Lk 1:39-45
39During those days Mary set out and traveled to the hill country in haste to a town of Judah, 40where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. 41When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the infant leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth, filled with the holy Spirit, 42cried out in a loud voice and said, “Most blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. 43And how does this happen to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? 44For at the moment the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the infant in my womb leaped for joy. 45Blessed are you who believed that what was spoken to you by the Lord would be fulfilled.”
Reflection
The mother of my Lord: Luke, who wrote sometime between 70-80 AD, exhibits a “high Mariology” when compared with the other two Synoptic evangelists: Mark and Matthew. He presents Mary as Mother and Disciple, the reason for Mary’s praise.
In the Gospel, Luke has Elizabeth address Mary as “the mother of my Lord.” In the court protocol of the ancient near East, “the mother of the Lord” is the honorific title reserved for the queen-mother, the most influential personage after the king. We have eloquent examples of the influence of the queen-mothers like Bathsheba, the mother of Solomon (1 Kgs 2:19), and the mother of Belshazzar (Dn 5:10-12).
Obviously, Luke is not interested in the position of Mary. His concern is to point out the dignity of the son Mary carries in her womb. Jesus is Kyrios (“Lord”)—not because he is some earthly royalty, but because he is holy, the Son of God (Lk 1:37). Jesus will clearly be manifested as divine by virtue of his resurrection from the dead (Rom 1:4), but Luke anticipates this glory at his conception and birth. By applying the title “the mother of my Lord,” Elizabeth praises Mary for “the fruit of her womb.” But the title may as well be an acknowledgment of Mary as the person most closely associated with Jesus. Does this not imbue her with “the power of intercession,” not unlike that of queen-mothers of old?