Dear Folks,
I realize this may be a little late for the Advent cycle but it is part of a meditation I wrote in preparation for Christmas. I suppose if one was going to be technical about the last part, it is nine months late, because this story occurred that long before Christmas. For the sake of argument, let’s all agree that the December 25date is a dodgy historical concoction; but regardless of that, it is one I hold dear. This is an un-edited and a bit rough around the edges reflection on Mary’s Song or Psalm (Luke 1:46-55).
MARY’S SONG
Mary’s Song is one of the most magnificent passages in the Bible. The song is wonderful even though Mary herself elicits a variety of responses. She is shunned and forgotten by some, many do not know what to make of her and are wary, still others seem almost obsessed by her. It is reminiscent of C.S. Lewis’ warning about the devil in his preface to the Screwtape Letters: “There are two equal and opposite errors in which our race can fall about the devils. One is to disbelieve in their existence. The other is to believe, and to feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them. They themselves are equally pleased by both errors, and hail a materialist or a magician with the same delight.” (In Lewis’ defense he is not referring to an illusionist here but metaphysical manipulators.) The appropriateness to the Lewis quote in regards to Mary is that non-liturgical Protestants, particularly Evangelicals, have ignored what God has honored while some liturgical Protestants and some Roman Catholics have had an unhealthy obsession with Mary, the mother of Jesus. Be that as it may, all these different perspectives could do with a re-discovering of Mary’s words to God and therefore to us today.
This hymn or song of Mary is known as the Magnificat. It is known as the first hymn of the Gospels and therefore of the faith and Christ’s Church. What is a hymn or song but poetry put to music. Songs and hymns seek to express things we might not have words for. It is a song of openness on Mary’s part; it is a song for us to re-enact, repeat and re-live in the way she approaches God. It is a song of love, of faith, and of trust. The faithfulness and fealty that Mary would express in this song, would be a faith that would come back to challenge her, to hurt and to harm her in ways that we cannot begin to imagine.
Much is rightly made of Mary’s love and glorifying of God. Much is also made of her youth, innocence, and vulnerability. This view of Mary can be utterly disrespectful. She shows herself to be much stronger than history gives her credit for; or many Christians for that matter. The sentimental and soppy version of Mary does a disservice to God, Gabriel and Mary herself. God knew the strength and vibrancy of the one he chose; there is no doubting or mistake here. Gabriel was not a fool. Gabriel was also not a fool on an errand to a fool. Gabriel was meeting for the first time the most significant woman in the Christian faith. Mary was not a surrogate, a pious petri dish for some cosmic incarnational experiment. The very essence of God is united with the very essence of humanity in Mary. Creating, as H.D. MacDonald would recount, the very best in “Jesus (both) fully human and fully divine.”
May we echo with Mary, her words in Luke 1:46-47: “My soul glorifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour”. May we seek to do the same and experience the promise and presence of the living Christ as we anticipate his birth this Advent.
Warmly,
In Christ,
Jeremy