Reflection for December 22
Violet, age 12
“For nothing will be impossible for God.”
Upon learning that she is chosen to be mother to the Messiah, Mary “magnifies” God’s greatness, acknowledging God as her savior. Rejoicing in the great things that God has done for her, she reflects on God’s mercy for looking with favor on her, a lowly servant, and on God’s justice toward the poor and oppressed. Mary proclaims that God has compassion, in every generation, on all who fear God and that He will scatter the proud and cast down the mighty from their thrones. God will lift up the lowly. Revolutionary words! The hungry will be filled with good things, and the rich will be sent away empty. God will fulfill his promise of mercy to Abraham and his children forever. A new day of reckoning for the haves and the have-nots.
God is not uncomfortable with the poor and has a special concern for them. In a world of social inequality and economic disparities, Mary’s song gives voice and hope to the poor and marginalized, inspiring them to believe in the possibility of change and liberation. In the twentieth century, the Magnificat was banned in countries like Argentina, Guatemala, and during British Rule in India. Its message of social upheaval was seen as a threat to the ruling powers. Argentina's military junta prohibited it after the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo used the words to protest the disappearance of their children. In Guatemala in the 1980s, the government banned any public recitation of the subversive prayer.
Lutheran theologian and martyr Dietrich Bonhoeffer, in a 1933 Advent sermon, called the song of Mary: “the oldest Advent hymn. It is also the most passionate, the wildest, and one might almost say the most revolutionary Advent hymn that has ever been!” As our world today is under threat of increasing authoritarianism and as we continue to witness what Pope Francis called a Globalization of Indifference, the words of the Magnificat should be a source of hope for all of us as we pray them. Our God can and will make all things work together for good. “For nothing will be impossible for God.”
“Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever. Amen.”
Tim Urso