WE must not imagine that the Blessed Virgin Mary was moved to
undertake this long journey to visit her cousin, St. Elizabeth, by
curiosity to know if what the Angel had told her were true, for she
had not the slightest doubt of it. Our Blessed Lady was moved by a
secret impulse of God, Who wished to commence the work of Redemption
and the sanctification of souls in this visit, by the sanctification
of the infant St. John.
The most ardent charity and most profound humility animated her, and
gave her wings to fly across the mountains of Judea, and these two
virtues were also the cause of her journey. As St. Ambrose says,
charity or grace knows no delays nor cold deliberations: _Nescit tarda
molimina sancti spiritus gratiae_. It need not therefore surprise us
if the Most Holy Virgin, filled as she was with charity (because she
bore in her womb Him Who is Love itself), should exercise it in
continual acts towards God, to Whom she was closely united by the
sacred bond of perfect love, and towards her neighbours, whom she
loved so tenderly and sincerely that she sighed for the salvation and
sanctification of the whole world. She went with all alacrity, because
she knew with what happy results her visit would be attended, in the
person of St. John, and also because she wished to congratulate her
cousin who, notwithstanding her age and sterility, had conceived the
long-predicted precursor of the Word Incarnate. She went that they
might rejoice together, and excite each other to glorify the God of
all mercy, and to thank Him for so many favours and benedictions.
St. Luke would teach us by the words, _Exurgens Maria abiit cum
festinatione in montana in civitatem Juda_--'Mary arose and went into
the mountain country with haste, into a city of Judea'--the care and
readiness with which we also ought to correspond to the Divine
inspirations. As it is the work of the Holy Spirit to banish all
tepidity and negligence from the heart, so He would have us execute
His Divine Will with all care and diligence, and He is offended by any
kind of delay. The virginal purity of Mary, which so dearly loved
solitude, also caused her to go with haste, for the best protection
for virginal purity is to appear as little as possible in the tumult
of the world.
Having reached the house of Zachary, she entered it. She saluted
Elizabeth. The Evangelist does not relate that she saluted Zachary
also, for her love of purity was so great that she spoke little with
men. Let virgins learn from this that they cannot take too great care
for the preservation of this virtue.
Who can imagine the sweet fragrance of this most beautiful lily in the
house of Zachary during the three months that she remained there? How
well did she spend every instant! What honey, what precious balsam,
must those sacred lips have distilled in the few but excellent words
that they uttered! Indeed, Mary could speak only that which filled her
heart, and _that_ was Jesus!
Let us consider the meaning of the words, that 'Elizabeth was filled
with the Holy Ghost'--_Et repleta est Spiritu Sancto Elisabeth_--that
Elizabeth, who had already received the Holy Ghost with all His gifts,
received a new fulness and a new increase of grace by this visit.
Although the Lord grants His graces to the just _in full measure_,
yet, as the Gospel says, this measure can be so augmented as to
overflow on all sides: _Mensuram bonam confertam et coagitatam et
supereffluentem dabunt in sinum vestrum._
Let us well understand this important truth. The grace of the Holy
Ghost can never be granted to us in this life in such full measure
that it cannot be augmented; therefore, let us beware of saying: 'It
is enough; I am sufficiently enriched with graces and virtues.
_Mensura conferta est_--the measure is filled up, further progress in
mortification is unnecessary.' He who should speak thus would only
show too clearly his misery, or, rather, his presumption, and the
great danger to which he exposes himself. _Omni habenti dabitur et
abundabit, ei autem qui non habet et quod videtur habere auferetur ab
eo_. This text signifies that to him who has received much--that is to
say, who has laboured much, and never gives up--much shall be given.
Such a one believes that he has never done enough; but, conscious of
his own misery, he continues to labour with holy and sincere humility.
_He, then, who possesses much, shall receive with usury, and
superabundantly;_ but from him who profits not by the grace received,
letting it lie idle and fruitless, because he believes he is rich
enough, _from him shall be taken that which he thinketh himself to
possess and that which he does not possess_. This means, that graces
already received shall be taken away, because he has not traded with
them, and those which have been prepared for him shall not be bestowed
upon him, since he has rendered himself unworthy of them by his
negligence. All this, however, is not to be understood of _sufficient_
grace, which is never denied by God to anyone, but of _efficacious_
grace, which, by a just judgment of God, is not granted to tepid and
ungrateful souls.
The thirst for riches and honours, by which worldlings are tormented,
never allows them to say, _Enough_. And yet they ought to be contented
with a little, for experience teaches us that the highest dignities
and honours and great wealth frequently occasion the loss of souls. It
is in regard of such temporal matters that we should say, _I have
sufficient_. But, with regard to spiritual goods, let us never believe
that we possess them in sufficient abundance, so long as we remain in
this land of exile, but let us make every possible effort _to advance
day by day from virtue to virtue_.
Experience teaches us that plants and fruits do not attain maturity
until they have produced their seeds, which are necessary for the
reproduction of their species. In the same way our virtues will never
be sufficiently perfected, or reach their maturity, until they produce
within us an ardent desire to make further progress. This desire is
the spiritual seed which produces new degrees of virtue.