The Visitation
Beloved. Today the Church remembers the event of St. Mary visiting her relative, St. Elizabeth. It is a very lovely and sweet account—one that probably St. Mary herself told St. Luke as he was writing his [Lk. 1.3] orderly account, the Gospel bearing his name. Although it is a lovely and sweet account—and certainly one that St. Luke must have enjoyed placing in his Gospel account—it is one also rich in doctrine and comfort for the Christian.
The Blessed Virgin had just been told by the angel Gabriel that she would be the Mother of God [Lk. 1.35]: The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God. And then the angel continues, telling Mary: Now indeed, Elizabeth your relative has also conceived a son in her old age; and this is now the sixth month for her who was called barren. Of course, you see God’s mighty, miraculous working at both ends of the child-bearing spectrum—first granting a child to a childless woman well past child bearing years; and, of course, granting a child to a virgin.
We see God’s grace here in so many ways, but not the least of which is this: to whom did God reveal His great saving work of the incarnation, that He the true God, the Son, took on human flesh and blood? Did He reveal it to the king, to the religious leaders of the Jews, to the wise, to the high and mighty? No! But to poor, simple women! According to human standards and reckoning—what did they count? They were just average people with nothing, humanly speaking, to brag about. But that’s the way that God works. That’s God’s grace. St. Paul writes [1 Co. 1. 27]: But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty.
God doesn’t deal with us as we deserve; He doesn’t deal with us according to human standards of worthiness—but in His grace, mercy and love. If God dealt with us according to human standards of worthiness, if He had revealed His great work of the incarnation to the worldly wise and worthy, then it wouldn’t be grace but merit. But when God reveals His greatest work—His greatest work in the salvation of the world: His becoming man—to Sts Elizabeth and Mary, that’s pure grace. And that’s the way that He always deals with us; that’s the way that He works in His kingdom, the Church—in grace.
Our text: In those days Mary arose and went with haste into the hill country, to a town in Judah, and she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. St. Mary had just heard from the angel Gabriel that she would be the Mother of God. And in humble faith she simply said: Behold the maidservant of the Lord! Let it be to me according to your word.” In the joy of that faith, Mary goes to see her relative, Elizabeth. And when Mary arrives at Elizabeth’s house, Elizabeth greets her in the joy of faith: “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! And why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me? The simple fact is that this joy of faith is a gift of God; faith and the resulting joy is worked by the Holy Spirit. The vital point to remember is that the joy of faith does not mean that everything will be going just wonderfully for us. Look at St. Mary. She, a virgin, had just been told by the angel that she will be with Child—and not just any child but the very God Himself. Even she was filled with questions and uncertainty [vs. 34]: How can this be? Certainly her life had taken a dramatic shift. Then she makes that roughly 100 mile trip from Nazareth to near Jerusalem. Talk about a time of stress and turmoil, but right after our text Mary speaks the Magnificat which begins: My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior. The joy of faith!
But faith isn’t static—it seeks to grow. Faith isn’t a leap in the dark; but it seeks to be reassured. In those days Mary arose and went with haste into the hill country, to a town in Judah, and she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. St. Mary had heard from the angel Gabriel that Elizabeth was miraculously with child; she went to see and confirm the angel’s words about St. Elizabeth. Mary wanted to see and to hear the wonders of God and to strengthen her faith. And St. Elizabeth told her: And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord. Mary believed firmly the angel’s announcement that she would be the Mother of God, Let it be to me according to your word, but Elizabeth’s words greatly strengthened Mary’s faith that the prophecy of her Son would be fulfilled; she is certain that God would fulfill in her what Gabriel had promised.
This is an important point of the Visitation: faith needs reassurance. Doubts will and do come as we are constantly assaulted by the devil, the world and our own sinful self. It is vital for us, then, to be with our fellow Christians to be encouraged by them and for us to encourage the other—as St. Mary sought out St. Elizabeth.
We also look at the example of faith left behind by Christians who have gone before us and are strengthened and assured that since the Lord’s worked graciously on them, He will do the same with us. This is part of what we call the communion of saints. It is not “me and Jesus”; it’s me, the Church and Jesus. To be reassured in faith, it is vital for us to be around our Lord’s word daily and especially Sunday in Church. It is vital that we taste and see the Lord in the Blessed Sacrament and so be reassured of our salvation.
The wonderful thing is that the joy of faith is not based on outward circumstance —how we’re seemingly doing, but it is grounded on God’s word, work and promise. Again we join the Blessed Mother saying with her in the Magnificat: For He has regarded the lowly state of His maidservant. We can be in greatest struggle and sorrow, but we know in faith that the Lord deals with us in grace; that He regards our lowly state. The joy of faith looks beyond the present circumstance—either good or bad—and holds to our Lord’s word and work; it rejoices in His grace to us; it rejoices in who and what we are in Jesus.
This doesn’t come from us, from our natural abilities. Faith and the joy that flows from it in every situation is all the work of the Holy Spirit in us and on us. Only by the Holy Spirit’s work can we look beyond the present so that we do not despair in trial and sorrow but have joy; and to look past the present earthly joys and to find our true joy in a gracious God and Savior.
This faith, which is the source of our joy, is created in us by the Holy Spirit. Look at our text where we read: And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the baby leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit, and she exclaimed with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! And why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me? Notice, Elizabeth had the gift of faith. She was filled with the Holy Spirit. By that Spirit worked faith she knew that it wasn’t just her young relative coming for a visit but it was the mother of my Lord. The cause of her joy was not simply her relative coming to visit, as joyful as that might usually be—but with the eyes of faith, believing what the Holy Spirit was revealing to her, she saw the mother of my Lord.
We also see something else interesting here. And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the baby leaped in her womb. This was no ordinary regular/ normal baby kicking in the womb. Instead, remember that Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit and therefore what she spoke was correct and without any mistaking on her part. And what did she say? For behold, when the sound of your greeting came to my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. The baby—that is, St. John the Baptizer, the one the Lord sent to prepare the way for His coming—too, was filled with the Holy Spirit just as the angel had told Elizabeth’s husband Zacharias [St. Luke 1.15]: He will also be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother’s womb. The baby leaped for joy in Elizabeth’s womb. This was the joy of faith—he was filled with the Holy Spirit! By faith St. John the Baptizer embraced the Baby Jesus. This was not a “normal” leap, not in the natural way, but by the impulse and work of the Holy Spirit. Here St. John was already carrying out His role as prophet/ forerunner of Jesus by prophesying His presence.
There is also an important aside here as well. To be sure St. John’s case is unusual being the one sent to prepare the way for Jesus—but here, even in the womb he has the Holy Spirit. So that raises the question: doesn’t this throw to the ground the false notion of some Christians that babies shouldn’t be baptized since they can’t believe? The simple fact is: already in the womb St. John the Baptizer had the Holy Spirit and faith in Jesus and recognized Jesus when He came. Yes, that’s extraordinary—but, again, why can’t baptized infants outside the womb have the Holy Spirit and faith? Simple answer: they can! St. John’s example shows beyond any doubt that babies can believe/ have faith/ have the Holy Spirit. There is no reason babies should not be baptized—they can believe; the Holy Spirit creates that faith in them at baptism.
Our faith—be it the faith of an adult or infant—is grounded on Jesus. Here is the source of the joy of our faith—just like it was the source of St. Elizabeth’s faith. In greatest joy of faith she said to Mary: And why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me? Again, this is something only the Holy Spirit could have revealed. The angel didn’t tell Elizabeth about Mary. Here in that beautiful name she calls Mary is the fullness of faith and the source of St. Elizabeth’s joy: the mother of my Lord. Here we see that Jesus is both God and man. For Mary is Jesus’ mother; He is true man, born of a human mother. But He is also the Lord, the true God. What great praise Elizabeth gives Jesus as she calls Mary the mother of my Lord because already in the womb Jesus is the Lord God—and Elizabeth recognizes and confesses this. To be our Savior, Jesus passed through every stage of our human existence. And here He rescued and redeemed us from our conception in sin. Jesus did not bring down His human nature from heaven, but He assumed it from all His ancestors and especially from the Virgin Mary, as St. Elizabeth said to St. Mary: Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! Because of God’s grace, Mary was blessed above all women to be mother of Jesus, true eternal God and also true man. Jesus, as true man, as fruit of Mary’s womb took upon Himself human lowliness and weakness to be our Savior. But He is blessed— blessed is the fruit of your womb, that is, God’s favor rested on Him all throughout His redeeming work and now all people are blessed by His life and work.
That joy of faith shows itself in praising God for His grace, as St. Elizabeth did in our text. And as God is praised, self recedes into the background. In other words, the joy of faith shows itself in lives of humility. Look again at Elizabeth’s words to Mary: And why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me? St. Elizabeth feels her unworthiness and considers it a great grace and honor that Mary and her Savior come to her. In the joy of faith we recognize our own unworthiness and see the dignity of our fellow Christians, recognizing that Jesus is in them too. How gladly we then love and serve them in all humility.
How blessed we are, dear Christian. The Holy Spirit has worked true faith in Jesus in us, a faith that recognizes Jesus rightly as true God and true man and so as my Savior. What true joy we have.