“MEGALUNEI”
Saint Luke 1: 39-56
The Visitation [Transferred]: 1 July Anno Domini 2018
Father Jay Watson SSP
“She shall be brought unto the King in raiment of needlework” spake King David by The Holy Ghost.
The “she” is Saint Mary of Nazareth. The King is not Jesse’s 8th son but The Heavenly Father’s only-begotten Son. She was brought by The Holy Ghost and Archangel Gabriel. The “needlework” (which is time consuming, difficult, and precise) is all the work of Christ Himself—His obedience, His sacrifice and death, indeed, the “needlework” He allowed on His sinless Body done by backhands, whip, thorns, spikes, and spear.
“Her companions shall be brought unto Thee; with gladness and rejoicing.” The Virgin’s companions are indeed all of you spotless virgins, washed white in the Blood of Her Son. You rejoice with her and the Church she icons, to be in His presence this festive day!
“And Mary arose in those days,” the days of God’s invasion into the devil’s captured world of sin and death. And she was full of life and light for she carried in her Virgin Womb, Immanuel. Not just God for you, but God with you. She traveled from the lower Galilee to the higher Judea. She ascended to the home of her kinswoman Saint Elisabeth, yes, but she also brought God to the future place of His atoning, propitiatory, and bloody death.
Her actions beautifully showcasing God’s plan of salvation, and also demonstrating The Lord’s choice to only deal with His children by His Son, The Word made flesh. This you know, only by The Word inscripturated in the Holy pages of The Sacred Scriptures. These Words are the means of Grace whether preached, or washed, or eaten. No Means of Grace, no Grace—No Jesus. No Church, No Jesus. No Saint Mary, No Jesus. Not because of Mary, but through Mary The Lord Worked His incarnation. One who does not love Mary cannot love Jesus. Because, we love our fellow man—alive and deceased. We love our dead grandparents, we love Peter, Paul, Noah, the Magdalene, and the Virgin Mary. God is love. His family is love, and it loves.
Is the Hebrew Old Testament filled with Mary? Well, yes, in so far as it is filled with The Word of God. The Word is not abstract and unanchored; it is not in your “hearts” but rather it is placed in your ears, in the Church’s proclaimed Magnificat! Psalm 19 referencing all Gospelers, but probably most directly the Apostles, proclaims “…their words (have gone out) to the end of the world. In them hath He set the tabernacle for the sun.” Paul reminds you what David means—how can you hear unless one preaches. Faith cometh by hearing because Jesus comes by preaching—preaching requires preachers. The ministers of God are sent by God’s Holy Church. A tabernacle may reserve The Precious Body of Christ. A tabernacle, such as the Ark of The Covenant, may reserve the Decalogue; and most fittingly, the womb of The Virgin reserved The God/Man prior to His December 25th Nativity.
“Thy Word (that’s Christ in the flesh) is lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.” [Ps. 119.105] How so? In the Church, wherein The Spirit calls and gathers by The Word. Metaphorically speaking, The Virgin is the lamp, the lantern, carrying The Light of Life into the hill country, then, in reality, and today, via the Church.
In the very presence of God, the in-utero baby, Saint John the Baptist “magnified” His Lord. His mother, Saint Elisabeth spoke God’s Words also: “Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb.” That same fruit, both of the Virgin’s Womb, and from The Father, “begotten,” will soon be tabernacling inside all of you! It’s Jesus that makes you blessed!
The Good news is Saint Mary’s initial greeting that both John and Elisabeth responded to by The Spirit. Mary’s canticle is purest Evangel contained in the Bible. Her praise, laud, honor, and worship to Her unborn Son, her Lord and her God, flows naturally from what He had done for her—and will do! It is the Scriptural, Word reality, of Luther’s doctrine of the “Blessed Exchange,” The Lord taking your vileness and rot, and giving you in exchange His Righteousness and Holy Beauty…death for life.
Jesus regards your low estate. He loved a young Jewish girl who had nothing to offer or give, save her faith, which He gave her to begin with, to receive His gifts. So too Jesus loves you his lowly handmaidens, elevating you to Spotless, Virginal Bride. Mary is evermore The Blessed Virgin, but you are Blessed Holy Saints and Royal Brethren.
Jesus allowed horrible, satanic, things to be done to His immaculate Body that He might do great things to your Body and Soul at the cool waters of The + Font and at the Table of The Eucharist. His Holy Name is given you as your Holy Family Name.
His tender Mercy looses you from your bondage to sin because He allowed NO mercy to be shown to Himself. His innocent arms and hands held up the weight of the world, the crushing weight of all trespasses, as they were pinned to the tree. His real strength was made manifest in His crucifixion/coronation. He scatters the proud, be they Pharisee, Sadducee, Moslem, Atheist, or Heretic. He pulls down the faux-mighty from their imagined and illusory seats of secular and profane power and works. He lifts all of you out of the Job dumpsters of depression, illness, loss, alone-ness, and degradation. Jesus exalts you to His right hand to dine with Him and upon Him. Those rich men, like Dives, are sent away forever hungry in the bowels of hell, while you receive The Living Bread of Heaven. You banquet upon The Word, and The Sacrament of The Word made Flesh, in today’s foretaste of the Ever-Feast.
The Blessed Virgin is correct. Her Son shows Mercy then, and now, as He always has, as He did in time past as He “spake to [y]our fathers, to Abraham, and to…you…His seed for ever.”
In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of The Holy Ghost
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