Graced by God

For as soon as I heard the sound of your greeting, the child in my womb leaped for joy. Luke 1:44

I was struck the other day by how much in Scripture names have deep meaning. What does God speak behind the name? I thought of John the Baptist, the one to whom his neighbors and relatives were amazed that his name was to be John instead of Zechariah like his father.

–On the eighth day they came to circumcise the child, and they were going to name him Zechariah after his father. But his mother said, “No; he is to be called John.” They said to her, “None of your relatives has this name.” Then they began motioning to his father to find out what name he wanted to give him.  He asked for a writing tablet and wrote, “His name is John.” And all of them were amazed.  Immediately his mouth was opened and his tongue freed, and he began to speak, praising God. Luke 1:59-64

The name John means, “graced by God”. Tradition teaches us that John the Baptist was cleansed from original sin when Our Lady with Our Lord in her womb entered the room and John leapt.

When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the child leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. Luke 1:41

For as we know, one cannot be in sin and filled with the Holy Spirit, so John was cleansed from original sin in his mother’s womb by Christ through Mary who brought Christ there. Her role as mediatrix because her Son wills it, solidified before Christ even makes it to the cross. For Mary’s presence at John’s delivery, prior to Christ even being born, allowed that perhaps the first face John see’s is Mary’s, who, no doubt, helped deliver him. A gaze of sinless face to sinless face. Mary’s face reflects the magnanimity of God. John beholds the face of God in the mirror image of God’s Mother. John sees divine humility in her whose womb held the incarnation. His unusual way of living and ability to point to the Messiah and decrease as Christ increased, a result of this contact with Christ and His Mother. One a divine person, one a human person in whom the divine dwells. Christ made His home in Mary. Christ wants to make His dwelling in all of us and She is the instrument to draw us ever closer to Him.

Mary is the fruitful Virgin, and in all the souls in which she comes to dwell she causes to flourish purity of heart and body, rightness of intention and abundance of good works. Do not imagine that Mary, the most fruitful of creatures who gave birth to a God, remains barren in a faithful soul. It will be she who makes the soul live incessantly for Jesus Christ, and will make Jesus live in the soul. Saint Louis De Montfort

So too, again we see another John at the Cross. This time, prior to his death, rather than prior to his birth, we see Mary with John the Evangelist, and we all know the words Jesus spoke.

When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing beside her, he said to his mother, “Woman, here is your son.”  Then he said to the disciple, “Here is your mother.” And from that hour the disciple took her into his own home. John 19:25-29

No question, Christ is leaving His Mother for John. He is graced by God. You can imagine that as Christ spoke these words, John and Mary perhaps looked at one another, their eyes locking, and John would know the true meaning of his name and see the face of God reflected in her. What a gift to receive. He is graced by God through Mary who he took into his home. It is significant that Christ did this before His death and resurrection. Leaving her sinless face to be the one to radiate total trust in God, even before the resurrection. She is perhaps why John was strong enough to be standing there when all the rest had fled. John knew Christ more intimately by knowing His Mother.

This grace is meant for all of us, and it takes nothing away from God that she is His instrument. God is the one who gave her the honor because God is a giver.

For the Lord God is a sun and shield; he bestows favor and honor. No good thing does the Lord withhold from those who walk uprightly. Psalm 84:11

She is the mediatrix of Grace. Those who don’t believe this are subject to being deceived for they miss an integral part of God’s plan, the purity with which God loves, the total goodness of God, and the grace He wants restored to mankind, brought through a woman who said, Fiat!

Rosa Mystica