Holy Mary, Mother of the Lord

By Prof. Dr. Daniel C. Afonso · Updated 19 October 2026

“Et unde hoc mihi, ut veniat mater Domini mei ad me?” “And how shall I deserve that the mother of my Lord should come to visit me?” (Lk 1:43)

I. The Ark of the Covenant goes up to Jerusalem

The scene of the transfer of the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem, narrated in the First Book of Chronicles, is one of the most solemn and most festive moments in the religious history of Israel. David organizes a procession of the whole people, with music, with songs, with dancing, to bring the Ark to the place the Lord had designated as the dwelling of His name. The Ark is the most sacred symbol of the divine presence in the midst of Israel: it is the golden chest that contains the tablets of the Law, the manna and the rod of Aaron; it is the place where the glory of God “rests” upon the cherubim. When the Ark is installed in the place David prepared, he himself offers burnt offerings and peace offerings, and the people depart for their homes after having been blessed.

The most ancient patristic tradition recognized in Mary the new Ark of the Covenant: she who contains not the tablets of stone but the living Word, not the manna of the desert but the Bread of Heaven, not the rod of Aaron but the flower that sprang from the root of Jesse. The comparison is not a forced allegory: the Lucan text of the Visitation itself suggests it through verbal and structural parallels with the account of the Ark in 2 Sam 6: David leaps for joy before the Ark as John leaps for joy in Elizabeth’s womb before Mary; David exclaims “how shall the Ark of the Lord come to me” as Elizabeth exclaims “how shall I deserve that the mother of my Lord should come to visit me.”

II. The typology of the Ark and the Visitation

The correspondence between the going up of the Ark to Jerusalem and Mary’s going up to the hill country of Judea is perceived by the liturgy as one of the most eloquent examples of biblical typology: the Old Testament reality announces and prefigures the New Testament reality that surpasses and fulfills it. The Ark contained the word of God written in stone. Mary carries the incarnate Word of God. The Ark was carried in procession with great pomp. Mary goes “in haste” with the simplicity of charity. The Ark remained three months in the house of Obed-edom before entering Jerusalem (cf. 2 Sam 6:11). Mary remains three months in the house of Elizabeth (cf. Lk 1:56).

These correspondences reveal that Mary’s presence carries with it the presence of the One she bears: just as the house of Obed-edom was blessed during the three months in which the Ark remained there, so the house of Elizabeth is visited by grace during the three months in which Mary remains there. The blessing that the Ark poured out upon Israel was that of the divine presence mediated by the sacred symbol. The blessing that Mary pours out on the house of Elizabeth is that of the Son she bears, who already acts through His Mother even before being born, who already makes John the Baptist exult before having spoken His first word.

III. “The mother of my Lord”: the title that precedes Ephesus

Elizabeth’s confession, “how shall I deserve that the mother of my Lord should come to visit me” (Lk 1:43), is the first explicit proclamation of Mary’s divine motherhood in the New Testament. The title “Lord,” Kyrios in Greek, is the name that the Greek translation of the Bible used to designate the ineffable name of God. In calling Jesus “my Lord,” Elizabeth is confessing, under the impulse of the Holy Spirit, the divinity of the One whom Mary bears in her womb. And in calling Mary “Mother of my Lord,” Elizabeth anticipates by about four centuries the definition of Ephesus: Mary is Mother of God because she is the Mother of Jesus, who is Lord, that is, God.

This confession of Elizabeth is not the fruit of a theological deduction: it springs from the encounter with the presence of Christ, mediated by the presence of Mary. It is the experience that precedes doctrine, the lived reality that comes before the formulation, the encounter that grounds the statement. The Church, in celebrating this Mass, recognizes in Elizabeth the prototype of every generation that, on encountering Mary, experiences the presence of the Son and is led to confess His lordship.

IV. Mary, the new Ark who bears the Lord to the world

The nineteenth Mass of the Collection, the first of Ordinary Time, contemplates Mary as the new Ark of the Covenant who bears the Lord to the world and communicates Him to those who receive her with faith. The biblical typology of the Ark does not diminish Mary’s uniqueness: on the contrary, it illuminates the depth of the Old Testament roots on which the Mariology of the New Testament is built. The Church that celebrates this Mass is invited to recognize in Mary the presence of the Lord whom she continues to bear, and to receive her as Elizabeth received her: with humility, with joy, with the confession that what she brings exceeds all our capacity to receive.

Elizabeth’s exclamation, “how shall I deserve this?” is the correct spiritual attitude before Mary: not that of one who considers herself worthy to receive the Mother of the Lord, but that of one who recognizes her unworthiness and, precisely for that reason, is open to the grace that surpasses her. The humility that Elizabeth expresses is the humility that Mary’s Magnificat will proclaim as the criterion of divine love: God “looks upon the lowliness of his handmaid,” God “exalts the lowly.” Elizabeth is exalted because she recognizes herself as small. Mary is exalted because she recognizes herself as a handmaid. And the Lord whom both carry in their lives is the One who continues to exalt the lowly and to fill the hungry with good things.