Blessed Are You Among Women | The Fourth Sunday of Advent
By Br. Jerome Masters, O.P.
As we enter into the final 3-day stretch until Christmas, we hear in today’s gospel all the words that are too familiar from St. Elizabeth. “Blessed are you among women and blessed is the fruit of your womb.” This phrase is so familiar to us Catholics because of the prayer it became a part of, the Hail Mary. But what led Elizabeth to greet the Blessed Virgin Mary in such a way? Putting this scripture into context, Mary has just received from the angel Gabriel the message that she will conceive and bear a son. She then goes in haste to the land of Judah to be with her cousin who is also miraculously pregnant. As soon as Mary greets Elizabeth the infant in her womb lept, and she, filled with the Holy Spirit, cries out, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb.”
Something is going on here that St. John the Baptist, while in the womb of his mother, teaches us about the joy that comes from meeting the Lord face-to-face, or in his case womb-to-womb. St. Ambrose provides a wonderful commentary, asking the reader to pay attention to the differences between what Elizabeth and John receive. “Elizabeth first heard the word, but John first experienced the grace. She heard by the order of nature, he leaped by reason of the mystery. She perceived the coming of Mary, he the coming of the Lord.” It is remarkable to see the difference between the two of them. Elizabeth, not knowing that Mary was pregnant until the Holy Spirit revealed it to her, just sees her cousin coming to greet her. But her child in the womb senses something much different. He senses the advent of the Lord, he senses the advent of the savior, he senses the advent of grace. He seems to cause Elizabeth to stop whatever she was doing and by her being filled with the Holy Spirit to cry out to Mary.
St. John the Baptist knew that the grace of the Lord was with him as soon as Mary’s greeting hit his mother’s ears. He leaps in her womb because his Lord, of whom he is not worthy to loosen the straps of his sandals, has come into his presence. This leads to Elizabeth’s question, “And how does this happen to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?” It’s a humbling experience when anyone important comes to visit you specifically, imagine how Elizabeth must have felt when the Holy Spirit revealed to her that the God of the universe is in her presence now. The humbling joy she must have experienced.
We have this same honor that Elizabeth had. Elizabeth reminds us of the humbling joy it is to be in the presence of our Lord, our Savior, and our Redeemer. She reminds us that there is no reason to be afraid when the Lord comes. He humbled himself to take on human flesh so that we might know him. His advent, or his coming, reminds us that he was born to save us so that we might dwell with him for eternity in heaven. The encounters we have with him allow us to know him more, love him more, and serve him more.
These last 3 days of Advent allow us to prepare ourselves for the joy of the Lord coming into our lives, and we may say with Elizabeth to Mary, “Blessed are you among women and blessed is the fruit of your womb.”
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Photo Credit: Fr. Lawrence Lew, O.P.
