St. Mary's Church Elizabeth, IL

11/30

Rediscover discipleship with Mary's Magnificat

A prayer we can take to our hearts

Read Luke, chapter 1, verses 46-55

The Magnificat begins by calling us to appreciate a fundamental truth of believing.  Discipleship is not primarily duty and obligation.  The gospel is not founded upon our moral perfections.  God's goodness is the ground of all things. Extolling that goodness flows into gladness.  If we are dour and begrudging believers, something is wrong.  When we preceive that goodness of the God whom we adore, the result of such a revalation is happiness and joy.

Exploring the heart of the believer.

The first strope of the body of Magnificat leads us to examine what is required of a person of faith.  Verse 48 describes two necessary attitudes; verses 49-50 illustrate what these attitudes create in the world.  Mary asserts that she is both lowly and blessed.  Both are necessary attitudes for the discipleship.  Echoing again the words of Hannan (1 Samuel 1:11), Mary Professes that God has bestowed favor "on the lowliness of his servant."  Mary situates herself among the Anawim.  She is totally dependent upon God's power.  Without God's intervention she could no have been called to her role in salvation; she could not be bearing the life within her womb.  But her lowliness is to be equated with worthlessness.  Her dependence does not lead to helplessness.  It flows into a surprising pride:  "All generations will call me blessed." Mary's role and value will be recognized not only by those around her but by the people in every time and place.

The Magnificat invites every person of faith to live in the tension between lowliness and blessedness.  We must always own our dependence of God's power.  All our abilities, resources, and successes are only possible because of God's presence and grace.  Yet lowly as we are, our status is a high one.  Because of God's gifts to us, we are worthy and capable.  We have been blessed and, like Mary, we can boast in the many ways God has made us great.

Verses 49-50 illustrate what happens when believer lives in the tension between lowliness and blessedness.  The result is fear.  Fear in the biblical sense is not horror or panic.  It is to live in the awe of God's presence, to know both God's greatness and love.  Therefore, 'those who fear him" are those who recognize how our transcendent God designs to care done"great things' for her.  Because of her reverent fear, the world has been changed.

God's final act of salvation has begun.

Toppling the Powerful

The season strope of the Magnificat, contrasts the attitude of the true disciple with the powerful (verse 51-53).  The hymn identifies the powerful as the proud and the rich.  Operating form the mind-set of the Anawim, the powerful are those who trust their own strength, not in God.  Their pride is the illusion that they can act independently from Gods greatness and accomplish their own will without regard for their Creator.  The powerful, then, are those who presume they are only accontable to their own designs and greed. They feel free to exploit whatever resources are in their grasp, for they imagine that the world and those who are in it are so many object for them to manipulate.

God's purpose is to reverse the plans of the powerful.  Because God is the God of the Anawim, God will scatter the designs of those who depend upon their own stregth and exalt those who trust in divine help.  The Magnificat draw again from Hannah's song, "The bows of the mighty are broken, but the feeble gird on strength' (1 Samuel 2:4).

As we pray with Mary, the fate of the powerful gives us hope.  Even though the world seems firmly in the hand of those who exploit it for their own ends, the believer trusts in God.  Political rulers, captains of industry, tyrants of wealth and influence seem to call all the shops.  But the lowly understand God's power.  Ultimately those who do no acknowledge God's resign will fail.  Their fall is not a cause for partisan spite but a reason for humble faith.  God is establishing the kingdom.  Those who oppose it do so at their own peril.

Fr. Joachim