The Subversive Virgin
Dear Friends,
During the Season of Advent, our Sunday Forum participants have been discussing the songs or “Canticles” in Luke that punctuate the story of Jesus’ birth. This Sunday in church, we will be singing the first and most familiar of these, Song of Mary, The Magnificat. This is the song Mary sings when she visits her cousin Elizabeth, who confirms that the child Mary bears is indeed the holy child of God. “Blessed are you among women," Elizabeth tells Mary, "and blessed is the fruit of your womb."
Upon hearing this affirmation, Mary bursts forth into song, “My soul magnifies the Lord." And then her song goes on to do just that. To make more visible and clear - to magnify for the world -a God invested in lasting change and wholeness for all of creation. Mary describes a reality in which our broken and unjust status quo is magnificently reversed: the proud are scattered and the humble honored. The powerful are brought down, and the lowly are lifted up. Mary describes a world reordered and renewed — a world so beautifully characterized by love and justice, only the Christ she carries in her womb can birth it into being.
And yet, the message of this lovely canticle has not always been welcomed over the centuries, not unlike like the message of Jesus himself. This fact became even clearer to me in a commentary I read this week:
“Mary's song is so subversive in its cultural, socioeconomic and political implications, it has been banned many times in modern history. When the British ruled India, the Magnificat was prohibited from being sung in churches. Similarly, during the "Dirty War" in Argentina, after the mothers of disappeared children postered the capital plaza with the words of the Magnificat, the military junta banned all public displays of the song. Too much hope, they decided, is a dangerous thing.”
But ‘too much hope’ is precisely what we're called to cultivate and proclaim on this fourth and final week in Advent. The Messiah is almost here, Mary tells us, and the promise of his lasting reign changes everything. There is no unjust system, oppressive hierarchy, or arrogant leadership structure that God will not upend. No promise God will fail to keep. No broken, exploited life God will not save.”*
Mary found her voice and sang her song, and shared it with her world, small as it was at the time. During our own time of ongoing pandemic, which has presented us with reversals of all kinds – physical, social, and political - what would it mean for us to do the same? What does your Magnificat sound like? How is God magnified through your unique perspective and vision? What words have you found to express the radical, revolutionary hope that you carry?
May your soul magnify the Lord,
Amelie+
