Elizabeth and Zechariah come from priestly families but their child, John, will be a Prophet. When John leaps in his mother’s womb at the sound of Mary’s voice and, when Elizabeth feels the kick inside and asks her question, it is clear that Mary has arrived carrying the fulfilment of Hebrew history. She has arrived with Jesus!
Elizabeth declares Mary as ‘blessed’ because she has learned how to ponder and how to trust God’s Word so much that it leads to this fulfilment. Elizabeth is speaking about the mind-boggling conversation Mary has recently had with the Angel Gabriel. To her surprise and delight, Gabriel greets Mary as a reality bursting with Grace and destined for great things. This troubles her but she does not dismiss it. She ponders the meaning of phrases like ‘Rejoice!’, ‘full of Grace’ and ‘the Lord is with you’. As Mary ponders, Gabriel presses on, telling her to be afraid of nothing, spelling out the mission which is being entrusted to her; bearing a Son who will be King of a Kingdom which will never end. Gabriel is awash with superlatives and extravagances. This is about God, human history and the future of the world.
Now Mary feels overwhelmed and out of her depth. She protests her lack of qualifications, but Gabriel counters this with a promise of help. The Holy Spirit will provide whatever is needed! He strengthens his case by dropping Elizabeth into the story. She is already on board, her barrenness gone forever. Gabriel ends the song with a chorus that nothing is impossible for God. Mary says ‘Yes!’ Gabriel departs and Mary isn’t far behind as she makes her way to Elizabeth. She needs to talk to someone who can help her understand what is happening. But she isn’t dashing off to the hills of Judea to check if Gabriel has told her the truth. She needs to walk with someone who can help her to explore the depths of the Word she has heard. She has come to the right place.
Notice what happens. There is no Holy huddle or tortured conversation. Mary’s arrival unleashes the Holy Spirit in Elizabeth and her exclamation tells Mary all she needs to know. Elizabeth confirms Mary’s Vocation and Mission. Saint Luke does not tell us what Mary’s greeting was but it stirs something inside those who hear it. The one growing inside Elizabeth is a gift from God and is directed towards God. As Gabriel promised, the rules of the impossible have given way.
The astonishing conversation which unfolds between Gabriel and Mary does two things. First, in a moment of eternal tenderness she becomes the mother of the Beloved Son of God. Her Jesus.
Next, it reveals her as an amazing disciple of Sacred Scripture. She knows her Bible by heart, she ponders its meaning in her heart. She enfolds what she hears into her daily life. She is well able to start this process in others. Anyone who has drawn close to her will tell you that her friendship can touch the interior where the promise of God is growing in us, and stir it into action.
In Sacred Scripture, the Womb is a powerful reality and image for the way and the places God moves. Sometimes it is the womb or the gut which is moved when God speaks. Sometimes the image is used to encourage patience as we grow and move from darkness to light. Jesus was very fond of Parables about seeds sown in darkness. Sometimes the womb is used to describe God’s knowledge of us, His nearness to us and His commitment to our happiness. It feels like it is this last one which Saint Luke is drawing on in today’s Gospel. I hazard a guess that Mary’s greeting to Elizabeth was a word of Peace. Jesus taught his disciples, “Whenever you enter a ‘house’, let your first words be words of Peace. John, the Prophet, guides footsteps in the way of Peace. In Bethlehem the angels sing the birth of Jesus like this, ‘Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth Peace to people of good will’.
Should PEACE not be the word that enfolds every child in the womb? In a world of violence, exclusion and alienation, Jesus lived in full communion with God and with people, with every breath he took. He was, as Sacred Scripture says, the firstborn. So, there will be others. But first, like Mary, we must become artists of the Sacred and the human.
Artists like this face only one challenge. When we celebrate the birth of Jesus, it will only be real if we are celebrating and working for the Peace of every child in every womb.
