Blessed among women
December 21, 2017
Thursday, 3rd
Week of Advent
1st Reading: Sg 2:8-14
Gospel: Lk 1:39–45
Mary then set out for a town in the Hills of Judah. She entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leapt in her womb. Elizabeth was filled with Holy Spirit, and giving a loud cry, said, “You are most blessed among women and blessed is the fruit of your womb! How is it that the mother of my Lord comes to me? The moment your greeting sounded in my ears, the baby within me suddenly leapt for joy. Blessed are you who believed that the Lord’s word would come true!”
D@iGITAL-EXPERIENCE
(Daily Gospel in
the Assimilated
Life Experience)
Elizabeth was the first person in the Bible to worship Jesus in the womb of Mary when she exclaimed: “…blessed is the fruit of your womb!” Elizabeth did not only say, “Blessed is the fruit of your womb!”
Addressing herself to the Blessed Virgin Mary, she also said, “Blessed are you among women”. And rightly so! Mary’s life was never the same again after she conceived the Son of God. Her commitment to God transformed her life.
We continue to enjoy the fruit of Mary’s womb today at our Eucharistic celebrations where Christ becomes truly present in the species of bread and wine. As Mary committed her whole life to the fruit of her womb, we too are challenged to commit ourselves to this fruit by abandoning sin. This is necessary because the “ex opere operato” doctrine we have discussed in previous columns assures us that grace flows freely wherever Holy Mass is celebrated. But if we are sullied by sin, grace gets contaminated. How would one profit from a free-flowing fount of mineral water, for example, if the container that he uses is dirty?
This commitment to the Eucharistic presence of Jesus transforms us into humble persons. The German Philosopher Ludwig Feuerbach wrote an essay in 1862 entitled “The Mystery of Sacrifice or Man is what he eats”. In the same essay Feuerbach describes the statement “man is what he eats” as “scurrilous expression of modern sensualist pseudo- wisdom”, “an insult to the honor of German Philosophy and Culture”. While the statement sounds scurrilous, how we wish it were true at our Eucharistic celebrations so that we too may become what we eat at Communion time. Or if we cannot totally become like Jesus whose body we eat at the altar, we should at least become humble like him who “did not deem equality with God” (Philippians 2:5-11).
Committed to abandon sin, and transformed by the body of Christ we partake of at the Eucharist, we too will become blessed among peoples, as Mary was blessed among women. – (Atty.) Rev. Fr. Dan Domingo P. delos Angeles, Jr., DM. Email: [email protected]
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