Blessed are you...

Blessed is the fruit of your womb...

Blessed is she who believed...

A declaration in which God's favor or blessing is experienced is known as a beatitude. When we hear that word, we may think of those nine beatitudes recorded in Matthew's Gospel from Jesus' Sermon on the Mount (5:3-11). But here, in Luke 1:39-45 [46-55], three beatitudes are voiced by Elizabeth, the mother of Jesus' forerunner, John the Baptist. The account of Mary's visit to Elizabeth brings together the two preceding stories in Luke's Gospel - the announcements of the births of John the Baptist (1:5-25) and Jesus (1:26-38).

"With a loud cry" Elizabeth greets Mary with a beatitude as her own "child leaps in her womb" (1:41). There is no indication that Elizabeth had any prior knowledge of the angel's announcement to Mary. Luke is thus telling us that the Holy Spirit is the source of Elizabeth's knowledge of Mary's pregnancy. While her husband Zechariah has been rendered speechless (1:20), Elizabeth, "filled with the Holy Spirit" (1:41), is given voice, and her declaration fulfills the angel's announcement to Zechariah that their child "will be filled with the Holy Spirit" even before his birth (1:15).

Elizabeth's greeting to Mary is in the form of a four-part prophetic utterance about:

• the blessedness of Mary and the child to be born to her (1:42)
• the identity of the child in Mary's womb (1:43)
• the reason for the movement Elizabeth felt in her womb (1:44)
• the affirmation of Mary's faith and the fulfillment of the Lord's promise (1:45)

The oracles of Elizabeth are followed by Mary's song of praise (Magnificat) which parallels closely Hannah's prayer (1 Samuel 2:1-10) and the opening verses of Psalm 34. In calling God her "Savior" (1:47), Mary expresses confidence and faith that God's promise of redemption will surely be fulfilled. God is our Savior who will come to us as a vulnerable baby, yet who will reverse the worldly standards and the status quo. The powerful will be brought down and the lowly will be lifted up; the rich will be sent away empty and the hungry will be filled with good things (1:52, 53).

Mary's song is a message to us today that we are to look to no other power, and she echoes the words of the psalmist: "Do not put your trust in princes, in mortals, in whom there is no help" (146:3, NRSV).

In the days of the Advent season, we, like Mary, now wait. We wait in faith and with hope for the birth of the Holy One, the Savior of the world. The Mighty One has indeed done great things for us!

Blessed are we!