Hi everyone. Welcome back to logical Bible
study. In this podcast, we're all about
looking at the gospel from today's mass and having a look
at the literal sense of the text.
What is the text mean on the most fundamental level?
What do the words mean? What was the author trying to
get at all of those are the kind of things that we try and help
you understand. In this podcast today, we're
looking at a text which will be familiar to many of you
Catholics. So let's jump into it.
Luke chapter 1 verses 39 to 45 Mary set out and went as quickly
as she could to a town in the Hill Country of Judah, she went
into zechariah's house and greeted Elizabeth.
Now as soon as Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the child left
in her womb and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit.
She gave a loud cry and said of all women, you are the most
blessed and blessed is the fruit of your womb.
Why should I be honored with a visit from the mother of my lord
for the moment, your greeting reached my ears?
The child in my womb, leaped for joy.
Yes. Blessed.
Is she who believed that? The promise made her by the Lord
would be fulfilled. So let's start by thinking about
the context here, where in Luke chapter one.
About halfway through that big chapter, where Luke tells us
quite a lot of the background of the birth of both Jesus, and
John the Baptist. So, what's the context?
Well, just prior to this Mary, has found out that Elizabeth is
pregnant and also, Mary herself has found out that she'll be
pregnant and that, of course, happens in the famous
Annunciation scene. So if you want to hear an
exegesis of the Annunciation scene verses 26 to 38, it's add
several times in the liturgical year.
So December 20th every year and then the solemnity of the
Annunciation. It's red and then it's red on
the solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, as well, so that's
one of the most common readings in the lectionary but now we get
to verse 39 today. So Mary has found out that
Elizabeth is pregnant so she sets out to go find Elizabeth At
the time of leaving, maid Mary is either not yet pregnant or
has just become pregnant. It's not entirely clear when
Mary has when Mary herself gets pregnant but certainly Elizabeth
is pregnant. That's why Mary leaves to go
visit Elizabeth in her pregnancy and the text says she goes as
quickly as she can to a town in the Hill Country.
So the text doesn't tell us where exactly Elizabeth and
Zachariah live. But there is a traditional site
called Ein Karem and that is near Jerusalem.
So that would certainly fit the The description that we have
here. You can actually go there today
to the ruins of that Village and the place where they think
Elizabeth may have lived. And I've actually been there,
it's quite a powerful experience.
So I encourage him is a is near Jerusalem, and so that's helpful
for Zechariah. It's probably about five miles
from the temple. So, Zechariah works at the
temple. So it makes sense that he would
live in on Korean, which is just outside of Jerusalem, but Mary
does not live anywhere near Jerusalem, Mary lives in
Nazareth. So for her to get to Elizabeth's
house from Nazareth to Ein, Karem, we're talking 90 miles.
So she it's a five or six day walk for Mary to go visit
Elizabeth this time. She's Not accompanied by Joseph.
As far as we know, Joseph might have been working at this time.
Still, but she probably did have, she was in a walking
Caravan of some kind. It was quite common for people
to travel from Galilee down to Judea.
So she enters the house of Elizabeth and Zachariah and as
soon as Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting the child left in her
womb so the child in Elizabeth's womb leaps when she hears Mary's
voice. So, the child in Elizabeth's
womb is, of course, John John senses, the voice of Mary, and
leaps, for joy that fulfills what Gabriel said to Zechariah
earlier. Remember when Gabriel appears to
Zechariah. One of the things he says, is
your child, John will be filled with the spirit even from his
mother's womb. So that was in chapter verse 15
of chapter one. And there's also other parallels
here all the way through this text, you'll see some Old
Testament echoes. Quite clear ones actually.
And this particular one where the child leaps in Elizabeth's
womb, this parallels the experience of Rebecca in Genesis
25. So Rebecca is the mother of
Jacob and Esau. And in Genesis 25, the same
Greek word, therefore leap is used to describe her children
steering in her womb and interestingly in Rebecca's case,
the child, the children moving in her womb represented.
The fact that Jacob is going to outrank Esau, even though Jacob
was younger And here Elizabeth's experience when John Moves In
the Womb, that is a sign that Jesus would be greater than his
older cousin John. As we see later in Luke 3, 16.
So interesting connections there with Rebecca, of course this has
implications of how we should think of unborn children as
well. Because here we have children in
the womb responding to outside stimuli in a really interesting
way. And so there's some implications
here about how we think about abortion and the issue.
Is around that, it says Elizabeth was filled with the
holy spirit, so notice that she's filled with the holy
spirit. It's a supernatural feeling.
So Elizabeth is filled with the Holy Spirit.
And she says, in verse 42, remember, she's basically being
inspired by the spirit here. Blessed.
Are you among women? Now, what it actually says there
in the Greek is, it's a superlative.
So Elizabeth says to Mary. Most Blessed Are You among
women? Because of the special role.
God has given her and Elizabeth empowered by the spirit.
Is that Elizabeth here? Actually uses the same words
that were spoken to the women, jail and Judith.
Some of the Lesser known characters in the Old Testament,
the women jail and Judith are in Judges chapter 5 and then Judges
chapter 13 fascinating parallel here because both women jail and
Judith. They became famous among the
Israelites because they killed the opposing enemy military
commanders by giving them a mortal blow to the Head.
Well, Mary is going to Bear a son, who will crush Satan's Head
as well, it specifically says that in Genesis 3, verse 15.
So notice all these interesting parallels here with women in the
Old Testament. Clearly Mary here is being
presented by God as the Fulfillment of all of the female
archetypes in the Old Testament. Mary is like the perfect
Israelite woman. And Elizabeth says to Mary,
here, blessed, are you among women?
And blessed is the fruit of your womb.
Of course, this is this comes through into the the Hail Mary
as well. When she says blessed is the
fruit of your womb, their base can basically means blessed is
your son Jesus and that tells us probably that Mary is pregnant
by this point. When she says blessed, she means
God has blessed. You, you have been blessed by
God verse 43. Why should I be honored with a
visit from the mother of my Lord.
Now, what it literally says there and this is a better
translation actually is. Why is this granted me that the
mother of my Lord should come to me.
Now, notice the focus here is on Mary, not Jesus.
The mother of my Lord should come to me.
Now, there's lots of discussion here about the word, Lord,
that's used here, because Lord can mean to Different things in
the Old Testament. Lord, usually means the king the
Earthly King. So Elizabeth here could mean
something like why should it be? Granted me that the mother of my
Messianic King is coming to me and that would certainly fit.
However, there is another meaning of the word, Lord and
most Catholics. And fact, most Christians have
taken it to be Lord as in God. Because in New Testament times
the Hebrew word yhw h often pronounced Yahweh, when that
comes over into Greek in the New Testament, it gets turned into
curiosity, which is Lord. So Lord can also mean God in the
New Testament, and in fact, that's how Luke uses it
throughout his gospel. All of the references to the
word, Lord, so far, in chapter 1 of Luke up to this point have
been about God. So it makes sense to say that
Elizabeth is probably thinking of God, and she is inspired by
the Holy Spirit, he remembers so she probably believes Jesus to
be God. God, if we're understanding this
correctly, This is the key text which informs the Catholic
understanding that Mary is the mother of God that is a Catholic
belief and Mother of God in Greek there.
The word is theotokos. This is the first Marian Dogma
to be defined Catholics have lots of different Marian
teachings of. This was the first one to be
defined. Clearly in 431 ad at the Council
of Ephesus, the church taught that Mary is the mother of God.
And it's based largely on this text here when Elizabeth says
The mother of my Lord Has Come to Me.
Now, we're going to see some really interesting links here,
between the Ark of the Covenant in the Old Testament, and when
that arrived in Jerusalem. So, in the time of David, the
Ark of the Covenant was brought up to Jerusalem and David's
celebrated. There's some interesting links
here between that scene in second, Samuel and the scene we
have here. Let's have a look at a few
fascinating parallels here. There really does seem to be a
clear link here. God has set it up deliberately,
so that the scene we're looking at mirrors, the arrival of the
The Ark in Jerusalem. So in second Samuel 6 verse 2,
it says David arose and went to a village of Judah to retrieve
the ark. Well, here Mariah Rises and goes
to a village of Judah. In fact, Luke interestingly uses
the word Judah here, rather than the more common term in the time
of Luke was Judea. But here Luke says, Judah.
And he might be doing that deliberately to recall the line
from 2nd Samuel where David goes up to Judah.
So there's the first Slink second link between the scenes
in 2nd Samuel 6 verse 10. It says the Ark of the Lord
entered, the house will hear me re-enters the house in the
village of Judah. The thirdly second, Samuel 6
verse 15. It says the people of Israel
shout when the ark arrived and here Elizabeth shouts for Joy.
When Mary arrives interesting? Isn't it?
In fact, the word shout, which is Anna fineö, that would only
occurs here in the New Testament.
Assessment. It's never found anywhere else
in the New Testament, but that word is found in the Old
Testament and a fineö and it's always used in reference to
liturgical procession of the Ark interesting, isn't it?
It really does seem like everything is pointing towards
this being a New Covenant Arc, Mary fourth similarity, when the
ark arrives to to David in Jerusalem.
David says how can the Ark of the Lord come to me here.
What is Elizabeth say? How is it that the mother of my
Lord has come to me. There's clearly got to be
something going on here next parallel.
It says David danced before the ark when it arrives second
Samuel 6 verse 16 and here what is John do John leaps for Joy
when the ark arrives in his house.
Also this is an interesting one. The ark stays in the house for
three months in Jerusalem. But here what is me redo?
She stays in three months in the house of Elizabeth.
So, clearly the parallels here, it's pretty overwhelming.
Whelming evidence that we're supposed to understand that Mary
is being portrayed as the New Covenant, the bearer of the New
Covenant, the new arc. So God's Dwelling Place, which
in the old Covenant was literally the Ark of the
Covenant will. Now God's dwelling place is
literally Mary verse 45 blessed? Is she?
Who believed that there will be a fulfillment of what was spoken
to her from the Lord. So Elizabeth, he says, Mary is
blessed or happy more literally, because Believed in God's
promises unlike Zechariah. Who didn't believe God's
promises? If you remember?
So isn't it? So fascinating when you dive
into the text in this way you see all these new links.
Now there is more that happens in this scene but that's all our
lectionary covers today. So if you want to hear the next
section of text, that's The Magnificat when Mary says The
Magnificat. So that's read on December 22nd
every year which may be tomorrow based depending on when you're
listening to this podcast, let's turn to the catechism and as it
is. Expect, there's a whole lot of
places where we see comments here on this interaction between
Mary and Elizabeth. So let's read a few of them.
Our paragraph 5 to 3. This is about John the Baptist
St. John the Baptist is the Lord's
immediate precursor or Forerunner sent to prepare his
way prophet of the most high John surpasses, all the prophets
of whom he is the last. He inaugurates the gospel
already from his mother's womb, welcomes the coming of Christ.
So here or there you hear the mention of him welcoming Jesus,
even in the womb, which happened in today's reading again,
paragraph, 7, 1 7 is about John. The Baptist John was filled with
the Holy Spirit even from his mother's womb, by Christ
himself, whom the Virgin. Mary had just conceived by the
Holy Spirit. Mary's visitation to Elizabeth.
Thus becomes a visit from God to his people.
Let's go to paragraph 2676 and 2677.
This is about being in communion with the holy mother of God,
blessed art thou among women. And blessed is the fruit of thy
womb. Jesus, after the Angels
greeting, we make Elizabeth's greeting our own filled with the
Holy Spirit. Elizabeth is the first in the
long six succession of generations who have called Mary
blessed blessed is she who believed Mary is blessed among
women because she believed In the Fulfillment of the Lord's
word, Abraham because of his faith became a blessing for all
the nations of the earth. Mary, because of her faith
became the mother of Believers through whom all nations of the
Earth. Receive him?
Who is God's Own blessing? Jesus, the fruit of thy womb,
holy Mary Mother of God with Elizabeth we Marvel.
And why is this granted me that the mother of my Lord should
come to me? So there we have the words of
the Hail Mary into woven with things.
We learn from today's passage in Luke 1 paragrah. 448 is about
the word Lord, at the prompting of the Holy Spirit of Lord,
expresses the recognition of the Divine, mystery of Jesus
paragraph 495 is about Mary's, Divine motherhood called in the
gospels. The mother of Jesus Mary is
acclaimed by Elizabeth at the prompting of the spirit.
And even before the birth of her son, as the mother of my Lord,
In fact, the one whom she conceived as Man by the Holy
Spirit, who truly became her son.
According to the flesh was none, other than the father's Eternal
son. The second person of the Holy
Trinity, hence, the church confesses that Mary is truly
Mother of God theotokos So, here we have information about the
Catholic teaching on the doctrine that Mary is the mother
of God. And it talks about it in
trinitarian terms, because Mary is the mother of the second
person of the Trinity she is by definition, the mother of God,
and you can have a look at the show notes to take a look at
that paragraph. If you want more information
there, paragraph 148 is about blessed.
Is she who believed Elizabeth greeted?
Her blessed. Is she who believed that there
would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord?
Hard. It is for this faith, that all
generations, have called Mary blessed.
So we'll leave it there for today.
I hope you have learned something new about this text
and hopefully you tune in again tomorrow.