Gospel Notes by Michael Whelan SM
In those days Mary set out and went with haste to a Judean town in the hill country, where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the child leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit and exclaimed with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. And why has this happened to me, that the mother of my Lord comes to me? For as soon as I heard the sound of your greeting, the child in my womb leaped for joy. And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her by the Lord” (Luke 1:39-45 – NRSV).
Introductory notes
General
This must surely be one of the most delightful passages in the whole of the Sacred Scriptures – this and the passage that follows immediately upon it (see Luke 1:46-56). Two strong women of faith meet and share their joy in the works of God! Words such as “set out,” “went with haste”, “leaped”, filled”, “exclaimed”, “loud cry”, together convey a sense of great energy.
Both women are moved by the Spirit of God, both are totally given over to God’s work. Because Elizabeth is “filled with the Holy Spirit” she understands instantly what is happening with them and she announces it “with a loud cry”. Freedom abounds!
Specific
Mary set out and went with haste: Mary is acting with specific intent and that intent is given her by God. She is sparked into action by her encounter with God through the Angel. A similar description is used of Abraham in Genesis 22:3.
mother of my Lord: “This is Elizabeth’s most dramatic statement, dropped almost casually. “Lord” is a title first of all for God (as already in Luke 1:6, 9, 11, 15, 16, 17, 25). Of Jesus, it is used most properly as a resurrection title (see Acts 1:21; 2:34–36; 4:26, 33; 8:16, etc.). But Luke, even more than Matthew, uses it for Jesus not only as a greeting but also as a title (see Luke 2:11; 7:13; 10:1; 11:39; 12:42; 17:6; 18:6; 19:8, 31; especially 24:3 and 34). At the very least, Elizabeth recognizes the infant as “master,” but a deeper dimension is surely implied” (Luke Timothy Johnson, The Gospel of Luke, Collegeville, MN: The Liturgical Press, 1991, 41).
blessed: The English word “blessed” is used three times in this passage. In the first two instances – “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb” – the Greek verb is eulogeō. It means “bless” or “praise”. In the third instance – “blessed is she who believed” – the Greek adjective is makarios. This points to a specific quality in the person, indicating special standing in the sight of God. The same word is used in the Beatitudes. One commentator writes: “In contrast to verse 42, Luke here uses makaria rather than eulogoumenē. It can mean ‘happy,’ but that misses the resonance of the biblical tradition, which uses the word to denote the condition of righteous existence before God (cf. e.g., Pss 1:1; 2:12; 83:4; 93:12 [lxx]), so that the term becomes almost technical as a ‘macarism’ or ‘Beatitude’; this is the term used by Jesus in his Beatitudes (6:20–22)” (Ibid).
In Luke 11:27 – where the woman in the crowd cries out, “blessed is the womb that bore you” and Jesus responds by saying, “rather blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it” – the adjective makarios is used.
Meetings
In today’s Gospel – Luke 1:39-41 – we are told of Mary’s meeting with Elizabeth. This follows immediately upon Mary’s meeting with the Angel Gabriel (1:26-38). That meeting follows immediately on Zechariah’s meeting also with the Angel Gabriel (1:8-20). In fact, Luke’s Gospel is full of meetings. Things happen in these meetings! They are moments of revelation and awakening, affirmation and joy, moments of transformation.
Nearly fifty years ago, John Cleese made a very instructive video, “Meetings, Bloody Meetings”. Throughout the video, there are lots of “meetings” where people do not actually meet. The opening scene is revealing. Cleese is in bed with his wife. They might as well be on different planets. They are physically near each other but there is no connection mostly because he is preoccupied about his next meeting. His preoccupation with meetings prevents him from meeting his wife lying there beside him. He tries to explain to her what happens at meetings: “At meetings you just . . . meet”. With that, his wife rolls over and turns out the light in despair.
What happens when we really connect, when – as the saying goes – there is a meeting of minds and hearts? It is unmistakable. There is affirmation, a certain delight even when there is sadness in the meeting. There is truth rather than pretence, there is care rather than selfishness, there is generosity rather than meanness, hope rather than despair. A real meeting is actually an experience of love. St Paul reminds us of the everydayness of love: “Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things” (1 Corinthians 13:4-7). The real enemy of real meeting is hate or at least lack of love.
How often do we have the John Cleese experience – meeting without meeting? How many real meetings would we have in any given week? What might stand in the way of my really meeting others in any given day? Yes, the Mary and Elizabeth type meeting is extraordinary, though perhaps more possible than we might think.
In our Catholic Tradition, the interior life is greatly valued. What is going on within us is the foundation of what goes on between us. Unaddressed fear and anxiety, self-deception and evasion of what should be faced, unacknowledged judgements of self and others, painful memories and embarrassing regrets . . . can build walls between me and myself, which then become walls between me and you. Walls can become bridges! Building bridges involves the hard interior work of listening to the truth of what is actually happening within us, facing that truth and surrendering to that truth. Let the truth shape your life. God – disguised as the truth – is at work within Mary and Elizabeth, you and me.