Thus, this incomparable Virgin enters Zechariah's house, and with her a superabundance of blessings for this family; for, as the Evangelist says, St. John the Baptist was sanctified in his mother's womb and St. Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit [Lk. 1:41]. I know well that Elizabeth was a holy lady who already had the Holy Spirit in her. Then how are we to understand that she received Him at the coming of the Virgin? There can be no doubt that she did receive Him then, for the admirable effects that He brought about in her furnish sufficient proof of it. God gives His grace to the just in good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over [Lk. 6:38]. Now, although Elizabeth had a good measure of the grace of the Holy Spirit, nevertheless at the Visitation of the Virgin she received it pressed down, shaken together and running over, since during this life grace is given in such a way that there can always be an increase and growth in its communication.[9] We must, then, be careful never to say: It is enough, I have a sufficiency of divine grace or virtues; enough of mortification, I have exercised myself sufficiently in that area.
That would be a serious error; and he who would speak such or similar words would thereby demonstrate his indigence, his destitution and the poverty that stalks him [Rev. 3:17]; for from such persons who think they have a sufficiency. God takes away what they have. "To the man who has, more will be given," says Our Lord; "the man who has not, will lose what little he has." [Matt. 13:12; 25:29]. This should be thus understood: To the man who has received much and has labored much and who does not relax, thinking he has no more need of anything, but who with a holy and true humility knows his poverty, more will be given. To the man who has much, still more will be given; but he who has received some grace and believes he has a sufficiency will lose what little he has, and nothing more will be given him.
Worldlings have a certain ambition to acquire riches and honors and never say: "Enough!" How blind they are in this, for however little they possess would be sufficient inasmuch as too much glory, wealth and dignities cause the death and loss of our souls. Certainly in all these things we can say: I have a moderate amount, I am satisfied, I have enough; but in what concerns spiritual goods, oh! While we are in this land of exile, we must never think that we have enough of them but must continually dispose ourselves to receive an increase of grace.
Our Lady, then, went to visit St. Elizabeth; but this visit was not useless nor like those which women of the world very often make solely for ceremony, to testify the deepest affections which they do not feel, and during them they frequently gossip about each other so that they come away with guilty consciences. St. Jerome, speaking of the devout lady Proba, describes the uselessness of the visits of the Roman ladies in an admirable manner, saying that those good women did nothing but exchange visits, and that most of these were unnecessary and a waste of time, a fact he deplores in this letter. Formerly there were many prayer gatherings, and greetings by way of prayer besides the complimentary greetings as still occur among gentlemen who meet, saying; "God be with us"; "God grant you a good day, a good year"; "May God help us." The Greeks used this salutation: "May God be with us, may God bless us"; the Jewish Christian: Pax Christi—"May the peace of Our Lord be with you"; and among the Latins; Laus Deo, Deo gratias—"Glory be to God, praised be God," In our time they use more complimentary expressions and say: "Sir, I am your servant; I kiss your hand"; and ordinarily they give no thought to what they say.
Our Lady's Visitation was not like that, for she went to serve her cousin. Their conversations were far from idle — rather, my God' How holy, pious and devout! That visit filled the whole family of Zechariah with the Holy Spirit. Now, the principle effects of the Holy Spirit are those which He produced in St. Elizabeth; you can easily understand this if you have also received Him. The first thing St. Elizabeth did was to humble herself profoundly, for, seeing the Virgin, she exclaimed: But who am I that the Mother of my Lord should come to me? This is the first fruit of the grace of God, humility; when grace visits the soul, it inclines it to efface itself in the awareness of the Divine Goodness and its own nothingness and deficiency.
Secondly, Elizabeth said: O how blest is she who trusted! And then; Blest are you among women and blest is the Fruit of your womb. By this you see that the second effect of the Holy Spirit is to make us remain firm in the faith and to confirm that of others; then to return to God, acknowledging that He is the source of all graces. "It is true," St. Elizabeth seems to say to the Virgin, "that you are blest among women, but it is also true that this blessedness comes to you from the Fruit of your womb, who is the Lord of all blessedness"; for we do not bless the fruit because of the tree, but the tree because of the goodness of its fruit.
And so, though we owe the sacred Virgin a cult and honor greater than we have for all other saints, nevertheless it must not equal that which we render to God. I say this to refute the heresy of some who hold that we must honor her in the same way as Our Lord, which is false; for we must adore God alone in and above all things [Deut. 6:13; 10:20; Matt. 4:10], and then render a very special honor to Our Lady as Mother of our Saviour and cooperator in our salvation. Such is the practice of the true Christian, and anyone who does not love and honor the Virgin with a quite special and particular love is not a true Christian. Thus, when the Holy Spirit comes to us. He leads us to love and praise God, and then His most holy Mother.
In the third place Elizabeth said that her baby leapt in her womb for joy; and this is the third mark of the visit of the Holy Spirit — interior conversion, the change to a better life. St. John was sanctified; likewise whoever receives the Holy Spirit is wholly transformed in God. If, then, you wish to know if you have received Him, examine your works, for it is by them that we know the answer.
But notice that St. Elizabeth received the Holy Spirit by means of the Virgin. Certainly we must avail ourselves of her as a mediatrix with her Son in order to obtain this Divine Spirit; and although we can go directly to God and ask for His graces without employing the mediation of the saints for this purpose, nevertheless Divine Providence has not willed that it happen so; but It has formed still another union, for God is One, as I told you at the beginning, and so He loves what is unified. Therefore He has so united the Church Militant with the Church Triumphant that the two make only one, having only one Lord who rules, guides, governs and nourishes them, though in different ways; thus we address ourselves to Him to ask for our daily bread [Matt. 6:11; Lk. 11:3], as much for our bodily needs as for the nourishment required for the soul.
Consider further that the Saviour, in willing to form this union, willed and ordained that we have recourse to the invocation of the saints. He has granted great favors to people through their intercession, and at other times He has employed that of the angels. But why does He employ the mediation of angels to protect us and bestow His graces on us? Could He not do it just as well Himself without using them? Doubtless He could, but in order to realize this union of which I speak. He has determined to unite angels with men and subject them one to the other. He has willed that the latter be served by the heavenly spirits, and that through this union the conversion of men should augment the angels' glory.
But, you will say to me, how can men cause joy to the angels? Do they not have perfect happiness in the vision of God? Of this there is no doubt; nevertheless, does not Holy Scripture testify that there will be more joy in Heaven over one converted sinner than over ninety-nine righteous people? [Lk. 15:7,10]. By these words you see the joy of the angels over the conversion of a sinner. Now, when I say that the angels celebrate in Heaven and rejoice, we must understand the same for the saints who are with them; for though the Evangelist speaks only of the blessed spirits, it is because before the Passion of Our Lord there were not yet any people in Heaven; but since the saints have entered there, they are so united with the angels that they share in their joy over the return of sinners. That is why the Church, like a good mother, wishing the better to teach us to make use of the mediation of the holy Virgin and the saints, Joined the Ave Maria to the Pater Noster so that we should recite it immediately after the Lord's Prayer.
There is no doubt that we may ask God, through Our Lady's intercession, not only for spiritual goods such as the virtues, but also for temporal ones. However, it is also true that we should not have recourse to so great a Virgin for trifles as some do — for example, to become richer or more beautiful, and the like nonsense; for just as it would be a grave discourtesy to employ a great prince's influence with the king or emperor to obtain some trifle of small account, so in the spiritual life it would be discourteous to employ the mediation of our glorious Queen for insignificant and transitory things. Moreover, we should always treat holy things, the saints and the sacred Virgin, with profound honor and respect. Certainly, when we speak of them we should prostrate our hearts to the earth, for the distance between us and these heavenly spirits is unimaginable; nevertheless, the affinity is so great that just as the earth is incapable of producing anything without the cooperation of the heavens, in like manner neither can we do anything of ourselves if we are not assisted by the saints. But we must avail ourselves of their assistance in what benefits us for eternity, beseeching them to obtain the grace of God and the virtues for us, employing the credit they have with our dear Saviour and Master for these gifts and others like them, and not using their intercession to obtain beauty, riches and such trifles. This, then, is how we receive the Holy Spirit through the mediation of the saints and of the Virgin.
Oh, how delightful and profitable it is to be visited by this holy Lady, for her visit always brings us many blessings. "O God," you will say, "I do wish the Virgin would visit me!" And why? "To be consoled, for it is so pleasant to have consolations! I would so love to have an ecstasy, a ravishment; indeed, I would very much like this sacred Virgin to show herself to me." Yes, and would you receive her as St. Elizabeth received her? Our Lady comes to visit us very often but we do not really want to receive her. Besides, St. Elizabeth was her relative, and that is why she went to seek her. But what can we do to become a relative of our amiable Sovereign? O God! There are a thousand ways of accomplishing this. Do you wish to be a relative of the Virgin? Communicate, for in receiving the Holy Sacrament, you receive the Flesh of her flesh and the Blood of her blood, since the precious Body of the Saviour, which is in the Divine Eucharist, was formed of her most pure blood by the operation of the Holy Spirit. Since it is impossible to be a relative of Our Lady in the same manner as Elizabeth, be so by imitating her virtues and her very holy life.
I shall finish with two examples; and although the time is up, nevertheless a short quarter of an hour will be Justified. The first is about St. Gregory Thaumaturgus, the miracle-worker. Having been made bishop of a diocese in which there was very much work because of the heretics to be converted, he became subject to great fears and anxieties that he had not sufficient learning and eloquence to refute their errors. Then the holy Virgin appeared to him and instructed him, giving him full assurance of her continued assistance. She had with her her dear son of the Cross, namely, St. John the Evangelist, whom she commanded to write the profession of faith which she then gave to St. Gregory; he later inserted it in his Opuscules, where it can be seen to this day.
And here is another story: St. Gregory the Great relates it in his Dialogues as having happened in his time. I do not know if I have told it in this place; I do not have a good memory of it, but even though I may have already done so I will not fail to repeat it, because I am not in the presence of persons so particular that they cannot hear the same thing twice, for those with a good appetite enjoy the same dish a second time. But I must add this word also since it can be good and useful; There are some who are ready to banter and jest over the writings of this glorious saint, and indeed wrongfully, for St. Gregory was one of the greatest Popes that ever sat in the chair of Peter; a few years after his elevation to the papacy he withdrew into solitude and wrote the book of his Dialogues.
In it he relates that there was in the city of Rome a little girl aged seven, named Musa. This little Musette was greatly devoted to our sacred Mistress, and every day kissed her holy feet. Now one day Our Lady appeared to her, adorned as a Queen, beautifully robed, and accompanied by a multitude of young maidens all dressed in white. She addressed herself to little Musa and invited her to join these virgins—but she demurred, responding that she dared not do so. You see, she was very humble and polite. Our Lady went on to say: Ah now, my child, be very good and modest, but never coquettish. You will not live more than 30 days, for I will come to fetch you and take you away with these virgins.
Then she disappeared, and little Musa awoke to find herself completely changed; she took on an air of such great propriety and modesty that everyone was astonished, since this propriety surpassed her age. Her parents took her aside and asked the cause of the change; she replied that Our Lady had appeared to her with a troop of virgins and had told her not to be coquettish any more, but modest, because at the end of 30 days she would come to fetch her to take her away with her. Her father and mother did not pressure her because of the respect they bore the Holy Mother of God. At the end of 25 days the child was stricken with a prolonged fever which lasted five days, after which she died and Our Lady came to take her away.
Now we must draw a moral for ourselves from this story. Do you see, the Virgin visited little Musa, transformed and changed her totally. Transformation is the true mark of a divine visitation. We would indeed like to have revelations, but as a form of recreation, to pass the time, because they are indeed sweet and pleasing. Now, God does not give them for that; always they must cost us something. This visit cost the little Musa her life. Someone might have said to the Virgin: Ah, my Lady, how is it that you let this little girl suffer so much? She would have answered: Those who desire to share in my visits must always bring something of themselves.
We must then be firmly determined to suffer. And what? Dryness, aridity, disgust. It sometimes seems to us that we have been abandoned by God. You must endure all that if you wish to share in these visits, for to think that we can be devout without suffering is a delusion. Where there is more difficulty, there is more virtue.
Therefore, if you want the Virgin to visit you as she did the little Musa, there must be an interior transformation which cannot be effected without enduring something which is represented to us by the high fever this child suffered. Also, see if you have her confidence in Our Lady, for in order to be visited, confidence is necessary. In sum, we must humble ourselves as did St. Elizabeth, die to ourselves, and follow our divine Mistress in this life so that with her we can sing in her company on high: "My being proclaims the greatness of the Lord" [Lk. 1:46]. Amen, amen, amen.
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[1] Cf. Treatise on the Love of God, Book 7, Chapter 5.
[2] Cf. Sermon for March 25, 1621; Conferences VIII.
[3] Cf. Sermon for July 2, 1618.