You have the perfect mother. Did you know that? Your mother is perfect. I’m talking about Mary. I’d like to reflect on the gospel that we hear today, the visitation. I’d like to pay attention to how Mary encounters three people. So, the first is her son within her womb. The second is Elizabeth, who she is greeting, her relative. And the third is John the Baptist, who is in the womb of Saint Elizabeth. First, I want to talk about Mary being the perfect mother. There’s only two people in this world that ever lived without sin. And that’s our Lord Jesus, and with the Immaculate Conception of Mary, she is the other one that has lived completely and perfectly without sin.
How can Mary be our mother? Well, Jesus, when he was on the cross and before his death, he looked down and the women were there, but also the beloved son John. And he looked at his mother Mary, and he said to John, woman, behold your son. And he looked at the beloved and said son, behold your mother. And from that moment on Mary became the mother of the church. She’s not only the church. But she’s also, as disciples, each one of our mothers. And she can love us perfectly like no mother ever could. When the angel Gabriel came to Mary, the Angel said Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with you. So, Mary is completely filled with grace. She is the Immaculate Conception. I often talk about praying with our imagination. How you enter a scene of the gospel and you try to choose one of the characters. Or imagine that you’re another person in the scene. I’d like to walk you through this scene with each of those three persons encountering Mary. Jesus, Elizabeth and John the Baptist.
So first of all, Jesus. What would it be like? To have Mary carry us in her womb. I was making a number of holy hours and this struck me really, really deeply of what it would be like to be carried by Mary in the womb. And because she’s perfect, in her womb we are completely safe. We are perfectly loved. We are completely delighted in. Mary desires nothing more than to protect us. And to care for us. And so I imagine what it would be like to be in her womb as she was going to visit Elizabeth. And the Joy and the excitement that she had to carry you. I invite you during these last days of Advent to meditate on that what it would be like to be carried in the womb of our mother.
The next thing is when Mary goes to Elizabeth. And when Elizabeth hears the sound of Mary’s greeting, the Holy Spirit comes upon her. And the infant leaps in her womb. And I want you to imagine being the one that Mary comes to visit. And when you see Mary, when you hear her greeting all of a sudden the Holy Spirit comes down upon you. And you are surrounded by the love of God.
And then finally, John the Baptist, upon hearing the greeting of Mary leaps in the womb because he’s so excited to encounter the Savior. I was researching what it’s like for a child to hear in the womb. And it turns out that very early on from the first couple weeks of conception, the organs of the ears are developing already. And within the second trimester-I had to learn what trimesters were- during the second trimester the infant can begin to hear sounds. So, the infant in Elizabeth’s womb, John the Baptist, he could hear sounds. That means he would hear his mother’s beating heart. He would hear the sound of her breathing in and out. And then as the weeks progressed after that, they begin to hear things outside of the womb. They begin to hear their own mother’s voice.
And by five or six months in the pregnancy, they can actually differentiate voices. So, they know their mother’s voice, but they also know when they hear someone else’s voice. Well, it’s six months now that Elizabeth is pregnant. So, John the Baptist in her womb could hear. Not only Elizabeth receiving the Holy Spirit, breathing the Holy Spirit in, but he could hear Mary’s greeting. Outside of the womb. And in that moment of greeting he leaps inside of her with great joy.
A couple thoughts just from that. Also, it turns out that the infant in the womb, because of the embryonic fluid, hears at about half the volume that we would hear. So, I want to use that as an analogy for our prayer. First, what would it be like to hear Mary’s voice? Then really, really asking in my prayer, please, Mary, I would love to hear your voice. Because when I hear her voice I’ll be surrounded by the Holy Spirit and that infant of joy will leap inside of me. But remember, we’re like children. Like infants. And as infants, it takes a while. There’s a progression. The organs begin to form. We start to hear sounds in the spiritual life. The closeness of Mary, maybe the beating of her heart or the breathing. But because we hear about half the capacity, sometimes it’s hard for us to hear the voice of Mary. But like a child in the mother’s womb, we can begin to hear her voice. We can begin to hear her and differentiate that voice. So, what would it be like to hear her voice? My desire, and I hope maybe this could be your desire for these final days of Advent, is Mary, I want to hear your voice. Mary, can you speak to me? And that speaking to us hopefully will cause us to leap for joy at the excitement of being in the presence of our savior.
Secondly, Elizabeth. I want to receive the Holy Spirit. When we hear Mary’s voice, the Holy Spirit will come down upon us as it did Elizabeth. As it did to the disciples at Pentecost. The same phrase is used. The Holy Spirit came down upon them.
And third, what would it be like to experience being completely loved by Mary because she’s perfect love. She can love us in a way that no earthly mother could. With Mary, we are completely wanted. We are loved unconditionally. We’re safe. We’re protected. We’re guarded. We are nurtured by her love. You do have a perfect mother. And I invite you in these final days to come to know her more. Maybe that could be praying the rosary. If you haven’t prayed the rosary or haven’t prayed in a while, learning again to meditate and pray the rosary, to hear her voice. I think secondly it would be to imagine and prayerfully allow her to carry you in her womb. And just notice what that feels like. And thirdly, to desire to hear her voice. Because Mary, if we hear your voice, we too will be filled with the Holy Spirit and the infant will leap in our wombs.
Saint Ignatius, when he talked about the spiritual exercises, one of the most beautiful things that he says is after we make our holy hour, or that may be our holy 15 minutes or holy whatever it is during the day to make what’s called a colloquy. A colloquy is simply a word that means to have a conversation. So, at the end of our prayer, he talked about having a conversation with the Trinity. So, talking to God the Father, talking to the Holy Spirit, talking to Jesus. But he also always includes Mary. That at the end of our prayer, we can have this conversation with Mary. And talk to her. As we prepare to receive a savior this Christmas. Spend some time with his mother. Because Mary desires nothing else than to love us unconditionally, to speak to our hearts. And to ask the Holy Spirit to come down upon us.
