Christian Art | Mary And Elizabeth | The Visitation | The Child Leapt In Her Womb
Office Of Readings | Advent December 21st | A Reading From The Commentary Of Saint Ambrose On Saint Luke’s Gospel | The Visitation Of The Blessed Virgin Mary
‘The Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary.’
In this reading, Saint Ambrose reflects on the account of the visitation in Luke’s Gospel, where Mary goes to Elizabeth after the annunciation. He begins by explaining why the angel Gabriel mentioned Elizabeth’s pregnancy. It served as confirmation of God’s promise, not because Mary doubted, but to show that what God wills cannot be limited by age or circumstance.
Ambrose is careful to say that Mary does not act out of uncertainty. Her journey is presented as a response of faith and duty. She goes because she believes what has been promised and because she wishes to serve her cousin. Her haste is linked to joy and to the presence of God within her, not to anxiety.
The meeting between Mary and Elizabeth is described in terms of action and response. Ambrose draws attention to the order of events: Elizabeth hears Mary’s greeting, John responds first by leaping, and Elizabeth is then filled with the Holy Spirit. This ordering allows Ambrose to show that God’s action is already at work before human speech or understanding fully grasps it.
Ambrose distinguishes carefully between the roles of the women and their children. Elizabeth recognises Mary; John recognises Christ. Both women speak prophetically, but Ambrose stresses that their words arise from God’s work already taking place within them. In this way the passage presents grace as active and prior to human explanation.
When Ambrose turns to Mary, he notes that she is not described as being filled with the Spirit at this moment because she had already been overshadowed by the Spirit at the annunciation.
Ambrose extends the meaning of this event to all believers. He cites Elizabeth’s words of blessing and applies them to those who hear and believe. In this sense, every faithful person is called to receive the Word of God and to recognise what God has done. Mary’s soul is held up as a model for all believers: she proclaims the greatness of the Lord and rejoices in God. While Mary alone is mother of Christ in the flesh, Ambrose says that in the realm of faith, Christ is the fruit of all who believe.
A Reading From The Commentary Of Saint Ambrose On Saint Luke’s Gospel | The Visitation Of The Blessed Virgin Mary
The angel Gabriel had announced the news of something that was as yet hidden and so, to buttress the Virgin Mary’s faith by means of a real example, he told her also that an old and sterile woman had conceived, showing that everything that God willed was possible to God.
When Mary heard this she did not disbelieve the prophecy, she was not uncertain of the message, she did not doubt the example: but happy because of the promise that had been given, eager to fulfil her duty as a cousin, hurried by her joy, she went up into the hill country.
Where could she hurry to except to the hills, filled with God as she was? The grace of the Holy Spirit does not admit of delays. And Mary’s arrival and the presence of her Son quickly show their effects: As soon as Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting her child leapt in her womb and she was filled with the Holy Spirit.
See the careful distinction in the choice of words. Elizabeth was the first to hear the voice but her son John was the first to feel the effects of grace. She heard as one hears in the natural course of things; he leapt because of the mystery that was there. She sensed the coming of Mary, he the coming of the Lord — the woman knew the woman, the child knew the child. The women speak of grace while inside them grace works on their babies. And by a double miracle the women prophesy under the inspiration of their unborn children.
The infant leapt and the mother was filled with the Spirit. The mother was not filled before her son: her son was filled with the Holy Spirit and in turn filled his mother. John leapt and so did Mary’s spirit. John leapt and filled Elizabeth with the Spirit; but we know that Mary was not filled but her spirit rejoiced. For the Incomprehensible was working incomprehensibly within his mother. Elizabeth had been filled with the Spirit after she conceived, but Mary before, at the moment the angel had come. ‘Blessed are you,’ said Elizabeth, ‘who believed’.
You too, my people, are blessed, you who have heard and who believe. Every soul that believes — that soul both conceives and gives birth to the Word of God and recognises his works.
Let the soul of Mary be in each one of you, to proclaim the greatness of the Lord. Let the spirit of Mary be in each one of you, to rejoice in God. According to the flesh only one woman can be the mother of Christ but in the world of faith Christ is the fruit of all of us. For every soul can receive the Word of God if only it is pure and preserves itself in chastity and modesty.
The soul that has been able to reach this state proclaims the greatness of the Lord just as Mary did and rejoices in God its saviour just like her.
The Lord’s greatness is proclaimed, as you have read elsewhere, where it says Join me in magnifying the Lord. This does not mean that anything can be added to the Lord’s greatness by human words, but that he is magnified in us. Christ is the image of God and so any good or religious act that a soul performs magnifies that image of God in that soul, the God in whose likeness the soul itself was made. And thus the soul itself has some share in his greatness and is ennobled.
Christian Prayer With Jesus
God of mercy,
you made your saving work known
through the meeting of Mary and Elizabeth.
Help us to recognise your action in quiet ways
and to respond with faith and service.
May your Word take root in us
and shape our lives according to your will.
Through Christ our Lord.
Amen.
Glossary Of Christian Terms
Visitation | The visit of Mary to her cousin Elizabeth, described in Luke 1:39–45.
Holy Spirit | The third person of the Trinity, at work in creation, inspiration, and the life of the Church.
Grace | God’s free and active gift, by which he works in human life and draws people into communion with him.
Word of God | A title for Christ, expressing the belief that God makes himself known and present through the Son.
Prophecy | Speech inspired by God, not limited to predicting the future but concerned with revealing God’s purpose.
Magnify the Lord | A phrase from Mary’s song in Luke 1:46, meaning to acknowledge and proclaim God’s greatness in one’s life.
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