Today’s Gospel is the “Canticle of Mary” also called the Magnificat (from the Latin “to magnify, to praise”). Mary gives praise and thanks to God for calling her to be the mother of Jesus, to be the mother of God. Mary has just come to visit her cousin Elizabeth who is pregnant with John the Baptist. Both John the Baptist and Elizabeth witness to the great calling of Mary:
John the Baptist: “When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the infant leaped in her womb…”
Elizabeth: “Most blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. And how does this happen to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?” (Luke 1:41-43).
Mary gives praise to the Lord her God and is filled with great joy. As Elizabeth has just testified Mary acknowledges that “From this day all generations will call me blessed: the Almighty has done great things for me.”
Mary continues her psalm prayer or canticle by praising God for the reversal of human fortunes that he is bringing about:
“He 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.”
Mary proclaims the great love and mercy of God who “has mercy on those who fear him in every generation…he remembered his promise of mercy.”
Mary already knows that the one true God is a God who is rich in mercy and a God of love who loves all people:
“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him.” (John 3:16-17).
Mary’s Son, Jesus, will incarnate this love of God. The one true God that Jesus reveals is a God of love not a God of hate:
“Beloved, let us love one another, because love is of God; everyone who loves is begotten by God and knows God. Whoever is without love does not know God, for God is love.” (1 John 4:7-8).
God shows the abundance of his love by showering it on both the good and the bad as Jesus teaches in his Sermon on the Mount:
“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your heavenly Father, for he makes his sun rise on the bad and the good, and causes rain to fall on the just and the unjust.” (Matthew 5:43-45).
Today let us join with Mary in her canticle of praise and thanks to God as he calls each of us to be his servants:
“My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord;
my spirit rejoices in God my savior.
for he has looked upon his lowly servant.”
Image: “Unknown Artist – The Visitation [c.1630]” by Gandalf’s Gallery is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.