“Most blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb.”

Hardly has His little heart begun to beat when Jesus wishes to prove His love and pour out His blessings. John the Baptist and his entire family are the first to experience this ardent love of Jesus brought by Mary.

Ardent and Eager Zeal

Each beat of the Heart of Jesus has, so to speak, its echo in that of Mary, so that the love in these two hearts becomes the same, takes the same object, the same intensity, and overflows onto mankind.

Jesus has already testified His love to His Father through His act of oblation; He has showered His Mother with wondrous gifts; He has sanctified Saint Joseph, His foster father. Now, He wishes to bring choice graces to His precursor, Saint John the Baptist. He draws Mary into this mysterious journey. Love gives wings to them both. Mary, completely intoxicated by the ardent and eager zeal of Jesus, runs, flies across mountains and valleys: “abiit in montana cum festinatione” [Lk 1:39]. It was a journey of a hundred kilometers, which was probably made in three days.

Jesus gave Himself to His Father and to souls through His act of oblation. He burns with the eagerness to begin the Redemption. He inflames Mary with His zeal. Their two hearts are but one. What love they show us, and what a lesson in zeal for us!

Wondrous Munificence

Jesus and Mary bring immense blessings. John the Baptist leaps in his mother’s womb under the blessing of Jesus. It is the leaping of love and zeal. He already wished to anticipate the years, and to preach the love of God and repentance for sins committed.

Elizabeth and Zechariah prophesy. Zechariah is healed of his muteness. All graces are gathered together: sanctification and vocation of the precursor, miraculous healing, and the gift of prophecy. What munificence!

Jesus goes about doing good: “transiit benefaciendo” [Acts 10:38]. Oh! How great is His goodness, and how full of promise is this first manifestation! Jesus has therefore come to earth to open the sources of all graces, and Mary is like the chariot of fire carrying the Messiah. Does their goodness not demand immense confidence and immense gratitude?

Prayer and Thanksgiving

Jesus also gives us the gift of prayer in this circumstance. He intends to teach us later the Pater [Our Father], the prayer par excellence. In the meantime, He gives us the Ave Maria, the Magnificat, and the Benedictus. The angel had begun the Ave Maria at the Annunciation; Elizabeth continues it: “Blessed are you among women,” she says to Mary, “and blessed is the fruit of your womb” [Lk 1:42]. It will suffice for the Church to add an invocation for us to have the Angelic Salutation, the most beautiful prayer after the Pater.

“Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with you.” The entire doctrine of the Redemption is summarized there. The Savior is with Mary to bless her and to pour out through her His superabundant graces upon all souls of faith and prayer.

The prayers of thanksgiving will also be established from that very day. The Magnificat and the Benedictus will forever be the songs of thanksgiving of the Church and of pious souls. It was fitting that in this first manifestation of the benefits of Jesus’ Incarnation and His oblation, the first explosion of the Church’s thanksgiving should also take place, which was then represented by the two families of Jesus and John the Baptist.

Thanksgiving, joined with the most ardent love for the Savior and the most vivid regret for having offended so good a God, such must be our dispositions at the end of these meditations on the oblation of the Heart of Jesus.

Resolution. – O Jesus, with Mary I give myself to Your Heart, to Your love; with You, I give myself to Your Father. Ave Maria gratia plena! Pater noster, adveniat regnum tuum! Magnificat anima mea Dominum! Love, repentance, thanksgiving! These sentiments overflow from my heart.