Life in the Womb
This little gospel story tells us that ‘the baby in Elizabeth’s womb leaped’ and not merely leaped, but leaped ‘for joy’. Is this just poetic hyperbole?
We know that beautiful music can have a wonderful effect on life in the womb. Good vibrations. Here, the presence of Jesus, being carried by Mary in her pregnancy, had a wonderful effect on the life carried by Elizabeth. Very good vibrations.
From the moment of the conception of Jesus, good vibrations reverberated out to all human beings. The good news is that you and I and every human life ever conceived is visited by Our Risen Lord Jesus Christ, and we receive that visit as Original Blessing.
There is a further and consoling truth. Every mother or father who has lost a baby too early needs to know that the same extraordinary sense of Our Lord’s presence was felt by your baby. That Divine Presence conferred a powerful Original Blessing on that little life within the womb, and that same Presence accompanied your baby into the everlasting embrace of Divine Love in Heaven. We could pause a moment to pray using the very words of Elizabeth, reciting:
Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee.
Blessed art thou among women,
and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.
Holy Mary, mother of God, pray for us sinners
now and at the hour of our death. Amen.
© Fr Michael Tate; mtate@bigpond.com, www.liturgyhelp.com/calendar/date/2024Dec22/0/RefMiTa