In today’s Gospel we heard words we repeat constantly in our “Hail Mary” prayer. The first part of this prayer exactly quotes the Angel’s greeting as reported by St. Luke in the first Chapter of his Gospel, verse 28: Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. The words that follow are an exact quotation from today’s reading. This comes a bit further on in this same Chapter, verse 42: Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb Jesus.
St. Luke specifically tells us that these words of St. Elizabeth were inspired by the Holy Spirit. Filled, or driven by the Holy Spirit, as soon as she saw our blessed Lady, Elizabeth cried out. And in her cry she honoured Mary, praised Mary, sang of Mary, rejoiced in Mary, venerated Mary, spoke personally and directly to Mary, saying to Mary exactly what was in her heart. And ever since then, Orthodox and Catholic Christians have done the same, and with the very same words.
Blessed are you! cried Elizabeth. That is: God has touched you, favoured you, graced you, enriched you, enabled you! God has given you gifts beyond measure – divine gifts, and human gifts also – so that you are fortunate, happy, special, sanctified, lifted up, accompanied, loved: more so than anyone else who has ever been or who ever will be. The Holy Scriptures of the Old Testament record so many blessings, so many promises of God. These have been spoken of by so many prophets, confirmed by so many miracles, communicated also by so many Angels, longed for by so many holy people, regarded with envy by so many other nations, treasured by so many Jewish people as their precious inheritance! And all these blessings of the Old Testament have now come to their fulfilment, their achievement, their goal in you. Or, to put it more strongly: these blessings were only ever a faint foreshadowing of the blessing you have received! The blessing with which God has blessed you now outweighs, surpasses, is more wonderful than them all!
Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb!
O Mary, my little cousin: you, who are also the “Virgin with child” foretold by Isaiah (7:14); you, who identify yourself only as a humble handmaid (1:38), a servant girl of lowly condition (1:48): you are the Mother of the Messiah. Your Son is the Son of David, King of Israel, the anointed one. As well as King, he will also be Priest – greater by far than my husband the Priest Zechariah. He will be indeed our great High Priest (cf. Hb 4:14) – to whose Priesthood, and to whose ultimate, all-sufficient sacrifice, all the sacrifices, all the acts of worship of the Old Testament point. King and Priest, he will be Prophet too. That is, he will reveal God, manifest God, communicate God, and also teach Godliness to the whole world. But beyond all that - astonishing to consider - the Son you bear is also the Son of God, or God the Son, eternally equal to the Father. So future ages will truly call you God’s Mother, or God-bearer. So the name of this child whom you carry will be Jesus, which means “God saves”, and also Emmanuel, which means “God with us”.
For us your child will be blessing upon blessing. He will bring us to God, and bring God to us. He will slay our enemy the devil, wipe away our sins, and destroy our death. And all this will come about through you. Truly I am blessed, Israel is blessed, the whole of humanity is blessed in your blessing!
Elizabeth went on to cry: Why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me? Here is another cry, or prayer, that all Catholic Christians naturally echo. It’s a cry of delighted astonishment, and of humble gratitude - certainly also of love - as Elizabeth acknowledges the great privilege and grace we all enjoy through having Jesus and his holy Mother present in our lives, coming to us, abiding with us, and in us.
You probably know that Pope Francis has designated 2025 a holy Jubilee year. It begins next Sunday, on the feast of the Holy Family. One aspect of this Jubilee year will be a celebration of the first ever ecumenical Council, held in Nicaea in the year 325: 1700 years ago. There the assembled Bishops declared, against the heretic Arius, that the Son of God is of one being, one substance – “homo-ousios” – with God the Father. So Jesus is truly God. The great promoter and defender of this doctrine, which is most certainly the doctrine of the Holy Scriptures, was St. Athanasius. Reflecting on the mystery of the Incarnation, Athanasius realised, and taught, that by becoming this child, God has in principle touched and blessed every single human being who has ever been or who ever will be. As the new Adam, Christ has associated himself, identified himself with human nature as such, and with the human condition. And so he has in a sense conferred his own infinite dignity on every human person, making each one precious in God’s eyes, also for his sake.
And above all because of this, we Catholics are absolutely opposed to the killing of unborn babies. We also very strongly oppose what is euphemistically called these days “assisted dying”, but is actually simply medical killing. There are very strong arguments against all such killing, based on purely secular principles. But these arguments are massively strengthened for those who believe in God, and who therefore know that in the beginning, God made man in his own image and likeness (cf. Gn 1:26-27). The arguments are strengthened even more for Christians, who believe that even a split cell human zygote, or a comatose patient, or a terrorist, or a Saint, or a paedophile: if they are human, then they are persons for whom Christ died (cf. Rm 14:15; 1 Cor 8:11). So may the Blessed Virgin protect them, and all of us, and all whom we love in a special way: and may Christ bless them all, and us with them: especially this Christmas.