Mary Visits Elizabeth

Today's Reflections 

 

                                      

Mary Visits Elizabeth

Lk 1:39-56

³⁹Mary set out and traveled to the hill country in haste to a town of Judah, ⁴⁰where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. ⁴¹When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the infant leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth, filled with the holy Spirit, ⁴²cried out in a loud voice and said, “Most blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. ⁴³And how does this happen to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? ⁴⁴For at the moment the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the infant in my womb leaped for joy. ⁴⁵Blessed are you who believed that what was spoken to you by the Lord would be fulfilled.”

⁴⁶And Mary said:/ “My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord;/ ⁴⁷my spirit rejoices in God my savior./ ⁴⁸For he has looked upon his handmaid’s lowliness;/ behold, from now on will all ages call me blessed./ ⁴⁹The Mighty One has done great things for me,/ and holy is his name./ ⁵⁰His mercy is from age to age/ to those who fear him./ ⁵¹He has shown might with his arm,/ dispersed the arrogant of mind and heart./ ⁵²He has thrown down the rulers from their thrones/ but lifted up the lowly./ ⁵³The hungry he has filled with good things;/ the rich he has sent away empty./ ⁵⁴He has helped Israel his servant,/ remembering his mercy,/ ⁵⁵according to his promise to our fathers,/ to Abraham and to his descendants forever.”/ ⁵⁶Mary remained with her about three months and then returned to her home.

Most blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. It was during the pontificate of Pius XII that Mary’s assumption, body and soul, into heaven was defined to be a divinely revealed dogma. The Church, inspired by the Holy Spirit, teaches us that Mary, closely associated with all the mysteries of Jesus’ life, now shares in his glorification.

Mary is blessed among women. St. Augustine writes, “That one woman is both mother and virgin, not in spirit only but even in body. In spirit she is mother, not of our head, who is our Savior himself—of whom all, even she herself, are rightly called children of the bridegroom—but plainly she is the mother of us who are his members, because by love she has cooperated so that the faithful, who are the members of that head, might be born in the Church. In body, indeed, she is the Mother of that very head.”

We praise God for raising up the humble Virgin

of Nazareth as our Model and Mother.