Elizabeth’s greeting was prophetic in foretelling the role of Our Blessed Mother for us, in much the same way as her son, Saint John the Baptist, would be the final prophet of the Messiah!
I have been reflecting on the second joyful mystery of the Most Holy Rosary over the last few days. It is the mystery of the visitation, where Our Blessed Mother – pregnant with God Himself – visited her elderly relative, Elizabeth, at the behest of the Angel, and Elizabeth welcomed her.
“At that time Mary got ready and hurried to a town in the hill country of Judea, where she entered Zechariah’s home and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. In a loud voice she exclaimed: “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear! But why am I so favored, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. Blessed is she who has believed that the Lord would fulfill His promises to her!” (Luke 1:39-56).
And I have been reflecting on this mystery not only because Mary – an unwed teenage pregnant mother – went out on a perilous and inconvenient journey to visit her cousin because God mentioned a need, but also because Elizabeth greeted Our Lady – the unwed teenage pregnant mother – with such joy! I mean Elizabeth’s joy was magnificent. It must have been because Our Lady remembered the joy of that greeting so well that she was able to describe it eloquently to Saint Luke literally decades after that pregnancy and long after the deaths of both of the children who those women carried in their wombs at that time…
And what I have realised – upon reflection – is that Elizabeth’s greeting was prophetic in foretelling the role of Our Blessed Mother for us, in much the same way as her son, Saint John the Baptist, would be the final prophet of the Messiah!
You see, Elizabeth did not shame Our Lady for being unwed and pregnant. Instead treated she greeted the Mother of her Lord with JOY and she treated her with HONOUR.
And this shows me something. You see, we so often hear that Our Lady kept silent and reflected on the great mysteries of God in her life in her own heart and at times this has caused me to see Our Blessed Mother as a passive presence in the story of salvation.
And yet, she is NOT! Our Blessed Mother is a revolutionary, because revolutionaries change the world! And by her simple FIAT, her perfect acceptance of God’s will, the Blessed Virgin brought forth her Son and her Son changed the world!
She is a woman of strength and without fear. Our Blessed Mother endured the greatest of all grief in witnessing the torture and death of her ONLY BELOVED SON and she nevertheless heroically continued in His mission for the salvation of the world…
And Our Blessed Mother did not stop there – with caring for the disciples and revealing the mysteries of Her Blessed Son’s childhood – she continues to this very day and until the end of time, to visit us as she visited Elizabeth, bringing the Messiah to our souls as she did to Elizabeth and Saint John the Baptist…
And it is up to us to recognise her when she comes to us as Elizabeth did. For by recognising her we can allow ourselves to be filled with the Holy Spirit and LEAP for JOY! For Our Blessed Mother calls us to imitate her and Saint Francis of Assisi describes that calling when he said, “We have been called to heal wounds, to unite what has fallen apart, and to bring home those who have lost their way.”
And as Scott Hahn said in his book, “First comes love”, “The Church is our mother, and for that we should rejoice. Moreover, Jesus Christ has given us His own mother, Mary, to be our mother too. Praise God for that, because if He has given us His own mother as our own, He will surely deny us nothing.”
Praise God for that… Praise God for that…
How I love the Blessed Virgin for her love. How I love her…
For with prayer, I stand on Holy Ground where everything is clear. Here. At the Foot of the Cross.
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