Magnificat

This Friday we celebrate the Feast of the Visitation: that moment in the Gospel where Our Lady, pregnant with Jesus, goes to visit her cousin Elizabeth, who is in turn pregnant with John the Baptist.

John the Baptist leaps with joy in his mother’s womb when Mary and Elizabeth meet, and Elizabeth exclaims, Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb [Lk 1:42]. In a way, this feast is a celebration of motherhood; it’s about an encounter between two mothers and the deep relationship and union they have with the babies they are carrying — something we men will never experience.

The Visitation is also the moment where the Virgin Mary realises what happened at the Annunciation: My soul glorifies the Lord; my spirit exults in God my Saviour [Lk 1:46-47]. It is at this moment that Mary realises that she is pregnant with the Son of God; it is at this moment she starts appreciating the greatness and awesomeness of what is happening. Mary needs someone to tell her what is happening in her life, in order to appreciate it fully. God often speaks to us through what other people say. We need to be open to listen His voice, even when it comes to us through somebody else’s words. This was true for Mary at the Visitation; it is true for all of us every day of our lives.

The Magnificat (Lk 1:46-55), this beautiful song that Mary raises after Elizabeth greets her, is a song of thanksgiving and adoration. Mary realises that the great things the Almighty has done for her are not because of any personal merit of her own, but are a pure gift from God: God chose her to be the mother of His Son and gave her all the qualities she needed for the ‘job’. Now she sees that, and gives thanks to God in return. Gratitude is so important in our life: we too, like Mary, want to recognise that anything we are and have, in this world, we receive from God — either directly, or indirectly through other people. And we want to give thanks to Him in return.