THE DIVINE MOTHERHOOD BY DOM ANSCAR VONIER, OSB
Chapter II.
THE MOTHERHOOD OF ELIZABETH.
Just as the person of the Son of God has its human and finite counterpart in the person of John the Baptist, the Precursor, so the divine motherhood of Mary stands in the Gospel of St. Luke intimately associated with another motherhood, that of Elizabeth.
Elizabeth s motherhood played a wonderful role in the mystery of the Incarnation ; it was to Mary the one external proof of the possibility of a divine and virginal motherhood, and Mary’s mind had the human satisfaction of possessing a visible evidence in favour of an incomprehensible spiritual fact. Elizabeth s motherhood was the Angel s argument to establish the veracity of his incredible message. He used no other, but used it with irresistible efficacy: "And behold thy cousin Elizabeth, she also hath conceived a son in her old age; and this is the sixth month with her that is called barren, because no word shall be impossible with God" (Luke i. 36 37). The act of faith by which Mary assented to the Angel s message was the greatest act of faith the supernatural world has ever produced; yet in this act of faith, as in every other act of faith, there was the working of the human mind, there was the motivum credibilitatis , the rational ground for assent. Elizabeth s motherhood, so unexpected, so entirely above human laws, was to Mary s sublime faith in that circumstance the motivum credibilitatis. Mary s mind worked in tensely; the motherhood that was promised her was apparently impossible on account both of her virginity and the nature of the Child to be born. The Archangel, most privileged of all beings, entered into the workings of that mind and followed them step by step ; for it was his office not only to deliver the message but also to make it appear credible, to obtain the intellectual acceptance of it by Mary. Elizabeth s motherhood thus carefully narrated and put before Mary s mind turned the scales, and her mental acceptance of the mystery was complete and unreserved. That Mary s act of faith at that moment was an effort of heroic perfection we can conclude from the words of praise which the Holy Ghost put on the lips of Elizabeth when Mary came to visit her: "And blessed art thou that hast believed, because those things shall be accomplished that were spoken to thee by the Lord" (Luke i. 45).
The motherhood of Elizabeth is obviously the greatest and noblest instance of a purely human motherhood: "Amen I say to you, there hath not risen among them that are born of women a greater than John the Baptist" (Matt. xi. u). This testimony of the Son of God as to John’s greatness would suffice to give to Elizabeth a unique place of honour among all the women who have the dignity of motherhood. But there is, besides the greatness of the son born to Elizabeth, the wonderful circumstance o.f that maternity. It is as supernatural, as much above the laws of human fertility, as it possibly could be.
The priest Zacharias, Elizabeth s husband, never doubted the presence of the Angel that appeared to him, standing on the right side of the altar of incense; he knew that he was conversing with the Angel of the Lord. Yet the promise of a son seemed a thing so incredible that by a strange contradiction he actually doubted the possibility of such an occurrence. "And Zacharias said to the Angel: Whereby shall I know this? For I am an old man, and my wife is advanced in the years" (Luke i. 1 8).
The doubts of the old man were of such a character as to deserve the severe rebuke of the Angel, and the punishment of temporary dumbness: "because thou hast not believed my words, which shall be fulfilled in their time" (Luke i. 20). The doubt of Zacharias is, like the doubt of St. Thomas the Apostle, an indirect testimony: it brings out a supernatural fact. In this case the supernatural fact is the miraculous character of John s birth. With Elizabeth we are not, of course, in presence of a miraculous phenomenon of transcending glory as in the case of Mary’s motherhood; Zacharias is truly the father of John the Baptist. Yet it was at the same time so evident a sign of God s favour to Elizabeth that Mary no longer hesitated in her mind as to the possibility of her own motherhood, the moment she heard the news from the Angel that Elizabeth was with child.
Elizabeth s motherhood may be considered as a term of comparison, to enable us the better to understand and measure the excellency of Mary’s motherhood. The Gospel of St. Luke opens with a detailed description of the holiest and purest human motherhood that could possibly be imagined. The Evangelist takes pleasure in giving us a full description of the glories of that venerable mother. The arrangement is most perfect, even from the artistic point of view; it is a glorious crescendo, this intertwining of the two motherhoods, that of Elizabeth and that of Mary. When we have read all about Elizabeth s motherhood as described by the pen of St. Luke, we ask ourselves whether it is possible for a woman to have God nearer to her in the joys of maternity, than it is conveyed by that wonderful proximity of heaven in the origin of John s life. But a greater thing is still to come, a thing that will make a most dramatic appeal to the strongest faith.
With Elizabeth s motherhood God s action and grace surround, as with an odour of heavenly life, the laws of created life. With Mary it will be all heavenly life. God s action is not merely the companion of created causality; it is supreme, exclusive, absolutely unconditioned by the created law of life. On the other hand, this artistic intertwining of the two maternities on the part of the Evangelist is a guarantee to us that both maternities were maternities in the full sense of the word. There will always be the danger for our mind to place Mary’s divine role in a totally unearthly sphere of things, to think of her motherhood as of something belonging to quite another world. The sublimity of it detracts from its created reality in some careless minds. With Mary’s motherhood closely related to Elizabeth s motherhood, we ought to see at once that Mary is truly a mother in the ordinary human, real, created mode of maternity. When Elizabeth and Mary met for the first time after the Angel s message we have two mothers meeting, one as truly and as really a mother as the other: "And whence is this to me, that the Mother of my Lord should come to me?" (Luke i. 43.)
Elizabeth s exclamation of joy is also a proclamation of the reality of Mary s motherhood; her own offspring, still hidden in her womb, had leaped for joy at the presence of Him Who could not be there then in person if Mary s womb were not truly a mother’s womb. "Blessed is the Fruit of thy womb" we have to read in conjunction with that other sentence "The infant in my womb leaped for joy." Elizabeth, in her tender love for her cousin, keeps the great mystery for us human beings, prevents it from receding into a realm that is no longer man s realm. Mary’s maternity is truly a divine maternity. But it has also the joys and the essential characteristics of a human maternity. It was the mission of the Archangel Gabriel to reveal the secrets of the divine maternity; it was Elizabeth s mission to assure us that Mary is as truly a human mother as she is herself.
