Mary, The Mother of Our Lord

Luke 1:39-45 (ESV)
In those days Mary arose and went with haste into the hill country, to a town in Judah, [40] and she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. [41] And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the baby leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit, [42] and she ex claimed with a loud cry, "Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! [43] And why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me? [44] For behold, when the sound of your greeting came to my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. [45] And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord."

The Gospel of Luke has all the trappings of having been told by Mary. Luke says he has been interviewing eyewitnesses. It seems as if he is interviewing Mary here. Who else could give this information? Makes me think thought that the gospel was written quite early on after the death of Christ, as Mary had to be in her late forties by then, and that is at a minimum. If he even waited 20 years it would have put her into her late 60s. Which isn’t to hard a thought to comprehend. Well passed average life expectancy, but when you eliminate the death of infants, the people who survived childhood, tended to have long lives if nothing like war intervened. To this day a fair number of people make it to their 60s without t he consultation of a doctor. But I’m not sure if I want to say the gospel was written to much after that.
It is a wonderful story. John the Baptist has faith, even before he is born. He leaps for joy in the womb according to the story. I never understand those who say infants can’t have faith. They have very convoluted ideas as to what faith is. Elizabeth too praises Mary and her Lord with whom Mary is pregnant. The old term for Mary is Theotokus. ( According to the dictionary, the proper pronunciation of that term is along the lines of ‘Theo Tacos.’ I put a little more emphasis on the first syllable myself. But that pronunciation does seem to explain why they sell those candles with her image on it in the Hispanic isle of the grocery store where tacos are sold. ) The term means God bearer. The idea being that Mary was pregnant with her God, the same one who created her. And this is exactly what Elizabeth indicates with her expression “the mother of my Lord”.
Notice, the same word, Lord, is used in an unmistakable reference to God in the same passage. Mary is blessed for having believed what was spoken from the Lord. So we too who believe what is spoken here, are too blessed.