Here is the direct quote:
... We see this truth expressed throughout the pages of Scripture. Whenever someone in the Bible has a powerful experience of God, his or her first impulse is always to go out and help someone else. Take the example of Mary. When the angel Gabriel visited her in Nazareth and gave her the news that God had chosen her to be the mother of his only son, he also informed her that her cousin Elizabeth was going to have a baby -- a baby who would grow up to be John the Baptist.
In the history of the world, no one has ever had a more profound encounter with God than Mary did at that moment. The Gospel says that the Holy Spirit literally "overshadowed her" and that Jesus Christ -- the second person of the Holy Trinity -- was conceived in her womb.
Now, what did Mary do after this experience? Did she go off on a spiritual retreat? Did she lock herself in her room and meditate? Did she attempt to reassess her relationship with God? All these actions would have been perfectly understandable. After all, this was an incredible thing that occurred. No human being had ever been in closer "union" with God. The experience was going to change Mary's life drastically, and she knew it. She would have been more justified to take a few weeks to mull things over in her mind, to pray intensely and try to come to grips with the mystery of what had happened to her.
But no, she didn't do any of these things. Instead Mary left Nazareth immediately and rushed to the side of her cousin in order to help her. And she stayed at her side for three months, until Elizabeth's baby was born. Reading the Gospel account, it almost seems as if Mary was paying more attention to what the angel had said about Elizabeth than what he had said about her!
And here we have the perfect model of service that results from every genuine encounter with God. Whenever we meet God -- who is love -- we are going to be inspired to do that which love impels us to do, name, give ourselves away to those in need.
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