The Magnificat-Mary’s Song

03Jun
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, 
he 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 remembered his promise of mercy, 
the promise he made to our fathers, 
to Abraham and his children forever.

-The Magnificat-Mary’s Song -Luke 1:46-55


After the Angel Gabriel appears to Mary and upon learning her cousin Elizabeth is pregnant, she travels eighty miles over the hills of Judah to be with her. At the heart of their reunion is the revelation that both women carry children miraculously conceived. The Annunciation and the Visitation are the origins of our Christian story:  Mary’s child is the Messiah and Elizabeth is carrying the forerunner of Jesus, St. John the Baptist. If, as C. Campbell Morgan, the famous Bible scholar and pastor of Westminster said of the Annunciation, “It is magnificent, it is mysterious and it is majestic,” then the Visitation in Luke, 1:39-56, is even more so: when heaven and earth are unified with the Holy Spirit.  


Mariotto Albertinelli’s (1474-1515) painting, Visitation (1503 Uffizi) captures the moment of divine intervention when Mary and Elizabeth meet. Their union is telepathic. We see intuition, empathy and love. We all also can see faith and fear; joy and sadness; hope and despair; and light and darkness. It is sacred and solemn greeting, maybe “otherworldly,” except that if we reflect carefully, we may also have seen unions like this: when mothers and daughters meet in a moment that takes them out of time, when old friends reunite, maybe unexpectedly, and the world stops: when the union becomes the center of the world.  


In Albertinelli’s “Visitation” Elizabeth leans into Mary, clutching her right hand, and reaching out for Mary’s shoulder. We can see and imagine her proclaiming “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear!” Their tender, expressive faces contrast with the most powerful moment in Scripture between two women chosen by God, the mother of John the Baptist and the mother of the Jesus Christ. We are forced to reckon with the truth that God chose these two women to be the first to know that the long-awaited Messiah was coming. They and their children would be the epicenter of the story. The greeting, their expression, their embrace begins the greatest chronicle ever foretold.  


Noted theologians recognize the importance of the Luke’s Visitation story.  John Calvin highlighted Mary’s visit as an act of service and true faith that expresses itself in love, relationship and community, underscoring the need for human connection and mutual support. Dietrich Bonhoeffer regarded Mary's visit as God’s presence among His people. It is not surprising that he saw the Magnificat as a revolutionary declaration, foreshadowing the fulfillment of God’s promises and the arrival of a new social order in Christ.  St. Augustine emphasized the Magnificat as a profound expression of humility and praise, reflecting God’s grace, lifting the lowly and satisfying the hungry. Elizabeth Johnson emphasizes Mary and Elizabeth’s active participation in God's plan, the significance of women's voices in the biblical narrative and the life of the church. These scholars hear Luke’s call to counterbalance our ingrained notions of traditional patriarchy of divinity. 


The Visitation story is a transcendent moment, mundane and divine, that bridges the Old and the New Testament setting the stage for Jesus’s ministry. Mary and Elizabeth are illumined in grace, faith, expectation, and God’s presence, showing us that we may also proclaim the greatness of the Lord, especially when we can recognize the unexpected as an invitation to give or accept grace. 


Musical Reflection - The Song of Mary | The Magnificat in Aramaic and English


Give us grace to accept interruptions as invitations when we might proclaim the greatness of the Lord. Amen.

Love

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