By Father Thomas Esposito, O. Cist.
Special to The Texas Catholic
Elizabeth’s words to Mary form the bridge from the Annunciation to the Visitation in the Hail Mary prayer: “Blessed are you among women, and blest is the fruit of your womb” (Lk 1:42). After Mary’s hasty journey to her kinswoman, she, carrying Jesus in her womb-ark, receives an exuberant welcome from Elizabeth and John the Baptist. The unborn babies, Jesus and John, meet for the first time as their mothers embrace. Elizabeth explains what she has felt in her heart and in her womb:
“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” (Lk 1:43-45).
We find here a clear allusion to David dancing before the first ark of the covenant. He is jubilant as he brings the ark into Jerusalem, yet fearful of its terrifying might: “How can the ark of the Lord come to me?” (2 Sm 6:9). John the Baptist does a similar dance, somersaulting in his mother’s womb, in the presence of Mary, the ark of the new covenant.
Mary replies by singing her canticle of praise, the “Magnificat,” which expresses her joy at the marvelous work the Lord has accomplished in her (Lk 1:46-55).
What is the bridge from the two expectant mothers to us, eavesdroppers as we are on this lovely encounter between the mothers of the Word and the voice that will cry out in the wilderness? Mary is the “Theotokos,” the Mother of God; she alone can claim the unique maternal privilege of containing within her womb him whose immensity the entire cosmos cannot contain. Yet, every disciple of Christ can rightly claim to conceive and bear the eternal Word, spoken uniquely in Jesus Christ.
St. Ambrose possessed an exquisite understanding of this mystery. In commenting on Elizabeth’s twofold declaration of blessedness to Mary, St. Ambrose identified himself and every believer as the recipients of Elizabeth’s words.
“You also are blessed,” he wrote, “because you have heard and believed. A soul that believes both conceives and brings forth the Word of God and acknowledges his works.”
The transition that St. Ambrose made, from the biblical “Blessed are you” to “You also are blessed,” encapsulates the mystery of our role in incarnating the Gospel anew in every age. For in meditating on the mysteries of Christ’s birth, life, death, and resurrection, we do not read them as dry historical moments from a dark past but as vital sources of inspiration for our present and future. St. Ambrose exhorted his readers to sing Mary’s “Magnificat” as if it were their own, personalizing their own nurturing of the Word within them:
“Let Mary’s soul be in each of you to proclaim the greatness of the Lord. Let her spirit be in each to rejoice in the Lord. Christ has only one mother in the flesh, but we all bring forth Christ in faith. Every soul receives the Word of God if only it keeps chaste, remaining pure and free from sin, its modesty undefiled. The soul that succeeds in this proclaims the greatness of the Lord, just as Mary’s soul magnified the Lord and her spirit rejoiced in God her Savior. In another place we read: ‘Magnify the Lord with me.’ The Lord is magnified, not because the human voice can add anything to God, but because He is magnified within us. Christ is the image of God, and if the soul does what is right and holy, it magnifies the image of God, in whose likeness it was created and, in magnifying the image of God, the soul has a share in its greatness and is exalted.”
Father Thomas Esposito, O. Cist., is a monk at the Cistercian Abbey of Our Lady of Dallas and teaches in the theology department at the University of Dallas.
Cutline for featured image: The Virgin Mary and Christ Child are depicted in the icon of the “Theotokos” — or “Mother of God” — from the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington. (Catholic News Service)
