My spirit wildly joys

Having risen up [anastasa], Mary
traveled to the hill country in enthusiastic haste
to a town of Judah,
where she entered the house of Zechariah
and greeted Elizabeth.
When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting,
the infant leaped in her womb,
and Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Spirit,
cried out in a loud voice and said,
“Blessed [eulogēmenē] are you among women,
and blessed is the fruit of your womb.
And how does this happen to me,
that the mother of my Lord should come to me?
For at the moment the sound of your greeting reached my ears,
the infant in my womb leaped in wild joy [agalliasei].
Happy [makaria] are you who believed
that what was spoken to you by the Lord
would be fulfilled.”

Today’s Gospel at Mass. Just wow. Two women, one old, one young, both pregnant with the Impossible. Mary, informed by the Archangel of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, springs out of Nazareth to see for herself, running across mountains and hills to share her astonishment and joy, and to find confirmation of her own angelic news:

And now, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son,
and you will name him Jesus.
He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High,
and the Lord God will give to him
the throne of his father David.
He will reign over the house of Jacob forever,
and of his kingdom there will be no end.

These immense words, spoken by Gabriel “sent from God” (Lk. 1:26), would have unquestionably been a mega mystērion “great mystery” (Eph. 5:32) to Mary.

Elizabeth’s stunning greeting, “the mother of my Lord,” must have overwhelmed Mary with indescribable emotions as Gabriel’s words still rang in her ears. So how appropriate it is that, immediately after Elizabeth names Mary makaria “happy,” Mary explodes out into the dizzying canticle of her Magnificat:

My soul magnifies [megalynei] the Lord,
and my spirit wildly joys [ēgalliasen] in God my Savior

What a scene this is! Enter it with them…