Mother Mary & Father Abraham

The Rosary really is an inexhaustible source of meditation.  Last night while thinking about the Visitation, I saw how similar Mary's faith was to that of Abraham.  "By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to set out for a place that he was to receive as an inheritance" (Heb.11:8), and when Abraham "believed" God's promise that he and his elderly wife would one day welcome a son, "the Lord reckoned it to him as righteousness" (Gen.15:6).  Likewise, when Mary received the double announcement of Jesus' birth and the pregnancy of Elizabeth, "she set out and went with haste" to see her formerly barren relative (Lk.1:39); and what did Elizabeth say to her, "Blessed is she who believed that there would be fulfillment of what was spoken to her by the Lord!" (Lk.1:45).

When I came to the Nativity I recalled how Isaac, like Jesus, was a "child of promise" (Gal.4:28), and then in the Presentation in the Temple (the place of sacrifice), I recalled how both Abraham and Mary were asked to offer their sons.

Both Abraham and Mary saw their sons make their way up mountains, with the wood of  sacrifice upon their backs (Gen.22:6).  The great difference was that Abraham was spared the final moment of horror, but Mary was not.  

I recognize the tremendous honor of being made a child of Abraham in baptism, one of the children of promise (Gal.4:28), but an even deeper honor at being made, with Jesus, a child of Mary (Jn.19: 27).  "Hail Mary, full of grace . . ."