Magnificat

Mary set out and traveled to the hill country in haste to a town of Judah, where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the infant leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Spirit, cried out in a loud voice and said, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. 

And how does this happen to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For at the moment the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the infant in my womb leaped for joy. Blessed are you who believed that what was spoken to you by the Lord would be fulfilled.”

And Mary said: “My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord; my spirit rejoices in God my Savior for he has looked with favor on his lowly servant. From this day all generations will call me blessed: the Almighty has done great things for me and holy is his Name. He has mercy on those who fear him in every generation. He has shown the strength of his arm and has scattered the proud in their conceit. He has cast down the mighty from their thrones and has lifted up the lowly. He has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent away empty. 

He has come to the help of his servant Israel for he has remembered his promise of mercy, the promise he made to our fathers, to Abraham and his children forever.” Mary remained with her about three months and then returned to her home. (Luke 1:39-56)

We all know about Mary and her belief that the Almighty had done great things for her.  Do we know the rest of the story, or at least a part of it.  Bishop Robert Barron provides some insight.  He said in the Word On Fire Bible: Mary then delivers an exultant prayer reminiscent in almost every detail of the prayer uttered centuries before by Hannah upon the birth of Samuel (1 Sam. 2:1-10).  Surely Luke is thereby bolstering his claim that Jesus is the long-awaited Son of David, the fulfillment of Nathan’s prophecy.  Finally, an intriguing detail: after the Uzzah incident, David sent the ark to the home of Obed-edom, where it stayed for three months.  After proclaiming her great song, the Magnificat, “Mary remained with [Elizabeth] about three months and then returned to her home.” There can be little doubt that Luke is consciously echoing these stories of the ark in order to highlight Mary’s identity as Theotokos, the “God-bearer.”…Jesus definitively fulfills what David himself left incomplete and unfinished. (end)  

Fascinating!

Do our souls proclaim the greatness of the Lord?  Do our spirits rejoice in God our Savior?  If not, then why not?  

Have we scattered the proud in their conceit?  Have we cast down the mighty from their thrones and lifted up the lowly? Have we filled the hungry with good things?  If not, then why not?

Deacon David Pierce