MARY GOES TO VISIT ELIZABETH

 

MARY VISITS ELIZABETH

39In those days Mary arose and went with haste into the hill country, to a town in Judah, 40and she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth.

41And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the baby leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit, 42and she exclaimed with a loud cry,

“Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb!

43And why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me?

44For behold, when the sound of your greeting came to my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy.

45And blessed is she who believed that there would beg a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord.”

LUKE 1:39-45

COMMENTARY

As soon as Mary accepted the message and her mission from Gabriel the Angel (Luke 1:26), she went to share her joy with her relative Elizabeth, who was six months pregnant with John the Baptist

(Luke 1:36).

The Scripture is clear that Mary most probably did not know about Elizabeth been pregnant (Luke 1:36-37), but was told by the angel as being a miracle from God, the same as her own conception of the Messiah.

When Mary went to visit Elizabeth, did not only did it for being her close relative or good friend; but because she knew about the portent that GOD had made in her, the same as He had made in Mary.

But since both conceptions were the work of the Almighty GOD; as soon as Elizabeth heard the salute of Mary, she was filled with the Spirit of God, and the fetus in her womb jumped in the joy of being close to his Messiah. But Mary herself is also honored together with her divine Son, and in virtue totally of Him.

Elizabeth first of all, by divine inspiration, declares Mary to be ‘The most blessed among women, and that the baby fruit of her womb, was blessed’.

Here the Holy Spirit is calling Mary unique among all creatures, because the ‘fruit of her womb’. The divine child she was carrying inside her, who by saying ‘fruit’ (καρπός- Fruit, Result of) of her womb is admitting the addition of Mary’s own chromosomes and cells in the formation of Jesus body in her womb. JESUS was not an implant, from where nothing of hers was used to form the divine fetus, but was a real child, going through all the stages of formation in life. The only difference is that no seed had been inoculated into the body of Mary to produce conception, but conception happened immediately after she was covered by the Holy Spirit (Luke 1:35).

Therefore, Lord Jesus could also be called ‘fruit of her womb’, because He was the result of a cooperation between the power of the Father and the acceptance of Mary. And the humanity of Lord Jesus was formed by those two energies converging, but all under the providence and inspiration of GOD alone.

Immediately after that, Elizabeth, who must have known Mary of her life, and since childhood, and probably played together when they were younger, she humbly and acknowledging Mary’s status as mother of the Son of God, said to her ‘WHY is it granted to me, that the MOTHER OF MY LORD, should come to me?’.

Here Elizabeth after calling Mary the most blessed person in the universe in virtue of her Son, now says that she considers it an honor to be visited by the Mother of her Lord, the Mother of her King, the Mother of the Son of God.

And considering her own fault, or at least Zachariah’s fault, she blessed and congratulated St Mary in not doubting GOD when the announcement was given to her, but believing and accepting her call with faith.  

Certainly St Mary, the Mother of our Lord JESUS, was called by GOD, UNIQUE, MOTHER OF THE KING, and that it was an HONOR to be in front of her.

Even though we evangelical Christians do not pray to Holy Mary and believe in her salvation, we must also acknowledge what THE SCRIPTURE teaches us from their paragraphs.

Mary IS NOT like any other woman, or even apostle. Holy people have been and are many, and apostles were and are many, and certainly they are special, but not unique. Mary is unique among women, and therefore men as well, and even angels, because she was granted a mission that had never happened before, and will never happen after. To contribute and feed and nurture in her womb, the most intimate part of her being, the CHILD GOD OF THE FATHER. And that is a role no woman will ever get to play, and certainly no man or angel or any other creature in all eternity.

And that role, to be the Mother of the King, elevates her to a place of special and unique honor, incomparable to any other in the history of the universe.

Omar Flores.