HIS HANDMAID’S LOWLINESS

Rev 11,19a; 12,1-6a.10ab; Ps 44; 1 Cor 15,20-26; Lk 1,39-56
15 AUGUST
What is happening today in the house of Zechariah is all the work of the Holy Spirit. But not the Spirit that is in the eternal heavens, but the Spirit that is in the soul, in the heart, in the mind, in the body, in the feelings, in the will and in the wishes of the Virgin Mary. The Angel has already revealed that she is full of grace. Full of God. He has already manifested that the Holy Spirit would have overshadowed her with his divine omnipotence and would have made her Mother of the Son of the Most High. She, Mary, is now entirely inhabited in the soul and in the body by the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. She is a true dwelling, temple and ark of the covenant. From the Spirit of the Lord She is moved to go to her cousin Elizabeth. Here the Spirit must rest on John the Baptist who is in the mother’s womb and fill him with Himself. Mary, brought by the Spirit, carries the Spirit and breathes him into her cousin and into the child. Her cousin becomes a prophetess. The child starts for joy and jumps in the womb. Both mother and son feel the presence of the Spirit of the Lord in them. The breath of the Mother of God is the vehicle of this gift.

Filled with Holy Spirit, Elizabeth sees in an instant the mystery of Mary and sings it according to the most perfect truth. She is the Mother of her Lord. The Lord is God. She is the Mother of God. She is blessed among women because she is the Mother of the Messiah, or the Christ of God. She is Blessed because she believed in the fulfilment of the words addressed to her by the Lord. The Son she bears in her womb is Blessed. He is the one who comes in the name of the Lord. The song is perfect in every part. Nothing lacks in the truth of Jesus and the Mother. If the Christian always carried the Holy Spirit in his heart and let himself be carried by the Holy Spirit where He wants to be brought, certainly the disciple of Jesus would not say that the mystery is difficult to explain. It is not he who has to explain the mystery. It is revealed, shown and made to be seen. The Holy Spirit not only shows the mystery, he converts the heart so that it may also be received. If instead the Christian is without the Spirit, he might also explain everything with sublime and updated theology. But everything is like pouring water on a stone. The Spirit borne changes the heart of stone into flesh.

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.” And Mary said: “My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord; my spirit rejoices in God my saviour. For he has looked upon his handmaid’s lowliness; behold, from now on will all ages call me blessed. The Mighty One has done great things for me, and holy is his name. His mercy is from age to age to those who fear him. He has shown might with his arm, dispersed the arrogant of mind and heart. He has thrown down the rulers from their thrones but lifted up the lowly. The hungry he has filled with good things; the rich he has sent away empty. He has helped Israel his servant, remembering his mercy, according to his promise to our fathers, to Abraham and to his descendants forever.” Mary remained with her about three months and then returned to her home.

The Spirit first speaks through the voice of Elizabeth and says who Mary and the Child are. Now he speaks with the voice of Mary and says who the Lord is. The Lord must be magnified, exalted and blessed because what has happened in Mary is only his work. If Mary is great, it is because God made her great. If Mary is blessed from generation to generation it is because God has established this way. Maria did not make herself. She is the Woman all shaped by her God. The Holy Spirit, always through the voice of Mary, reveals the purest truth of our God. Thus the Holy Spirit speaks all things using two voices. Here is the ministry of the Christian: being filled with the Holy Spirit to be the voice of the Holy Spirit.

Mother of God, Angels and Saints, make sure that every disciple of Jesus is filled with the Holy Spirit.