He said Mary’s response to God’s call did not turn her attention toward herself but opened her heart to the needs of others. After receiving the Angel’s message that she would become the Mother of the Son of God, Mary “set out and went with haste into the hill country” to visit Elizabeth.
“These words, ‘with haste’, tell us something essential about Mary. She does not delay when love calls. She does not calculate the cost when someone needs her. She does not ask what she will receive in return. She simply goes,” Archbishop Jagodziński said.
He explained that Mary’s encounter with Elizabeth demonstrates how union with God should lead to service and the practice of human virtues, describing Christian vocation as the call to “bring Christ to others.”
“The union with God and the supernatural life necessarily lead to the practice of human virtues: Mary brings joy into Elizabeth’s home precisely because she brings Christ,” The Apostolic Nuncio said.
Archbishop Jagodziński noted that Elizabeth recognised the presence of God through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit when she exclaimed, “And why has this happened to me, that the mother of my Lord comes to me?”
He said the same Holy Spirit should help Christians recognise Christ not only in the Eucharist, the Sacraments and the Word of God, but also in people who need their help, including “the poor, the suffering, the lonely, the forgotten, and sometimes even in the person whom we find difficult to forgive.”
Reflecting on Pope Leo XIV’s 2025 Assumption homily, Archbishop Jagodziński highlighted the Pope’s description of “the peacemakers and bridge-builders in a broken world” as “the joy of the Church.”
He said the Pope’s appeal, “Let us be converted by their witness!” should challenge Christians today to embrace a life of conversion.
“The Assumption is not only a feast inviting us to raise our eyes towards Heaven. It also asks us what kind of life we are living here on earth,” Archbishop Jagodziński said.
He explained that while Mary’s Assumption points to humanity’s ultimate destination, her encounter with Elizabeth shows the path Christians are called to follow.
