The Song of Mary

`Magnificat anima mea Dominum'

My soul doth magnify the Lord. One of the Gospel of Luke’s great gifts to humanity is the Magnificat, or The Song of Mary. It is poetry, and thereby it is an act of imaginative creativity. As such it is meant to move to the deepest places in our hearts and souls to inspire in us – literally to breathe into us – the Miracle of the Incarnation. In the Orthodox tradition she is known as “Theotokos” – God bearer. Like Mary, we too are to become Theotokos, God Bearers. Her song is meant to be our song. [Luke 1:39-55]

This is surely why Archbishop Thomas Cranmer, when arranging the Book of Common Prayer, means for us to say Mary’s Song at least once a day in our evening prayers (BCP 65&119). And of course, in Advent here she is among the animals in the Creche, adorned in Blue – the color of hope, the color of distance, the color of the sky to which he ascends, the color of the sea in whose sacred surf we are baptized into his life, death and resurrection, the color of Mary, his mother – Mary, Theotokos – Mary, the God-bearer.

There is so much that is odd and yet wonderful about this story. Mary sets out to visit a distant relative, a kinswoman, Elizabeth. Elizabeth, who like Sarah before her, finds herself suddenly with child at an age thought to be impossible. Zechariah, Liz’s husband and priest of the Temple, has been temporarily struck mute – that is he is unable to comment on the extreme social and religious difficulties presented by this Mary, a young girl who is unmarried and yet with child. Who in a less sensitive time would be called an unwed mother with an illegitimate child. Related to Elizabeth, Mary must also be of the priestly household of Aaron, Moses’ brother, the Levites. Her child will also be of the priestly household.

Elizabeth begins to sing, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! …As soon as I heard the sound of your greeting, the child in my womb leaped for joy!” Both women acknowledge that the children they bear are God’s own. Perhaps Mary heads for the hills to avoid all the talk on the street, the disapproving glances and possible punishment back home. Liz is six months pregnant, and yet, Mary leaves before the child known as John the Baptizer is born. Odd that she does not stay to help with and after the birth. Odd that she returns home just as she would begin “to show” as we say. When she returns is just when people on the street will begin to draw their own conclusions. How surprising that she stays so long and leaves so soon. How courageous she goes home when she does. This is not a woman who submits, but rather a woman who is strong in the Lord – the God of her people who delivers on his promises.

After all, Mary of the line of Aaron, is named after Miriam, the sister of Moses, a prophet in her own time, a liberating leader in her own right. Miriam was the primary celebrant of the Exodus, leading the women in the wilderness to dance and sing and play on their tambourines the Glory of the Lord whose mercy and loving kindness is beyond our knowing. Miriam leads the singing that the powerful Pharaoh has been brought down from the power of his throne. She not only is Mary Theotokos a God-bearer, but she bears the history, promises and hope of her people throughout the ages in her very name.

Put Elizabeth’s song alongside Mary’s song and we have before us two very strong women, both well rooted in their people’s history, rooted in hopes that have kept their families alive for millennia, and both well prepared to give birth and training to babies who will grow up to be leaders – leaders not just for Israel, but for all the world.

Richard Rohr observes that Mary’s Song is consistent with her own son’s teaching and actions. Both declare that there are at least three major obstacles to the coming Reign of God and turning the world right-side-up again: power, prestige and possessions. Or, as Mary refers to them as the proud, the mighty on their thrones, and the rich. These, she declares, God will “scatter,” “cast down,” and “send away empty-handed.” This prayer and song of Mary has been considered so subversive that the Argentine government banned it from public recitation and prayer during protest marches!” We can easily take nine-tenths of Jesus’ teachings and very clearly align it under one of those three categories: power, prestige and possessions are obstacles to God’s coming. Why can we not see that? … for some reason much of Christian history has chosen not to see this and we have localized evil in other places than Jesus did…Mary seems to have seen long, deep and lovely.” [Rohr, Preparing for Christmas, p 62-63]

These two women, Elizabeth and Mary, bear the hope that God will turn the world right-side-up again. In their bodies they carry babies whom they will raise to carry out that task. Perhaps Mary goes home when she does because she and Elizabeth have created a foundation on which Mary can stand in the face of the very real dangers and misunderstandings that shall form the basis of the rest of her life – and that of her son, Jesus.

Mary’s song proclaims what God has done for Mary, what God does in history, that God’s mercy endures throughout history, what God does to establish justice, and a final declaration of God’s mercy as witnessed as far back as Abraham and “his descendants forever." As we heard last Sunday from John, Mary declares that through her God is acting decisively with mercy for the vast majority of the world’s population, but which is decidedly bad news for the proud, the powerful and the rich who are to be scattered, torn down and “sent away empty.” Mary’s song is a prophetic warning. One might even say it is revolutionary.

Two women, two strong and faithful women, join together with God to turn the world right-side-up again. Two women who remind us of the centrality of women in God’s story and our history – women with names like Sarah, Miriam, Rebekah, Rachel, Leah, Deborah, Hannah, Ruth, Jezebel, Huldah, Esther, Mary of Magdala, Martha and the vast assortment of Mary’s to name just a few. Under the present circumstances it is crucial to remember that at key moments in our tradition’s history, the historians of our faith have placed crucial verdicts on the lips of an authorized woman. Mary continues this tradition, just as has Dorothy Day, Mother Teresa and Malala Yousafsai, to name just a few.

Each revision of the prayer book has retained Cranmer’s intent that we sing this song daily ourselves. The Magnificat, Mary’s song, and all that it represents of the reconciling desire of all God’s mercy and work, is to be for us a kind of mantra. I believe the intent behind our daily praying of the Magnificat is to make us all Theotokos – God-bearers – in a world that increasingly appears to be looking for a miracle.

Like the prophets and those who fear God in every generation, like Mary and Elizabeth, we have been chosen by God to be baptized into the Body of Christ. Like Mary, we too are called to be Theotokos – God-bearer. We are to bear her child to the world. It is not our choice, but God’s will that we do this. Armed with just these words Mary faced a dangerous and unforgiving world. We can too. Amen.