By Corazon Damo-Santiago
The Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary to Elizabeth is a “very womanly” story of faith inspired by the Holy Spirit.
Mary and Elizabeth are cousins with a big disparity in age and both are pregnant.
The Visitation took place 34 years before the Holy Spirit was revealed in the church during Pentecost. “For only after Jesus ascended to the Father would the Holy Spirit be sent to fill the hearts of believers,” according to John 7:39.
Mary meets Elizabeth
Three days after the angel Gabriel announced to Mary, a virgin in Nazareth, a town of Galilee, that she will bear a son, the Lord, in a vision, revealed to her that her cousin Elizabeth is six months pregnant.
Feeling obliged to visit her, Mary traveled to Ain Karem in the hills of Judea, 5 miles west of Jerusalem. She rode on a donkey led by Joseph until they reached Zechariah and Elizabeth’s house in an isolated slope amid a lovely garden.
Raphael Brown in The Life of Mary As Seen By The Mystics narrates that Elizabeth came out of the house, met Mary near a fountain and they clasped hands affectionately.
As soon as Mary greeted Elizabeth, the latter felt a quickening in her womb. When the life within her moved, Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Spirit, was suddenly aware of Mary’s condition and responded joyfully in humility: “You are the most blessed of all women, and blessed is the child you bear! Why should this great thing happen to me that my Lord’s mother comes to visit me?” (Luke 1:42-43).
Mary’s response to Elizabeth is a profound praise for God as well, and in all humility she said: “My heart praises the Lord, my soul is glad because of God my Savior, for he has remembered me, his lowly servant” (Luke 1:46-48).
In God’s presence
The unborn John the Baptist leaps with joy in Elizabeth’s womb. He gave homage to the presence of the Lord Jesus in Mary’s womb.
Saint Ambrose makes a comment on this encounter between the unborn Lord and his precursor: “Elizabeth is the first to hear Mary’s voice but John is the first to be aware of grace.”
Elizabeth begged Mary to stay with her at least until the birth of her son. And stayed, she did, helping in the household chores and preparing the clothes for her cousin’s baby.
When John was born, Elizabeth made a request to Mary: “Let me see my child in your arms, dear Mary. Do not deny this consolation to me nor this great happiness to my son,” she pleaded.
Brown narrates: “John already had the use of reason by a special grace, and knowing that Mary bore in her womb the Word Incarnate, he gazed at her with great love and adored his Lord in her with intense humility and thanksgiving.”
Canticle of Mary
“My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord, my spirit rejoices in God my Savior….”
The Magnificat is a prayer of faith and joy. It was the reaction of Mary who considered herself a servant of the Lord, a psalm of praise to God when Elizabeth called her the mother of my Lord.
“Why should this great thing happen to me that my Lord’s mother comes to visit me?” (Luke 1: 42-43) is a confirmation of angel Gabriel’s announcement to Mary that she will conceive Jesus, the Son of the Most High.
Patricia McCarthy, in The Scent of Jasmine, considers it a prayer about God’s holiness and mercy to mankind. That God is gracious and merciful.
A prayer for all Christians, it is both a call and a response, a praise and a challenge, a call to gather God’s people together as a community of love. Endorsed by Mother Church to be prayed by every Christian at the end of the day, the Magnificat proclaims the greatness of the Lord to all in heaven and on earth. Mystics claim that Elizabeth, by divine inspiration, was able to recite the Magnificat with Mary. Every evening, they would recite it together standing, facing each other, with arms crossed on the chest and veils covering their faces.
Santiago is a former regional director of the Department of Education National Capital Region. She is currently a faculty member of Mater Redemptoris College in Laguna.
Image credits: Wikimedia Commons