Word to the Wise
Saturday, December 21, 2013 -
[Song of Songs 2:8-14 or Zephaniah 3:14-18a and Luke 1:39-45]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.
The Gospel of Luke crams a tremendous amount of theology into Elizabeth's enthusiastic greeting. A scene in which one woman, unexpectedly pregnant in old age, joyfully greets her much younger, and also unexpectedly pregnant, cousin who has come to help her becomes a statement of God's plan of salvation! Mary's response is the "Magnificat" which opens out that plan in greater detail!
The first line of Elizabeth's greeting, which we recognize from the "Hail Mary" prayer, speaks to Gabriel's greeting to Mary and to the special identity of the child she is carrying in her womb. Indeed the second line acknowledges him as "my Lord!" The same thing is true also in the line about the child in Elizabeth's womb leaping for joy at the sound of Mary's greeting! The last line is a description of Mary's role as a model disciple: "Blessed are you who believed that what was spoken to you by the Lord would be fulfilled."
Good story-telling can put a lot of meaning in simple events. The richness of the stories from the gospels of Matthew and Luke are being offered to us. Can we take the time and make the effort to follow Mary's example and "reflect on these things in our hearts?" AMEN