Elizabeth marveled that so great a person should
come to see her and she asked: How have I deserved to be thus visited by the
mother of my Lord? She went on to commend Mary for her words of greeting. As
soon as ever the voice of thy greeting sounded in my ears, she said, the child
in my womb leaped for joy. And in praise
of her faith she said: Blessed art thou for thy believing. High praise indeed
was this. But Mary's utter humility would not allow her to keep anything for
herself; it only made her the more eager to refer all the credit to God, for it
was his blessings that were being praised in her.
"You magnify me", she might have said,
"because I am the Lord's mother; but my soul magnifies the Lords himself.
You say that your child leaped for joy when he heard my voice; but my spirit
has found joy in God, who is my Savior, and your son too rejoices at hearing
the bridegroom's voice, for he is the bridegroom's friend You call me blessed
because I have believed; but the reason why I believed and am blessed is that
the merciful God looked down upon me from on high. If all generations are to
count me blessed, it is because God has looked graciously upon his poor and
lowly handmaid."
We must not therefore think, brethren, must we,
that holy Elizabeth was mistaken when she said what the Spirit had told her to
say? Of course, we must not. Obviously, Mary was blessed both because God had
looked graciously upon her and because of her believing. That God looked
graciously upon her had its effect, and a great effect it was. The Holy Spirit
came upon her and by means beyond all telling contrived that her great humility
should meet in the depths of her virginal heart with equally great magnanimity.
Each gained luster from the mutual contact; neither was diminished by the
other. Although she was so humble in estimating her own worth, she was
magnanimous in believing the promise made to her. Thinking herself to be but a
poor little servant, she yet never doubted that she had been chosen to
accomplish an inscrutable mystery; she believed that in very truth she would
soon be the mother of the God-man.
It is the prerogative of divine grace so to work
in the hearts of the elect that humility does not make them pusillanimous or
magnanimity arrogant. The two virtues collaborate. Thus, magnanimity cannot
serve as a cloak for pride; in fact, it greatly increases humility and makes
men fear God and be grateful to the Giver of their gifts. In the same way,
humility affords no entry to pusillanimity. The less a man relies on his own
powers, even in the smallest things, the more does he lean on God's strength
whenever he has some great enterprise in hand.
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