Wednesday in the Fourth Week of Advent, December 21, 2022

Luke 1, 39-45

Mary set out in those days 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, cried out in a loud voice and said, “Most blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your 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.”

Following the Annunciation, the Virgin Mary informed her betrothed husband Joseph what had occurred, that she was with child by the Holy Spirit, and then she left him to go “in haste” to her kinswoman Elizabeth’s house.  She goes very soon after the Annunciation and her learning of Elizabeth’s miraculous pregnancy because of her desire to help her relative, and her desire to see Zechariah, who, as a priest, ought to be a help  to her in knowing how she should prepare for the Birth of Jesus.  She goes right away in order to help at this late stage in Elizabeth’s pregnancy and because she knows that soon it will be difficult for her herself to travel.

“She entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth.”  We are not told that Zechariah greeted Mary at the door so it may have been that he was away from the house at the time.  The servants would have let Mary into the house and Mary’s jubilant calls brought Elizabeth out from the back of the house where she had secluded herself for these past several months.  In the same way, the Blessed Virgin’s prayers bring us the graces we need to get up from our complacency and perform holy actions.  Now, Elizabeth heard Mary’s voice through the walls of the house even before she saw her, and it was this voice that caused John the Baptist to leap in Elizabeth’s womb.  It was not the sight of Mary nor her clear voice heard in the open.  We can only imagine the power of her presence at this time.  Indeed, her holiness before the Annunciation was so great that it must have been felt by all who came around her, but now with her Child in her womb, it must have been magnified greatly.  Moses gives us some idea of how it was: “When Moses came down from Mount Sinai, with the two tables of the testimony in his hand as he came down from the mountain . . . the skin of his face shone because he had been talking with God” (Exodus 34, 29).  Mary carried not the tablets of the Law, but the Lawgiver himself. 

Elizabeth’s response tells us of how the presence of Mary and her unborn Son affected her: “Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Spirit, cried out in a loud voice.”  This is the cry of Adam and Eve, of Noah, and of all the Patriarchs and Prophets who had languished in expectation for the redemption of the world.  One day, it will be the cry of all the saints of the Church when the Lord returns.  Elizabeth cries out in a joy and wonder made possible for her by the Holy Spirit.  This should be our inner cry, too, when Christ comes upon our altars and when we receive him in Holy Communion.  How does this happen to us, that the Lord of heaven and earth comes to us?

“Blessed are you who believed that what was spoken to you by the Lord would be fulfilled.”  Elizabeth marvels at Mary’s faith, particularly at the act of faith that was her consent to the angel’s message.  Elizabeth’s conception of John, though miraculous, came about naturally.  The conception of the Son of God in Mary’s virginal womb required an act of faith so great that only one who herself had been conceived immaculately could have made it.  We imitate this today when we consented to the Faith and strive to live out the will of God in our lives, guided by his commandments and looking forward to that fulfillment we shall experience in heaven with the Virgin Mary.