Three Blessings

We are given an opportunity this fourth Sunday, three days before Christmas, to reflect on an encounter between cousins. Mary, a very young woman, has said yes to becoming the mother of the Lord.

She lives in the north, and when the angel told her that Elizabeth, in her old age, was to bear a son she made a journey south to the hill country to visit Elizabeth. She stayed there until Elizabeth gave birth to her son, John.

Some suggest that Mary’s inner need was to share with somebody who might understand the great mystery which had begun to grow in her virginal womb.

And as soon as Mary came into her presence, Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Spirit, gave a loud cry. She gives three blessings.

Elizabeth says Mary is ‘most of all women’. She celebrates what God has done in choosing Mary. This is the first blessing.

The second blessing is “blessed is the fruit of your womb”. Elizabeth celebrates how, what has been given to Mary, will be a divine fruitfulness for all of us.

Elizabeth’s third blessing is about Mary’s free and total co-operation with God. “Yes, blessed is she who believed that the promise made her by the Lord would be fulfilled”.

Elizabeth knew that the greatness of Mary lay in the depth of her faith and obedience. Later on, in Luke’s Gospel, Jesus says, “My mother and my  brothers are those who hear the word of God and do it.” Mary first heard the Word of God and kept it.

I was looking at a copy of a painting of the visitation by Piero Di Cosimo in Sister Wendy Beckett’s book “The History of Painting”. She says of this painting that the artist shows the Virgin Mary, still bewildered by the angelic annunciation of her sacred pregnancy, coming to greet her elderly cousin and approaching each other with a touching reverence.

Here is a reflection written by Denis McBride CSSR:

Let us pray for all pregnant mothers that they may be secure and safe in heart and mind and body; that they may be strengthened for the responsibilities ahead of them, and know the consolation of loving support.

We pray for all mothers that they may always delight in the presence of these children entrusted to their safe-keeping; that they may be a shelter for them and a source of love and wisdom.

For all children we pray: that they grow in the security of family life and experience their dignity as children of God. May they always stay connected to their parents in true affection and respect.