Let us admire the loving anxiety of Mary to be with Her cousin Saint Elizabeth. She rises and goes with haste across the mountain country. She fears no difficulties of the road; She despises the fatigue of travelling, for She carries with Her the grace of God, and that grace is so great a gift we should be prepared to make any sacrifices in bearing it to those for whom it is destined.
And She goes, without knowing it, to receive a new honor. As soon as Elizabeth had heard the voice of Her salutation and felt the unborn child leap for joy in her womb, she took up and continued the words of the angel, saying: "Blessed art Thou amongst women, and blessed is the fruit of Thy womb. And whence is this to me that the Mother of my Lord should deign to visit me?"
In response to these wonderful and inspired words there is another outburst of humility on the part of Mary; it is the grand canticle of thanksgiving which the Church repeats every day in her offices: "My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour." The Mother of God hides Herself before Him and takes the humble position of a servant. She speaks only of the glory of Her Lord, of His goodness, His munificence, His power, His mercy, His fidelity to His promises. She praises, blesses, and thanks Him; Her heart is full of the most perfect acts of thanksgiving.
Attention, Christians! This mystery contains for us two lessons. It teaches, first of all, that our relations with our neighbor should be regulated by a charity altogether supernatural - a charity having for its object the greatest of all benefits, which is the effusion of the grace of God in their souls. And, if we rightly understand our charity in their regard, those souls in which sin has made its dwelling-place will be most dear to us. We will freely sacrifice our pleasure, our repose, if needs be our health and life, to deliver them from the frightful evil that makes them enemies of God.
In the second place, this mystery teaches us that we ought to thank God for His benefits. All that is in us is God's benefit - our body, our soul, our life, every moment of our existence. To the benefits of nature those of grace are added - faith, the divine promises, the numerous donations God makes of Himself, interior lights, holy inspirations, mysterious impulses which inspire us with generous resolves. For how many and how great favors are we indebted to the divine bounty!
It is necessary to give thanks to the Author of all these blessings; it is the law. We bear that law within us; it is stamped upon our instincts and our conscience. To receive a benefit, to make it one's own, to profit by it, and to forget the benefactor, is more loathsome to us than a thousand other meannesses, villanies, crimes, or misdeeds. The horror in which we hold the monster who has deserved to be called an ingrate can only be explained by a law of nature which requires every benefit to be returned to the benefactor in the form of grateful thanks. God's will is clear in this regard: "Give thanks to God in all things," says the apostle; "for this is the will of God in Christ." (1 Thessalonians 5:18)
Again, it is our interest thus to thank our benefactor; for if it is the law that the benefit should return to its author, it is also a law that the benefactor show himself so much the more generous according as he is more frequently and more sincerely thanked. Gratitude is the fruitful seed of benefits; ingratitude causes them to wither and die. It is, says Saint Bernard, a scorching wind that dries up the dews of mercy and shuts off the torrents of grace.
Are we faithful in giving thanks? Alas! we are not. Energetic in asking, we open wide all the doors of our indigence to receive the gifts of God. "When we have received a benefit we seem to think that it is no more than a just price for the pains we have taken to obtain it; and if our satisfied hearts are not entirely silent, they send forth to God, as a general rule, only a weak and cold expression of thanks. We are ungrateful. And this it is that brings about those spiritual aridities and days of desolation which we so bitterly complain of to the directors of our souls.
Do you desire, O Christian soul! that God would always add benefit to benefit in your regard? Then strive to imitate the gratitude of Mary, and let Her beautiful canticles, in some form, be on your lips: "My soul doth magnify the Lord, because He has deigned to have pity on the lowliness of his poor servant. I was not, and He gave me being; I was in darkness, and He gave me the light of faith; I was a slave of sin, and He broke my chains and crushed my proud enemies; I was in exile, and He made Himself my companion; I was feeble, and He sustained me by His powerful arm: I was hungry, and He nourished me by the Bread of heaven. Indeed the Lord has done great things for me."
Let us thank Him for evermore.