Most blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb
Homily by Most Reverend John T. Folda, Bishop of Fargo
May 31, 2016
Visitation and Shrine blessing
St. Gianna Home
Warsaw, ND
“Most blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb!”
A short time ago, we blessed a beautiful new shrine to St. Gianna in her chapel across the street.
There, before the relics of our beloved saint, we can pray for her intercession, while also contemplating
the great love of God for all his children, the born and the unborn. You all know the story of St. Gianna,
probably better than I. She was a wife and mother, a physician, and a fervent Catholic. Gianna lived life
to the full, giving herself joyfully to her husband and children, but also to the patients she cared for. When
she developed uterine cancer at the beginning of her fourth pregnancy, she was determined that her child
should live, even if it meant her life would be sacrificed. She made her choice, and one can practically
imagine her wonder and awe, her quiet contemplation of the little life growing within her. Gianna was so
filled with love for her child, and was so convinced of the sacredness of her child’s life, that she willingly
made a gift of her own life as a sign of that love.
And this leads us perfectly into the feast celebrated in the Church today, the Feast of the
Visitation. Mary too received the news that she would give birth to a child, but her child was the Son of
God. Mary too offered her life to God, so that he could carry out in her his great plan for our salvation.
With her yes, Mary become the loving mother of Jesus, who would save us from our sins. And once
again, we can practically imagine Mary’s wonder and awe, her quiet contemplation of the One who came
to dwell in her womb.
This Feast of the Visitation is a feast of life and a feast of joy. We are welcomed into the intimacy
of Mary and Elizabeth’s meeting and their awareness that the children they carry are precious to God. For
very different reasons, both of these women must have been shocked beyond words when they found that
they were expecting a child, Elizabeth because of her old age, and Mary because she had not yet lived
with Joseph. But each of them accepted the child given to them by God, and they did so with reverence
for his great blessing.
Elizabeth recognized that she had been especially blessed by God. She was awed by the miracle
which had taken place in her womb. But when Elizabeth saw her cousin, she realized that an even greater
work of God was present in Mary. Filled with the Holy Spirit, she cried out, “Most blessed are you
among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb.” She was so awed by the miracle which had taken
place in Mary’s womb that she felt unworthy even to be in her presence: “And how does this happen to
me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?”
And the children themselves show us that life is sacred. When Mary approached, carrying within
her the Son of God, the unborn John leaped in his mother’s womb, as if already to acknowledge and
worship the Son that Mary carried.
As I said, this is a feast of life, but it is also a feast of joy. Elizabeth’s exclamation was one of
exuberant joy, and Luke tells us she was filled with the Holy Spirit and cried out in a loud voice. She is
