THE WORD BECAME FLESH

Wednesday in the fourth week of Advent, 2021

1Sam 1: 24-28

(Ps) 1Sam 2:

Luke 1: 46-56

Mary Sings Praise

Elizabeth declared Mary blessed because of her faith, ‘Blessed is she who believed that the promise made her by the Lord would be fulfilled’.

 In response to Elizabeth’s beatitude, Mary gives expression to her faith in prayer, the prayer that has come to be known as the Magnificat, from the Latin, ‘magnifies’, ‘My soul magnifies the Lord’ or ‘proclaims the greatness of the Lord’. The prayer begins in a very personal way. Mary praises God for choosing someone as lowly as her to be mother of God’s Son. ‘He has looked upon his lowly servant…The Almighty has done great things for me’. Yet, the prayer then broadens out beyond Mary’s personal experience to the way God has been working among the people of Israel all along. He has been constantly choosing the lowly, exalting them, filling the hungry with good things, while, at the same time, routing the proud in heart, pulling down princes from their thrones. 

We are reminded of what Saint Paul says in his first letter to the Corinthians, ‘God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, things that are not, to reduce to nothing things that are’. Paul, following Mary, is suggesting that God does not choose as the world chooses. God often speaks powerfully through those whom many would consider as having very little to say. We need to keep becoming more attuned to God’s ways of speaking to us, which very often do not correspond to the expectations or standards of the age. In trying to discern what the Spirit is saying to the churches today, we have to ask not only ‘How well are we listening?’ but ‘To whom are we listening?’

Let us pray: Lord Jesus, help me to seek you earnestly in humility and confidence. May I always magnify and praise your great mercy and glory. Amen.

+Remain blessed