Holy Cross Monastery, West Park, NY
Our lesson today recounts the Visitation of Mary to her cousin Elizabeth. It makes both of them prophetesses of the great things God will bring about. Those great things will come in the life, death and resurrection of a little boy who is growing in the womb of Mary.
Mary’s prophecy comes in the shape of the Magnificat. This new testament canticle features prominently in every office of Vespers we sing here a the monastery. This song of Mary is a constant reminder of the work of God in the world, and therefore our mission in the world.
The Magnificat is of course a song of praise to the glory of God. But it is also a revolutionary song and a socioeconomic manifesto. By its sheer repetition in our monastic life, we can come to neglect those aspects of the Magnificat. A conscious re-appraisal of this gem is in order.
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But first, let’s look at the circumstances of the Magnificat. The Song of Mary is uttered by an out-of-wedlock pregnant teenager. For this prophecy of what God is about, God chose a poor servant girl from a provincial backwater of the empire, with dark skin and dark brown eyes and dark hair to be the mother of Jesus.
And she sings her song of praise in answer to an older cousin’s greeting. A cousin who was hitherto considered barren and whose husband priest is dumbstruck into a temporary silence of the patriarchy.
Mary and Elizabeth are two marginal people in their society. And yet it is they who are announcing the world-changing coming of God’s justice, to be born in a brown-skinned little baby.
In God’s choice of her prophetesses, God has already marked a preferential option for the poor; poor in power, poor in resources, poor in status.
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Mary starts by glorifying God. She expresses her awe for God’s being and her joy at God’s doings. Her whole being is engaged in this rejoicing. "My soul magnifies the Lord, an my spirit rejoices in God, my Savior!" We can’t help but be uplifted by her devotion and join her in singing that God is awesome!
Next, Mary expresses her amazement at God choosing a lowly servant for God’s mission. God didn’t choose a queen; God didn’t choose a millionaire; God didn’t chose a celebrated bride with status. She chose a poor servant girl from the backwaters.
Mary acknowledges her exaltation. God has chosen her to be the mother the Savior. All generations will count her blessed.
Then Mary spends most of her song describing the way God is in general. This general character of God accounts for why she has treated her the way she has in her lowliness and thus leads her to rejoice and magnify the Mighty One.
And this character portrait of God paints a great reversal of fortune.
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Mary sings what God is really like. God is not the least impressed by any of our pride, power, or opulence. She has mercy on those who are in awe of God. God favors those who humble themselves. She cares for those who turn from the ego boosting accumulation of wealth to the lowliness of self-denial for the sake of others.
Listen to the five important verbs in this part of the Magnificat. Mary tells us that God regards or respects the poor, exalts the poor, feeds the poor, helps the poor, remembers the poor.
Those verbs are in the past tense in the Magnificat but they need to be in the future tense in our lives. God has done a lot of this already. But as the hands and feet of God in the world, we need to continue the mission. We need to undertake being lovers of the poor for God’s sake.
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The Song of Mary is a revolutionary bombshell because it turns the values of this world upside down. The poor are important, not so much the rich and mighty. Mary is announcing what her Son will be about.
Do you remember what Jesus said in his first sermon in the gospel of Luke? A first sermon reveals what is important to a person. In his first sermon in Luke, Jesus chose to read from Isaiah and said,
‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to bring good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives
and recovery of sight to the blind,
to let the oppressed go free,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.’
And Jesus added:
‘Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.’
You see, prisons have always been filled with poor people, and that is true today. Do a sociological study of our prisons and you will find our prisons filled with poor people. In his first sermon, Jesus is passionately concerned about poor people, and poor people are often found in prison or fighting wars for the rich.
Do you remember the beatitudes in Luke? Do you remember the first beatitude in Luke, his first blessing? Jesus said,
‘Blessed are you who are poor,
for yours is the kingdom of God.’
The poor get the kingdom of God. They understand their utter need of God. And they receive the kingdom.
We know that rich people don’t need God very much, because rich people are usually busy living life to the fullest and don’t have time for God.
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But Luke’s motif of God’s reversal of fortunes is not intended to raise violent resistance or to drive the wealthy and powerful to despair.
Hopefully, the well-off feel exhorted to deal with their wealth in a way that brings them into a positive relation with the poor in order to partake in the same promised salvation.
God’s revolution is not a violent one but it announces an entirely different way of being stewards of the Earth. What would the laws governing our economy look like if they were written with the Magnificat in mind?
How can we support those kinds of socioeconomic transformation in our lives? Do we vote for people who stand for that kind of society? Do we spend our resources (time, money and prayer) in a way that supports the poor?
The Magnificat announces a revolutionary Jesus. Come Lord Jesus, come!
Amen.
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