In the words of our beloved Pope emeritus, “Before worrying about herself, Mary…thought about the elderly Elizabeth, who she knew was well on in her pregnancy and, moved by the mystery of love that she had just welcomed within herself, she set out in haste to go to offer Elizabeth her help.”
Elizabeth recognized the immaculate holiness of her cousin, which is why, when she catches sight of Mary she exclaims: "Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb…and blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord.”
Blessed is the fruit of your womb. How many times have we said those words? And today we reflect on their meaning.
There’s an ancient story, told from the Middle Ages, that supposes that the Angel Gabriel was sent from God the Father to search for a place worthy enough for his Son to be born into the world.
At first, the story goes, the Angel considered the most magnificent Temple on earth, bedecked with fine jewels and built atop ten thousand marble steps From its’ gates four powerful rivers flowed, abundant with life and embanked with the tallest trees and most beautiful flowers. Surely this would be a worthy dwelling place for the Son of God, he thought. But when he suggested it to God, he found it was not worthy enough.
And so the Angel flew to the peak of the highest mountain on earth, where winds blew the snows to even greater heights, and upon which the sun glistened and danced. Nowhere was the sky more blue or the heights more breath-taking. Perhaps here, the Angel thought, we could build the temple with jewels and marbles and rivers, that this might become a worthy dwelling place for the Son of God. But it was not worthy.
So Gabriel, the story continues, looked up at the heavens, where the stars twinkled and shone against a cold night sky with an unimaginable beauty, where God had so woven the distant stars together that they seemed to embrace the earth with a transcendent power all their own. Here, at last, he thought is a worthy dwelling to enthrone the Son of the living God. But it was not worthy.
Discouraged, the old story goes, the poor angel returned to heaven and begged the Most High God to show him a worthy dwelling place upon the earth for his co-eternal Son.
And so it happened, that the Angel Gabriel was “sent from God
to a town of Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph, of the house of David, and the virgin’s name was Mary.”
She, in her littleness, of all the great palaces and places upon the earth, was the only one worthy to carry the Son of the Most High God as the fruit of her womb. This confused and frightened little girl, was alone full of grace. This handmaid of the Lord, who surrendered all to his will; she alone was worthy, and she alone was “a fit dwelling place” for the Son of God.
So, when you are looking for God, when you want to see him and listen to him and offer him the gift of your life, there is only one place to find him. He’s not enshrined in a mighty jewel-encrusted temple on the top of a mountain, or so far up in the sky that he dwells beyond the stars. No, he’s as close as the little virgin Mary, who runs to carry the fruit of her womb to the hill country to visit her cousin Elizabeth, and runs even more quickly to you.
So, like the Magi, let us go to this beautiful lady who holds in her arms the one who is our hope and salvation. Let us entrust ourselves to her intercession, her example and her care. And let us beg her in whose womb the Lord willed to be formed, to teach us how he might be formed in us, as well.
