SAINT MARY THE VIRGIN, MOTHER OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST

Mary said,

 

My soul magnifies the Lord,
and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant.
Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed.
for the Mighty One has done great things for me,
and holy is his name.

His mercy is for those who fear him
from generation to generation.

He has shown strength with his arm;
he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts.

He has brought down the powerful from their thrones,
and lifted up the lowly.

he has filled the hungry with good things,
and sent the rich away empty.

He has helped his servant Israel,
in remembrance of his mercy,

according to the promise he made to our ancestors,
to Abraham and to his descendants forever.

 

This morning we are looking at the Magificat, one of the most beautiful poetic songs in the entire Bible. The song is attributed to a young teenage girl named Mary. We don’t know too much about Mary, but what we do know is substantial. It’s evident that young Mary was brought up in a religious Jewish home. She reflects the upbringing from good parents that brought a girl into the world, bull of love and faith. In verse before the song, we are looking at Mary responding to the angel that tells her she will be the mother of the Son of God. Then Mary says: Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word. (Luke 1:38) What a beautiful and transparent answer to the enormous role she was commissioned to live. That the kind of response I wish I can have whenever the Lord speaks to me about something God would like me to do.

We should not take this song of Mary lightly. Yes, Mary was a young child, and her response to be the servant of the Lord is encouraging to us as followers of saints, especially of Mary. But we need to think about some of the thins included in this song, that can slip our viewpoint because we are looking at the special quiet y0oung Mary. Maybe she was but let’s look at this with a magnifying glass. She was more than a precious young girl that agreed sweetly to follow the Lord and to be his servant in this role as the mother of Jesus.

 

His mercy is for those who fear him
from generation to generation.
He has shown strength with his arm;
he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts.
He has brought down the powerful from their thrones,
and lifted up the lowly.

he has filled the hungry with good things,
and sent the rich away empty

 

In the past century at least three different countries have banned the public recitation of the Magnificat, also known as Mary’s Song. They considered the song’s message as dangerously subversive. During the British rule of India, the Magnificat was prohibited from being sung in church. Guatemala discovered Mary’s words about Gods preferential love for the poor to be revolutionary. The song was credited for giving hope that major change was possible. In Argentina, after the mothers of the Plaza De Mayo-whose children all disappeared during the was called “the dirty war”. They placed words from the Magnificat on posters throughout the capital, and the Argentine government outlawed any public display of Mary’s song.

Theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer, before being executed by the Nazi’s in Germany spoke these words about Mary’s Song:

“The song of Mary is the oldest Advent hymn. It is at once the most passionate, the wildest, one might even say the most revolutionary Advent hymn ever sung. This is not the gentle, tender, dreamy Mary whom we sometimes see in paintings.…This song has none of the sweet, nostalgic, or even playful tones of some of our Christmas carols. It is instead a hard, strong, inexorable song about the power of God and the powerlessness of humankind.”

Mary was a sweet little religious girl, but she was also a prophet and follower of Jesus Christ. The thorn also pinged her heart and she too was a follower of her son, and a messenger of his mission which was not only revolutionary but included a godly love that was both beautiful and just.

May we like Elizabeth share these words: Mary, blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb, Jesus.

Amen.