Counsel of Elizabeth and Canticle of Zechariah

LISTEN Vol 2 Bk 1 Chap 23

After the birth of the Precursor of Christ the return of most holy Mary was unavoidable; and although the prudent Elisabeth had found consolation in resigning herself to the Divine will, she could not restrain her desire of securing for herself the good counsel and instruction of the Mother of wisdom. 

Therefore She spoke to Her and said: "My Mistress and Mother of the Creator, I know, that you are preparing to leave me and that I am to be deprived of your loving intercourse, help and protection. I beseech you, my Cousin, furnish me with some good counsel, which will help me to conform all my actions to the greater pleasure of the Most High. In your virginal womb you bears Him, who is the Corrector of the wise and the fountain of light (Wis. 7, 15); through Him you can communicate it to all. Let some of the rays, which illumine your purest soul fall upon your servant, in order that I may be enlightened in the paths of justice, until I arrive at the vision of the God of gods in Sion." (Ps. 22, 3.) 284. 

These words of saint Elisabeth moved the most holy Mary to tender compassion and she spoke words that served her cousin as celestial guidance for the rest of her life. This, she said, would be of short duration; but the Most High would take care of her child, and she herself had prayed for him to the Almighty. Although it is not possible to record all the sweet words of counsel, which the heavenly Lady spoke to saint Elisabeth before her departure, I will write down some of them, as far as I have understood them and as far as they can be reproduced by our insufficient language. 

Most holy Mary said: "My beloved cousin, the Lord has selected you for the fulfillment of most exalted mysteries. He has condescended to enlighten you concerning them and wishes, that I should open to your heart. Your name is written within it for remembrance before His Majesty. I will not forget the devoted kindness with which you have treated me, the most useless of creatures; and from my most holy Son and Lord, I hope you shall receive a plentiful reward." 

"Keep your mind and spirit fixed on high and by the light of Divine grace. Preserve the vision of the unchangeable and infinite being of God and the remembrance of His immense goodness, which moved Him to create out of nothing all the intellectual creatures in order to bestow upon them His glory and His gifts of grace.”

“The extreme mercy of the Most High, in favoring us more than all other creatures with His knowledge and light, ought to incite us to make up by our thankfulness for the blind ingratitude of mortals, who are so far removed from acknowledging and praising their Creator. This shall be our task, that we keep our hearts free and unhindered in our advance toward the last end.”

“Therefore, my beloved, I charge you to keep it unhampered and unburdened of all earthly things, free from even such as pertain to your possessions, in order that, void of earthly hindrances, it may attend to the Divine calls.”

“Hope in the coming of the Lord (Luke 12, 36), so that when He arrives, you may answer His call joyfully and not with convulsive violence at the thought of leaving your body and all earthly things. Now, while it is time to suffer and earn the crown, let us gain merit and hasten to be united intimately with our true and highest God."

"As long as your husband Zechariah lives, seek to love, serve and obey him with especial earnestness. Look upon your miraculous child as a continual sacrifice to His Creator; in God and for God, you can love him as a mother; for he shall be a great Prophet, and in the spirit of Elias, he shall defend the honor of the Most High and exalt His name.” 

“My most holy Son, who has chosen him for His Precursor and for the harbinger of His coming, will favor him with the special gifts of His right hand (Matth. 11, 9) and make him great and wonderful among the nations, manifesting to the world His great sanctity." 

"See that the holy name of your God and the Lord of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob be honored and reverenced by all your house and family (Tob. 4).”

“Above all be anxiously careful to relieve the needs of the poor, as far as is possible; enrich them with the temporal goods so lavishly given to you by your God. Show a like generosity to the needy, knowing that these earthly goods are more theirs than yours, since we are the children of the heavenly Father to whom all things belong.”

“It is not proper, that the child of a rich father should live in superfluity, while his brethren live in poverty and need. In this you can make yourself especially pleasing to the Good of undying mercy. Continue in your former practices and follow out your plans of still greater charity, since Zacharias has given this work into your hands. With His permission you can be generous.”

“Confirm your hopes in all the tasks imposed upon you by the Lord, and with your fellow beings practice kindness, humility and patience in the joy of your soul, although some of them will give you occasion to increase your crown of merit.”

“Bless God eternally for having manifested to you His exalted mysteries and pray for the salvation of souls with unabated love and zeal. Pray also for me, that His Majesty may govern and guide me worthily to preserve the sacrament confided by His goodness to so lowly and poor a servant as I am.”

“Send for my husband in order that I may have his company while returning to Nazareth. In the meanwhile prepare for the circumcision of your child and call him John; for this name was given to him according to an unchangeable decree of the Most High." 

These counsels of most holy Mary together with other words of eternal life produced in the heart of saint Elisabeth such Divine affections, that for a time, she was lost in the exalted teachings and sentiments of these heavenly doctrines and made mute by the force of the spiritual light infused into her. For the Lord, by means of the living words of His most pure Mother, enlivened and renewed the heart of His servant.

When the flow of her tears had moderated, she answered: "My Mistress and Queen of the universe, speech fails me in alternate sorrow and consolation. Hear the words of my inmost heart, which my tongue cannot express. My affections shall witness, what my lips leave unspoken. May the Lord, who is the enricher of our poverty, return to you the favor you show me. I beseech You, who are the fountain of all my help and the source of all my blessings, to obtain for me the grace to fulfill your counsels and to bear the great sorrow of losing your company." 

What I say here is not adverse to the Gospel narrative; for, although it is there related, that the angel foretold Zechariah that he should remain mute until his message should be fulfilled, yet God, when He reveals any decree of His will, absolutely unfailing as they are, does not always reveal the means or the manner of their fulfillment, foreseen by Him in His infinite foreknowledge. Thus the archangel announced to Zechariah the punishment of his unbelief, but he did not tell him that he should be freed from it by the intercession of most holy Mary, although this also had been foreseen and decreed.

Therefore, just as the voice of our Lady Mary was the instrument for the sanctification of the child John and his mother, so her secret mandate and her intercession had the effect of loosening the tongue of Zechariah, filling him with the Holy Spirit and the gift of prophecy. Hence he broke forth in the words (Luke 1, 68-79):

68. "Blessed be the Lord God of Israel; because He hath visited and wrought the redemption of His people:” 

69. “And has raised up a horn of salvation to us, in the house of David His servant:” 

70. “And He hath spoken by the mouth of His holy prophets, who are from the beginning:” 

71. “Salvation from our enemies, and from the hands of all that hate us:” 

72. “To perform mercy to our fathers, and to remember His holy testament:” 

73. “The oath, which He swore to Abraham our father, that He would grant to us:” 

74. “That being delivered from the hand of our enemies, we may serve Him without fear:”

75. “In holiness and justice before Him, all our days:”

76. “And you, child, shall be called the prophet of the Highest: for you shalt go before the face of the Lord to prepare His ways:” 

77. “To give knowledge of salvation to His people: unto the remission of their sins:” 

78. “Through the bowels of the mercy of our God, in which the Orient from on high has visited us:” 

79. “To enlighten them that sit in darkness, and in the shadow of death: to direct our feet into the way of peace.”

In the Divine Canticle of the Benedictus Zechariah embodied all of the highest mysteries, which the ancient prophets had foretold in a more profuse manner concerning the Divinity, Humanity and the Redemption of Christ, and in these few words he embraces many great sacraments. 

He also understood them by the grace and light, which filled His spirit, and which raised him up in the sight of all that had come to attend the circumcision of his son; for all of them were witnesses to the solving of his tongue and to his Divine prophecies. 

I will hardly be able to give an explanation of the deep meaning of these prophecies, such as they had in the mind of that holy priest:

"Blessed be the Lord God of Israel," he says, knowing that the Most High could have saved His people and given them eternal salvation merely by desiring it or speaking one word, but He exerted not only His power, but showed also His immense goodness and mercy, the Son of the eternal Father himself coming down to visit His people and to become their Brother in the human nature; their Teacher by His example and doctrine, their Redeemer by His life, passion and death of the Cross. 

At these words, Zechariah understood the union of the two natures in the person of the Word, and in heavenly clearness he saw this mystery realized in the virginal bridal-chamber of the most holy Mary. 

He understood also the exaltation of the Humanity by the triumph of the Godman, in earning the salvation of the human race according to the promises made to David and his ancestors (II Kings 7, 12; Ps. 131, 11). 

He understood that the same promise had been made to the whole world by the prophecies of the Saints and Patriarchs from the beginning. For from the first creation God commenced to direct the course of nature and grace toward His coming into the world, and to ordain all His works since the time of Adam toward this same blessed end. 

He understood that the Most High in this manner provided for us the means of obtaining grace and eternal life lost by our enemies in their pride and stubborn disobedience, which hurled them into hell; and the seats which would have been theirs, if they had been obedient, were reserved for the obedient among the mortals. 

He saw however since then, the enmity which the serpent had conceived against God was now turned against men, because we were decreed and enshrined in the eternal mind according to His Divine will (Apocalypse 12, 17); how Adam and Eve, our first parents, having fallen from His friendship and grace, were not given over to chastisement, like the rebellious angels, but were raised to a state of hope (Wisdom 10, 2); and that, in order to assure their descendants of His mercy, God provided the prophecies and figures of the old Testament, which were to be fulfilled in the coming of the Redeemer and Savior. 

To make this promise still more certain, it was made to Abraham under an oath, affirming that he would be the father of all His people and of all the children of the faith (Gen. 22, 16). 

Assured of this stupendous and vast blessing, namely that of receiving His own Son made man, we may serve God free from the fear of our enemies; for by our adoption and regeneration they are already overcome and subdued through our Redeemer (Gal. 4, 5). 

In order that we may understand what the Word has earned for us, in restoring to us this liberty in the service of God, he says that He has renewed the world in sanctity and justice, and founded the new law of grace for all the days of this world, and for the time of life given to each of the children of the Church. 

In it they not only can, but they should, live in holiness and justice. 

And as Zechariah saw in his son John the beginning of all these sacraments, he turns to him and congratulates him, because of the dignity and sanctity of his office, saying, “And you, child, shall be called a prophet of the Most High; for you shall go before His face”, namely His Divinity, and prepare His ways by spreading the light of His coming, and giving notice to the people of the Jews concerning eternal life, which is Christ our Lord, the promised Messias (Mark 1, 41). 

Thus might they dispose themselves by the baptism of Penance for the remission of their sins and become convinced that the Messias has come to take away not only their sins, but those of the whole world (John 1, 29); since it is through His mercy and on account of His merits (Tit. 3, 5) that He visits us, by descending from the bosom of the eternal Father and by being born as man. 

He it was, that brought light to those who had lost the truth for so many ages, who were sitting in darkness and in the shadows of death. He it was, who by His own example taught us to direct our steps toward the true peace, which we were awaiting. 

Much more clearly than I can explain, Zechariah perceived these mysteries in their plenitude and depth, and expressed them in his prophecies. Some of those present were likewise enlightened, becoming aware that the time of the Messias and of the fulfillment of the ancient prophecies was at hand. Full of astonishment at these unexpected wonders and prodigies, they exclaimed: "Who shall this child be, since the hand of the Most High is in him so marvelous and powerful?" In accordance with the letter of the law, and with the concurrence of his father and mother, the child was then circumcised and named John; and the report of these wonders spread through all the mountains of Judea.