Homily for December
21, 2004
CONNECTION TO COUSIN ELIZABETH
Today’s gospel narrative, taken from Lk. 1:39-45,
talks about Mary’s visit to her cousin Elizabeth. This gospel will give us our
sixth connection to the Messiah, just like all the other earlier Messianic
connections which we have been discussing since December 16, 2004. As we said, all the
connections to these biblical personages and figures are necessary to establish
the link in the minds of the people to the claim of Jesus Christ to the Messiahship
of ancient Israel.
Today’s
gospel narrative, regarding Mary’s visit to her cousin Elizabeth, who was the
mother of John the Baptist, occurred in the town of Ain Karim, a town situated
five miles west of Jerusalem.
This gospel narrative begins with
verses 39 and 40, which says:
“Mary set out at that time and went as
quickly as she could to a town in the hill country of Judah. She went
to Zechariah’s house and greeted Elizabeth.”
No
parallel text for these verses are given in the Scriptures, except the footnote
regarding the identity of the town.
It continues with verse 41, which
says:
“Now as soon as Elizabeth heard Mary’s
greetings, the child leapt in her womb and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit”.
This verse has parallels in the
following places:
1.
Lk. 1:15 – Even from her mother’s womb, he will be filled with the Holy Spirit.
2.
Jr. 1:5 – Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,
before you came to birth I consecrated you. I have appointed you as prophet to
the nations.
3.
Is. 49:5 – Yahweh called me before I was born, from my
mother’s womb he pronounced my name.
4.
Ps. 2:7 – Let me proclaim Yahweh’s decree: he has told
me, ‘You are my son, today I have become your father’.
5.
Mt. 11:18 – John came neither eating and drinking, yet you say ‘He is possessed’.
6.
Jh. 10:36 – Yet you say to someone the Father has consecrated and sent into the
world, “You are blaspheming”, because he says, “I am the Son of God”.
7.
Ga. 1:15 – Then
God, who had chosen me while I was still in my mother’s womb, called through
his grace and chose to reveal his Son in
me…
8.
Rm. 8:29 – They are the ones he chose specially long ago and intended to become
true images of his Son so that His son might be the eldest of many brothers.
Eventually, the feeling by Elizabeth as the Holy Spirit filling her was +interpreted
according to these eight foregoing verses which parallels verse 41 of Luke
1. But the following verses, verses 42,
43 and 44, clarify this incident, when it says:
“She gave a loud cry and said: ‘Of all
women, you are the most blessed, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. Why
should I be honored with a visit from the mother of my Lord. For the moment
your greeting reached my ears, the child in my womb leapt for joy.”
Hence, the filling of the Holy Spirit must be
interpreted as a feeling of enthusiasm on the part of Elizabeth when her cousin Mary came to visit
her. Even Elizabeth’s
feeling that her child in the womb “leapt for joy”, because of the sound of
Mary’s greeting, has nothing more very religious
to signify.
In fact, the following two parallels for verse 42
attach more religious meaning to Elizabeth’s
remark about her cousin Mary upon seeing
her than the feeling of the Holy Spirit filling her up:
1.
Jg. 5:24 – Blessed
be Jael among women (the wife of Heber the Kenite), among all women that dwell
in tents may she be blessed.
2.
Jdt. 13:18 – Judith the raised her voice and said, ‘Praise God! Praise him! Praise
God who has not withdrawn his mercy from the House of Israel, but has
shattered our enemies by my hand tonight!
The last verse, verse 45 of this gospel narrative,
says:
“Yes, blessed
is she who believed that the promise made her by the Lord would be fulfilled.”
A
parallel passage had been found for this
in Jn. 2:29, which says:
“Jesus said to
him, ‘You believed because you can see me? Happy are those who have not seen
yet believe.’”
With
these gospel texts and their parallel texts in the Bible, one outstanding
connection which we could make with the Messiah, aside from the meaning of all
the other words spoken by the biblical writers, is the word “cousin”.
Elizabeth, the wife of the priest
Zechariah, the parents of John the Baptist, is said here as a cousin of the
Virgin Mary.
In the Bible, we find a discussion
regarding this word. In the discussion regarding the true kinsmen of Jesus in
Lk. 8:19-21, with parallels
in Mt. 12:46 and Mk. 3:31-35, the word ‘brothers” in Mt. 12:46 has an explanation in the
footnote of the Jerusalem Bible saying: “not Mary’s children but near
relations, cousins perhaps, which both Hebrew and Aramaic style “brothers” (Cf.
Gn. 13:8, 14:16, 29:15; Lv. 10:4; 1 Ch. 23:22f).
But in yesterday’s gospel narrative of Lk.
1:26-38, the evangelist
Luke referred to Elizabeth
as Mary’s kinswoman (Lk. 1:36),
cousin or sister, if we adopt the above explanation on Mt. 12:46. If
Elizabeth a descendant of Aaron who was a priest (LK. 1:5), and if Mary
is the kinswoman or cousin of Elizabeth,
then this makes Mary as a descendant of Aaron who was a priest.
Because of this connection between Mary
and her cousin Elizabeth, this makes Jesus Christ also a claimant to the
priestly Messiahship as earlier claimed by John. This link further fortifies
our previous assertion that John the Baptist and Jesus Christ were both
legitimate members of an Essene community, because these religious communities
of the Essene were established and composed of the priestly class, as the
original founders of the Essenes were the Maccabean the priests that called
themselves “Hasidaeans”, who rose against the foreign conquerors of the Holy
Land in defense of the Temple in Jerusalem.
Conclusion:
In conclusion, the gospel narrative
concerning Virgin Mary’s visit to her cousin Elizabeth had established the
Messiah’s connection to his roots, and further established his claim to the
priestly Messiaship which was at par with John the Baptist’s priestly
Messiahip.
Tomorrow, we will talk about the messianic
connection to a song of Joy of the Virgin Mary, the “Magnificat”, our seventh
Messianic connection.
No comments:
Post a Comment