Wednesday in the Fourth Week of Advent, December 22, 2021

Luke 1:46-56

Mary said: “My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord; my spirit rejoices in God my savior. for he has looked upon 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, and 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 for ever.”  Mary remained with Elizabeth about three months and then returned to her home.

The Gospel reading for today’s Mass is the praise of God the Virgin Mary utters as her relative Elizabeth recognizes that she is the Mother of the Redeemer. 

“My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord.”  Both the Greek and the Latin have, “My soul magnifies the Lord.”  This should not be translated as “proclaims”: if that meaning was meant, a number of other words would have worked better.  The fact is, Mary’s soul did not “proclaim” the greatness of the Lord.  Rather, her soul magnified the Lord.  But what does this mean?  We can understand this first as Mary magnifying the praise of God that was sung by the angels in heaven and by the praise offered to God in the Temple worship.  Second, we can understand what she means in terms of God’s image.  That is, each of us is created in the image and likeness of God.  This image is increased or deepened by our faith in him.  As Mary has become with child of God’s Son by the consent of her faith in him, her soul magnifies his image in her so much more.  To look upon her love, for instance, is to see a clear image of God’s love.  This is surely greater than “proclaiming” God’s praise vocally.  In addition, the tense of the verb is continual, meaning that she does not magnify the Lord on this single occasion, but throughout her existence, without coming to an end.  Also, the Greek and Latin words translated as “soul” have the additional meanings of “life” and “spirit”.  When Mary says that her “soul” magnifies the Lord, she is saying that her life — her living being, all that she is — magnifies him.  We can translate the first line, then, as: “My being is magnifying the Lord.”

“My spirit rejoices in God my savior.”  The Greek word translated here as “spirit” also means “wind” or “breath”.  While the soul is the seat of the intellect and will, the “spirit” maintains the physical life of the body, in the ancient understanding.  This line completes the thought in the first line: the entirety of Mary’s being magnifies the Lord, every moment and every part of her organism.  Now, the Lord is often praised as a Savior in the Psalms and in songs of victory, such as that of Miriam after the destruction of the Egyptian chariots in the Red Sea (cf. Exodus 15, 1-18), it is not immediately clear why Mary calls God her “Savior”.  As far as we know, she was not threatened in the past.  But her speaking of God in this way tells us that she understands very well that his Son will save his people from their sins, and though she herself is without sin, he will save her, too.  

“He has looked upon his lowly servant.”  The salvation of God will be worked through the Son carried in her womb, the womb of his “lowly servant”.  The Greek has: “He has looked with favor upon the lowly condition (or abasement) of his slave.”  That is, Almighty God does not simply regard her, but esteems her highly in her lowliness as his slave.  He sees her humility, her understanding that God owes her nothing and that her very existence depends upon his will, and so she owes him everything.

“From this day all generations will call me blessed.”  The lowly slave of the Lord acknowledges that due to God’s graciousness, she will be deemed blessed by all the generations to come, beginning with Elizabeth.  Her own blessedness is a reflection of God’s glory which shines upon her.  In no way does Mary claim to deserve what God has done for her.  If the slave is blessed, then so much more her Master, from whom the blessing comes.  “The Almighty has done great things for me, and holy is his Name.”  This can be more literally translated as “The Powerful One did great things for me and holy (or sacred) is his Name.”  She calls God by a title that emphasizes his ability to do whatever he wills to do.  The verb is not in the perfect tense but in the aorist, so she is speaking of some particular act God performed once and completed, and this would point to the Holy Spirit “overshadowing” her so that the Son of God was conceived in her womb.  The meaning of “holy” or “sacred” is of someone or something set apart for some elevated purpose.  It is not to be touched by anyone who is not designated for it.  It is kept away from everyone.  God’s Name was considered “holy” in the sense that it could be pronounced only by the high priest, and only on one occasion during the year.  This signified the utter “otherness” of God.  As Mary acknowledges the holiness of his Name, she carries his Son, who became man in order to enter our life.

The words Mary speaks about herself and what God has done for her reveal a great wisdom and an immense humility.  We ask her to help us to know ourselves as God’s slaves and to rejoice in all he has done for us.