you by the Lord would be fulfilled.” (from the New New American Bible- copied from teh USCCB website http://www.usccb.org/bible/luke/1)

So I've been thinking about this reading today.  Thinking about how for a lot of Catholics this is a week filled with zeal about the Right to Life protests and I got pissed.  Maybe I am sick of fetus' having such a loud voice in my tradition when I feel like often women have no voice at all...

http://www.heqigallery.com/gallery/gallery3/pages/3-TheVisitation.html

The person with the most power in the whole story is a fetus, a freakin' fetus. Sure a much beloved and prophetic fetus but his fetal movement is what validates Elizabeth's words.  Let me just tell you- that as I write this, as I have been thinking about this, as I prayed with this, my 27 week old fetus has been "leaping" all over my womb.  Because, frankly that is what fetus' do.

I am frustrated that Elizabeth cannot stand on her own authority. That her voice has to be validated by fetal John.  I am frustrated because so many women I love and know believe that their voices must be validated by others.  I find this heartbreaking...

How many women believe their self worth is validated by men?

Or their proof that they are good parents is their children?

Or their belief in the beauty of their bodies is validated by superficial constructs of beauty?
How many of us only believe in our own dignity and love when it is handed to us by outsiders...rather than listening to God's sacred voice within us!

I want Elizabeth to say..."Mary my sister and friend who is visiting me...you are  blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb." And then I want them to sit down, as pregnant women do, and gripe about being uncomfortable and swoon about the work that their bodies are doing. I want Elizabeth to share with Mary that since her arrival the baby has been moving at the sound of her voice...and how profound that seems to her.

But I want Elizabeth's voice to be one of strength, though not detached from her body or her fetus. I dream that for her.