Elizabeth, filled with the holy Spirit

21 DECEMBER (Lk 1,39-45)

Never before today in the history of the faith of the people of the Lord has such a thing happened: that the Holy Spirit were poured out upon a creature from another creature. In the Old Covenant it was always the Lord who took the Spirit and poured him on those who were called to the ministry either of the prophecy or of the government of the People of God.

So Moses went out and told the people what the Lord had said. Gathering seventy elders of the people, he had them stand around the tent. The Lord then came down in the cloud and spoke to him. Taking some of the spirit that was on Moses, he bestowed it on the seventy elders; and as the spirit came to rest on them, they prophesied. Now two men, one named Eldad and the other Medad, were not in the gathering but had been left in the camp. They too had been on the list, but had not gone out to the tent; yet the spirit came to rest on them also, and they prophesied in the camp. So, when a young man quickly told Moses, “Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp,” Joshua, son of Nun, who from his youth had been Moses’ aide, said, “Moses, my lord, stop them.” But Moses answered him, “Are you jealous for my sake? Would that all the people of the Lord were prophets! Would that the Lord might bestow his spirit on them all!” Then Moses retired to the camp, along with the elders of Israel (Num 11,24-30).

With the Virgin Mary something that until now was only unimaginable and unthinkable happens. From the Woman who is full of grace, full of God, the Holy Spirit is “emanated” from her own breath. It is as if her own breath were the breath of the Holy Spirit. Her voice, the voice of the Holy Spirit. Her word, the word of the Holy Spirit. Mary is so filled, full of the Holy Spirit as to pour him out through a simple greeting. It is not God who takes him directly from her and pours him out upon her cousin Elizabeth and upon the child she carries in her womb, but it is from Mary herself that He spreads and pours.

During those days Mary set out and traveled to the hill country in haste to a town of Judah, where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the infant leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth, filled with the holy Spirit, cried out in a loud voice and said, “Most blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. And how does this happen to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For at the moment the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the infant in my womb leaped for joy. Blessed are you who believed that what was spoken to you by the Lord would be fulfilled.”

The Virgin Mary is the true image and the reality of what the Church must be. This must be so filled, full of the Holy Spirit as to pour him out into the hearts with her mere presence. The Church gives the Spirit, the given Spirit, gives an understanding of the mystery of the Church and of salvation. He gives the desire of conversion and return to the Father’s House. A Church that wants to be evangelizing, missionary, an instrument of God for the salvation of souls, must increasingly fill herself of the Holy Spirit. It is the Spirit of the Lord that saves and converts. The Spirit of God must be brought by the Church before the hearts to be redeemed and saved.

Therefore let the whole house of Israel know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Messiah, this Jesus whom you crucified.” Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart, and they asked Peter and the other apostles, “What are we to do, my brothers?” Peter (said) to them, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the holy Spirit. For the promise is made to you and to your children and to all those far off, whomever the Lord our God will call.” He testified with many other arguments, and was exhorting them, “Save yourselves from this corrupt generation.” Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand persons were added that day (At 2,36-41).

Today the Church sees the hearts that leave the straight path rather than convert themselves, and thinks it is a matter of strategy and new ways. She does not know that she has fallen into a mortifying immanence, into a true religious atheism, into a deadly expulsion and exclusion of God from her life. Either the Church takes God in her womb, filling herself of the Spirit of holiness and obedience to the Word of Jesus, or her mission will be in vain.

Virgin Mary, Mother of the Redemption, Angels and Saints, fill us of the Holy Spirit.