BLESSED IS HE THAT COMETH IN THE NAME OF THE LORD

A SERMON FOR THE FEAST OF THE VISITATION

Christ left us with two great commandments, to love God and to love our neighbor as ourselves.  These two commandments are fulfilled by our Blessed Lady in the first two Mysteries of the Rosary.  With the First Joyful Mystery, we saw how Our Blessed Mother obeyed the first of these commandments sublimely and entirely, when, at the Annunciation, she showed how much she loved God by agreeing to bring forth into the world his Son, the Redeemer of mankind.  Today, on the Feast of the Visitation, the second of the Joyful Mysteries, our Lady obeys the second of God’s great commandments, reaching out to her neighbor, her cousin Elisabeth, who, like her, is with child.

As our Lady makes the difficult journey into the mountains to help her aging cousin Elisabeth deliver her new baby, she is not alone.  She too carries a child within her womb.  Not just any child, but the Creator and Sanctifier of all, the child who is the hope of the everlasting hills, who has come to visit and redeem his people.  And blessed is he, that cometh in the Name of the Lord.  

The two cousins, Mary and Elisabeth, are both with child, the first with the Saviour of mankind, and the second with the Forerunner of that Saviour, whose name is to be called John, the future John the Baptist. He has been chosen to prepare the way for the Christ—but first Christ will prepare him.  This preparation takes place as Mary approaches the home of her cousin Elisabeth: “And it came to pass, that, when Elisabeth heard the salutation of Mary, the babe leaped in her womb.” John leaps because, even in the dark prison of his womb, he feels the sanctifying presence of the Son of God, who from his own equally confined darkness in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary nevertheless reaches out his healing hand to his cousin John, and takes away his sin.  The original sin that John inherited from Adam is now washed away by the mere presence of his Saviour, the God whom he can neither see nor hear, but by whom he is nevertheless made clean.  He who is to become “the Baptist”, is now, himself, baptized.

By making her visitation to her cousin Elisabeth, the Blessed Virgin Mary makes possible the visitation by her divine Son to his own cousin, John.  As she approaches Elisabeth’s home, her cousin sees her approaching and calls out “Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb.”  When her son John becomes a man, he too will see his cousin Jesus approaching, and will echo her words, remembering what happened on this day, “Blessed is he that cometh in the Name of the Lord!”  Why?  Because he will recall his own deliverance from original sin on this day of visitation, and will exclaim, “Behold the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sins of the world.”

While still dwelling in the womb of his most blessed Virgin-Mother, our Saviour reveals on this great feast day what will be his role in his earthly life.  He has come to take away the sins of the world, and his first act, performed even before he is born, is to do just that, by taking away the original sin of St. John Baptist.

At our Holy Mass today, St. John the Baptist’s “voice crying in the wilderness” echoes out in the Agnus Dei, as we pray for mercy and forgiveness for ourselves from the “Lamb of God which taketh away the sins of the world.” Where is this Lamb of God?  We do not have to wait long to find out—as we approach the altar to receive the Holy Eucharist, the priest turns to us, holds up the host for us to see, and admonishes us to “Behold the Lamb of God.  Behold him that taketh away the sins of the world.” There is no ambiguity.  Our Holy Communion is this Lamb of God, and this sacrament will save us from all our iniquities.

Just as the unborn St. John the Baptist hails the “Lamb of God, that taketh away the sins of the world”, and is instantly healed of sin, so now the sacrifice of this same Lamb of God at Holy Mass has made our souls to be healed.  If we have prepared to receive him worthily by confessing our sins and doing penance, we will now experience a sudden rush of sanctifying grace, and our manifold and diverse sins will be wiped away by the cleansing power of the Body of that Lamb of God dwelling within us.

When we receive Holy Communion today, we will be sanctified by the Real Presence of our Lord hidden under the form of bread and wine, just as St. John was made holy by Christ’s presence hidden in the womb of our blessed Lady.  We should therefore resolve today that every Communion we receive might increase in us that sanctifying grace, and that we may grow in the light of that grace, reflecting more and more the glory of the God in whose image we were made, and in whose divine Being we are increasingly united.