Pregnant with Anticipation

Fourth Sunday of Advent

Blessed are you among women - Luke 1:42

A unique scene unfolds before us in our gospel. Two women, both pregnant through the most unusual of conditions, exchange greetings filled with joy, wonder, and amazement at their shared circumstance, each describing for the other (and for us!) what God has done.

We have become familiar with their children, the sons born to Elizabeth and Mary a few months after this monumental conversation. Elizabeth will give birth to John, the one we call "the Baptist," the one who prophesies, proclaims, and prepares the community for Christ's ministry. Mary will give birth to Jesus, the Messiah, Emmanuel - God with us.

Blessed are you among women - Luke 1:42

It is through this prism of hindsight that we can appreciate the words spoken by these women - women in vastly different life circumstances, whose maternal joy we know will eventually lead to sorrow as their sons' ministries and lives follow God's call even to death.

Elizabeth is an old woman who has remained childless. Her miraculous pregnancy was foretold by the angel Gabriel, who appeared to her husband, Zechariah. Meanwhile, Mary is a young woman, engaged to be married, when the same angel appears to her with the impossible news of God's Son. Both women have had much to process and ponder, it is no wonder that their hearts burst into proclamation and song.

"Blessed are you," Elizabeth cries, the first witness to the miracle in Mary, "the mother of my Lord." Somehow Elizabeth and the child within her own womb both intuitively know who Mary is and whom she carries within her. Mary responds with her own vision, her song of praise, her Magnificent. "My soul magnifies the Lord," she proclaims, proceeding to paint a glorious and grand vision of God's great mystery unfolding within her.

These two pregnant women with trust, courage, and eloquence have shown us a glimpse of God.