When Mary left Her home in Nazareth to journey to the house of Elizabeth, Jesus was not yet a day old and was not yet a noticeable physical presence in Her womb. But by Faith Mary knew He was there, and by Faith She went to visit the Baptist 6 months old in his aged mother’s womb. Although She was the Mother of the Redeemer, She humbly greeted Her elder cousin Elizabeth as custom required. The beauty of Her gestures and the Grace of Her words were worthy company of God made man within Her and they became the instruments of John’s own Baptism. For when Elizabeth heard the gracious greetings of Mary, her infant lept for joy. Then Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Ghost and she spoke by the spirit of prophecy: “How is it that the Mother of My Lord should come to me?” She knew something great had happened within her.
John had been baptized by the voice of Mary carrying the grace of Christ to him in his mother’s womb. Mary’s voice was the instrument of his spiritual regeneration and so She became his spiritual Mother.
Mary’s spiritual motherhood of St. John did not stop there. Although John and Our Lord lived apart until they met again at Jesus’ Baptism 30 years later, Mary’s knowing and loving cooperation with Jesus in His hidden life was communicated to St. John in the graces of His childhood and young manhood. Though they lived miles apart, both Jesus and John were growing in Wisdom and grace with the same Mother, the one physically and the other spiritually. Jesus grew in the company of Mary, and John grew in the desert, learning the Scriptures and meditating upon them under the guidance of the Holy Ghost. When John and Christ meet for the first time at the Jordan, they show a familiarity that can only come from intimate knowledge – the intimate knowledge that is the special privilege of Mary, their common Mother.
Such intimate knowledge of Christ is the special right of every spiritual son of Mary, and by familiarity with the Mother through serious and meditative recitation of the Holy Rosary, it is quickly and surely learned. Ave Maria!
