Luke 1:26-38 or Luke 1:39-47

Zechariah 2:14-17 or Revelation 11:19a; 12:1-6a, 10ab

Judith 13:18bcde, 19

Luke 1:26-38 or Luke 1:39-47

Luke 1:39-47

Mary set out

and traveled to the hill country in haste

to a town of Judah,

where she entered the house of Zechariah

and greeted Elizabeth.

When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting,

the infant leaped in her womb,

and Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Spirit,

cried out in a loud voice and said,

“Most blessed are you among women,

and blessed is the fruit of your womb.

And how does this happen to me,

that the mother of my Lord should come to me?

For at the moment the sound of your greeting reached my ears,

the infant in my womb leaped for joy.

Blessed are you who believed

that what was spoken to you by the Lord

would be fulfilled.”

And Mary said:

“My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord;

my spirit rejoices in God my savior.”

Opening Prayer: Heavenly Father, you prepared Mary to be your new Ark. She is a covenantal sign of your merciful love among all nations. You blessed her with your grace, and she responded perfectly. Like her, my soul proclaims your greatness. Like her, my spirit rejoices in you.

Encountering the Word of God

1. The Revelation of the Ark of the New Covenant: One of the mysteries of the world regards the fate of the Ark of the Covenant. Scripture says, in 2 Maccabees, that Jeremiah hid the ark somewhere on Mount Nebo, when the Babylonians destroyed Jerusalem and its Temple. When the people tried to mark the path to the ark, the prophet reproved them and declared: “The place is to remain unknown until God gathers his people together again and shows them mercy. Then the Lord will disclose these things, and the glory of the Lord and the cloud will be seen” (2 Maccabees 2:7-8). Jeremiah prophesies that one day, the lost Ark would reappear. In the Book of Revelation, John narrates how this occurs. The true Ark is no longer on earth but is in heaven and is associated with the sign of the woman clothed with the sun. Mary is the new Ark because her body was the dwelling place of God on earth (see Pitre, Jesus and the Jewish Roots of Mary, 60-63).

2. A Great Sign Appeared: The great sign John saw in heaven was that of a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars. The sun, the moon, and the twelve stars refer back to a vision Joseph had in Genesis 37:9-10. There, Joseph dreamt that his father, Jacob (the sun), his mother, Rachel (the moon), and his eleven brothers (eleven stars) bowed down to him. In the Book of Revelation, the sign of the woman indicates that she is greater than the sun, for it clothes her and she stands in front of it, that she is greater than the moon, for it is beneath her feet, and that she is greater than the stars, for they are her crown. The twelve stars in Revelation symbolize the twelve tribes of Israel. “Seen in this light, the woman clothed with the sun is nothing less than the queen of the people of God, with her crown representing ‘a share in Christ’s kingship’” (see Pitre, Jesus and the Jewish Roots of Mary, 87).

3. The Sign of Our Lady of Guadalupe: Much of the image on the tilma of Juan Diego has a miraculous character to it.  The miraculous image of Mary as a pregnant native princess, along with the additions of the crown, sun, moon, and angel, was a powerful evangelizing and catechetical tool. Like many other ancient peoples, the Mesoamericans worshipped the sun and moon as gods. By standing in front of the sun and on top of the moon, the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe shows that she announces the God who is greater than their blood-thirsty sun god and that she herself is more powerful than the moon goddess of darkness. The apparition of Mary in 1531 led to the Mesoamericans being set free in Christ through the waters of Baptism. They no longer had to serve and feed the sun god, Huitzilopochtli, who demanded human sacrifice. By appearing to them, Mary reassured them that she would care for them tenderly as their Queen Mother.

Conversing with Christ: Lord Jesus, your mother cares for me just as she cared for you. Listen to her intercession as she tells you what I most need. Bring her petitions to your heavenly Father.

Living the Word of God: What is my relationship with Mary, my mother, like? Do I venerate her as I should? Do I ask for her intercession daily? Do I imitate her virtues?