ADVENT IV 2018

• Micah 5:2-5a •
• Luke 1:46b-55 or Psalm 80:1-7 •
• Hebrews 10:5-10 •



The Visitation -- Jacopo da Pontormo (1494-1556)

• Luke 1:39-45, (46-55)

Rather unusually, on this Sunday one of the lectionary readings can be repeated. ‘The Magnificat’ is a rapturous song of praise that Mary offers to God when she realizes she is to be the Mother of Jesus – ‘My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord’. It can be used in place of the Psalm, and then heard for a second time as the centerpiece of the Gospel reading.

Mary has walked to a distant village to visit to her cousin Elizabeth. It is from Elizabeth that she receives final confirmation of how remarkable her position is: ‘Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb’. Like the Magnificat itself, these words have also become a widely used and long established prayer in the worship of the Church. The Magnificat, which is unique to Luke’s Gospel, has been said and sung innumerably many times over many centuries. This is powerful testimony to its deep spiritual significance for Christian believers in every time and place.

Roman ruins at Helopolis

Oddly, though, sheer familiarity can actually deafen us to the truly mysterious story it reflects. God’s mighty work of redemption, the point and purpose of the whole created cosmos -- Luke's Gospel proclaims -- begins in a remote part of the Roman Empire with the unexpected pregnancy of a teenage girl from a tiny village. The Magnificat signals Mary’s acceptance of what might well bring her shame and degradation, and this village girl's acceptance  inaugurates a spiritual transformation of human kind.

Such an unlikely scenario makes Mary’s words -- ‘From now on all generations will call me blessed’ -- seem absurd. The world in which she lived was a man's world, dominated by one of the greatest, harshest, and most enduring empires in human history. And yet, she was right. The Roman Empire has vanished so completely that only a few archeological traces remain. In sharp contrast,  at Christmas billions of people, will give thanks for Mary’s role in their redemption. While Caesar and Herod are literally ancient history, in every part of the world, people can be found calling Mary  f ‘blessed’. What greater evidence could there be that God has indeed ‘brought down the mighty from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly’?