ACC ~ Luke 1 v39 - 45

OVERVIEW:

Mary visits Elizabeth so that the child in her womb might bless John and make him a forerunner (ORIGEN). Mary’s humility leads her into the hill country of Judea to congratulate Elizabeth on the miraculous conception of John and to serve her cousin of advanced age in the final months of her pregnancy (BEDE).

John leaps in the womb as a miraculous sign of faith (AUGUSTINE). Already in the womb, John perceives the advent of the Christ and prophesies as the forerunner of the Messiah (MAXIMUS OF TURIN). The fleshly presence of the Messiah, the agent of creation, first causes Elizabeth’s womb to be vivified, and then through the fruit of Mary’s womb all of creation is vivified (EPHREM THE SYRIAN).

The incarnate presence of the Messiah evokes from Elizabeth a worshipful response in a psalmlike liturgical style. Her great voice is a sign of her devotion (BEDE). The aged Elizabeth cries out that Jesus is the Christ of God (PRUDENTIUS). Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Spirit, exclaims the blessedness of Mary because of the fruit of her womb (ORIGEN). Elizabeth’s question to Mary concerning the mother of her Lord coming to her shows Elizabeth’s humility (BEDE). Mary’s faith in God’s promise leads the church to magnify the Lord as it now responds to Christ, the fruit of all the faithful (AMBROSE).

1:39-40 | Mary Journeys to Greet Elizabeth

MARY VISITS ELIZABETH SO THAT JESUS COULD BLESS JOHN

ORIGEN: Better men go to weaker men to give them some advantage by their visits. Thus the Savior came to John to sanctify John’s baptism. … Jesus was in her womb, and he hastened to sanctify John, who was still in his own mother’s womb. Before Mary came and greeted Elizabeth, the infant did not rejoice in her womb. But as soon as Mary spoke the word that the Son of God, in his mother’s womb, had supplied, “the infant [John] leaped in joy.” At that moment Jesus made his forerunner a prophet for the first time. HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 7.1. [1]

[1] FC 94:28-29*.

MARY’S HUMILITY

BEDE: She went so that she could offer her congratulations concerning the gift which she had learned her fellow servant had received. This was not in order to prove the word of the angel by the attestation of a woman. Rather it was so that as an attentive young virgin she might commit herself to ministry to a woman of advanced age. HOMILIES ON THE GOSPELS 1.4. [1]

[1] CS 110:31-32**.

1:41 | The Baby John Leaps in Elizabeth’s Womb

JOHN’S LEAP A MIRACULOUS SIGN OF FAITH

AUGUSTINE: We see instances of leaping not only in children but even in animals, although certainly not for any faith or religion or rational recognition of someone coming. But this case stands out as utterly uncommon and new, because it took place in a womb, and at the coming of her who was to bring forth the Savior of humankind. Therefore this leaping, this greeting, so to speak, offered to the mother of the Lord is miraculous. It is to be reckoned among the great signs. It was not effected by human means by the infant, but by divine means in the infant, as miracles are usually wrought. LETTER 187.23. [1]

[1] FC 30:239**.

JOHN PROPHESIES FROM THE WOMB

MAXIMUS OF TURIN: Not yet born, already John prophesies and, while still in the enclosure of his mother’s womb, confesses the coming of Christ with movements of joy—since he could not do so with his voice. As Elizabeth says to holy Mary, “As soon as you greeted me, the child in my womb exulted for joy.” John exults, then, before he is born. Before his eyes can see what the world looks like, he can recognize the Lord of the world with his spirit. In this regard, I think that the prophetic phrase is appropriate: “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you came forth from the womb I sanctified you.” [1] Thus we ought not to marvel that after Herod put him in prison, he continued to announce Christ to his disciples from his confinement, when even confined in the womb he preached the same Lord by his movements. SERMON 5.4. [2]

[1] Jer 1:5.

[2] ACW 50:24**.

THE VIVIFIED WOMB OF ELIZABETH

EPHREM THE SYRIAN: John jumped for joy to make an announcement concerning his future preaching. The infant of the barren woman exulted before the infant of the virgin. He sought out his mother’s tongue and desired to pronounce a prophecy concerning the Lord. Therefore Elizabeth’s conception was kept hidden from Mary for six months, until the infant would have limbs sufficiently formed to exult before the Lord with his jumping and become a witness to Mary through his exultation. Moreover, that he exulted in the womb of his mother was not of himself, nor because of his five months, but so that the divine gifts might show themselves in the barren womb that was now carrying him. It was also so that the other womb, that of the Virgin, would know the great gifts given to Elizabeth, and that the two soils might believe in the seeds they had received through the word of Gabriel, cultivator of both grounds. Since John could not cry out in his exultation and render witness to his Lord, his mother began to say, “You are blessed among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb.” Our Lord prepared his herald in a dead womb, to show that he came after a dead Adam. He vivified Elizabeth’s womb first, and then vivified the soil of Adam through his body. COMMENTARY ON TATIAN’S DIATESSARON 1.30. [1]

[1] ECTD 57-58**.

1:42 | Elizabeth’s Liturgical Response

ELIZABETH’S VOICE OF DEVOTION

BEDE: [Elizabeth is attributed] properly with a great voice because she recognized the great gifts of God … [and] she sensed that he whom she knew to be present everywhere was also present bodily there. Indeed, by a “great” voice is not to be understood so much a loud voice as a devoted one. She was not capable of praising the Lord with the devotion of a moderate voice. Being full of the Holy Spirit, she was on fire, harboring in her womb the one than whom no one of those born of woman would be greater. [1] She rejoiced that he had come there—he who, conceived from the flesh of a virgin mother, would be called, and would be, the Son of the Most High. HOMILIES ON THE GOSPELS 1.4. [2]

ELIZABETH HERALDS CHRIST AS GOD

PRUDENTIUS:

Believe what says the angel who was sent

From the Father’s throne, or if your stolid ear

Catch not the voice from heaven, be wise and hear

The cry of aged woman, now with child.

O wondrous faith! The babe in senile womb

Greets through his mother’s lips the Virgin’s Son,

Our Lord; the child unborn makes known the cry

Of the Child bestowed on us, [3] for speechless yet,

He caused that mouth to herald Christ as God.

THE DIVINITY OF CHRIST 585-93. [4]

[1] Lk 7:28.

[2] CS 110:32**.

[3] Is 9:6.

[4] FC 52:24-25.

THE PRESENCE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT IN JOHN, ELIZABETH AND MARY

ORIGEN: Elizabeth, who was filled with the Holy Spirit at that moment, received the Spirit on account of her son. The mother did not inherit the Holy Spirit first. First John, still enclosed in her womb, received the Holy Spirit. Then she too, after her son was sanctified, was filled with the Holy Spirit. You will be able to believe this if you also learn something similar about the Savior. (In a certain number of manuscripts, we have discovered that blessed Mary is said to prophesy. We are not unaware of the fact that, according to other copies of the Gospel, Elizabeth speaks these words in prophecy.) Mary also was filled with the Holy Spirit when she began to carry the Savior in her womb. As soon as she received the Holy Spirit, who was the creator of the Lord’s body, and the Son of God began to exist in her womb, she too was filled with the Holy Spirit. HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 7.3. [1]

[1] FC 94:29.

THE FRUIT OF MARY’S WOMB

BEDE: “Blessed is the fruit of your womb”—since through you we have recovered both the seed of incorruption and the fruit of our heavenly inheritance, which we lost in Adam. HOMILIES ON THE GOSPELS 1.4. [1]

[1] CS 110:33*.

1:43-45 | Elizabeth’s Wonder at Mary’s Greeting

ELIZABETH’S HUMILITY

BEDE: “And whence does this happen to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?” Oh! What great humility in the mind of the prophet! How true the utterance of the Lord, in which he said, “Upon whom does my spirit rest if not upon one who is humble and quiet and who trembles at my words?” [1] As soon as Elizabeth saw the one who had come to her, she recognized that she was the mother of the Lord. But she discovered in herself no such merit by which she might have become worthy to be visited by such a guest. “Whence does this happen to me,” she asked, “that the mother of my Lord should come to me?” Undoubtedly the very Spirit who conferred upon her the gift of prophecy at the same time endowed her with the favor of humility. Filled with the prophetic spirit, she understood that the mother of the Savior had drawn near to her. But being discreet in the spirit of humility, she understood that she herself was less than worthy of Mary’s coming. HOMILIES ON THE GOSPELS 1.4. [2]

[1] Is 66:2 LXX.

[2] CS 110:34*.

CHRIST THE FRUIT OF THE FAITHFUL

AMBROSE: You see that Mary did not doubt but believed and therefore obtained the fruit of faith. “Blessed … are you who have believed.” But you also are blessed who have heard and believed. For a soul that has believed has both conceived and bears the Word of God and declares his works. Let the soul of Mary be in each of you, so that it magnifies the Lord. Let the spirit of Mary be in each of you, so that it rejoices in God. [1] She is the one mother of Christ according to the flesh, yet Christ is the Fruit of all according to faith. Every soul receives the Word of God, provided that, undefiled and unstained by vices, it guards its purity with inviolate modesty. EXPOSITION OF THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 2.26. [2]

[1] Lk 1:46-47.

[2] EHG 45**.