The second joyful mystery: The Virgin Mary Visits Her Cousin Elizabeth
The angel Gabriel greeted the Virgin Mary and told her that her elderly cousin Elizabeth was already in her sixth month of pregnancy. That alone sufficed for the Mother of the Savior to leave everything and travel quickly to her relative’s home to assist her, not minding that she
would have to walk almost one hundred miles. In this episode, we see how great Mary’s love for her neighbor truly was. It was the fire of Jesus’ love, borne by her first in her soul rather than in her womb, that moved her to perform this great work of charity. As St. Augustine put it: “Mary, full of grace, conceived Jesus first in her heart before conceiving Him in her womb” (see Sermo 215, 4).
From the moment of the Incarnation, no one was ever as intimately united to Christ as Mary was. Hers was a life of intense union with God — a genuine spiritual life — and never for a single moment was she indifferent to her neighbor. St. Francis de Sales said: “We know that one same charity extends itself to both the love of God and our neighbour, raising us to the union of our spirit with God, and bringing us back again to a loving society with our neighbours” (Treatise on the Love of God, X, 11).
The Virgin Mary shows us an example of humility and profound delicacy. Despite being the true Mother of God, she forgot herself and took the initiative to greet Elizabeth.
In this mystery of the Visitation, we see a great truth: Mary is the Mediatrix of the graces of the Redeemer. Her voice became the instrument of John the Baptist’s sanctification in his mother’s womb, as well as of Elizabeth’s enlightenment by the Holy Spirit. In that most holy encounter, for the first time we hear from a human mouth the divinely revealed truth that Mary is the Mother of God, when Elizabeth calls her “the Mother of my Lord” — for the Jewish people, the word Lord (in Hebrew Adonai and Yahweh) meant “God.”
Finally, in visiting Elizabeth, the Virgin Mary left us one of the most beautiful hymns of praise, the Magnificat, in which these golden words shine forth: “All generations shall call me blessed.” Not only all generations of human beings but also all the angels will call her blessed for all eternity. May we always act with charity, humility, and zeal to honor Mary.
Lord, by the mystery of the Visitation, grant us holy popes! Grant us many holy popes!
Amen.
