December 22
The Magnificat
Today's vesper antiphon speaks to Jesus as the "King of all the nations, the only joy of every human heart."
One of the now "traditional" movies lots of people see each Christmas is one set in the middle of the last century. It's called "A Christmas Story." We see through the eyes of a grown-up Ralphie his favorite Christmas memory, the lead up to and the fulfillment of his tenth Christmas, when he received a much desired air rifle. The film ends with Ralphie and his brother, Randy, asleep on Christmas night clutching their favorite Christmas gifts.
Were these coveted presents their ticket to happiness? What about the parents, who seemed so delighted to watch their sons opening their toys? The feeling all, young and old, experienced was pleasure. It lasted, appropriately, the rest of the day, and maybe into the next. But pleasure, as everyone has admitted at least since Aristotle's day, is not lasting happiness. Even the pleasure we experience from giving to others, which is in my experience more intense and long-lasting, doesn't last forever. We are made to want more than that in life.
The Gospel we just read, the song of Mary, is called in one commentary: “a ponderous piece of poetry with little originality or imagination.” I looked up how many times this ponderous piece of poetry called the Magnificat has been set to music in The Music Locator, and discovered that over a hundred composers have used this text as their inspiration over the ages, including the unoriginal J.S. Bach. The Church still prays these words during evening prayer every day.
Hannah, Elizabeth and Mary were three of the great women of Biblical times. To understand them, we need to consider the status of women in general in those times. Women were under the care and protection of their fathers until they were about fourteen. Then they were married, almost always in an arranged marriage. It was important for them to bear sons, because once their husbands died, as they often did before the age of forty, through disease or war, they had to be supported by their sons. No sons, no support, no dignity. It was, then, a primitive form of life insurance to have male children.
Hannah and Elizabeth were, in Biblical language, “barren.” They were getting old, probably over age forty, and had no sons to support them. Moreover, in Hannah’s case, there was another wife who kept taunting her about having no children. In our day, we can’t imagine the horrible self-image and torment that could produce in a childless Hebrew woman. Just the opposite of happiness, she wallowed in misery.
God showed His mercy to both Hannah and Elizabeth through the agency of an angel. Both women became pregnant under miraculous circumstances. Humans could do nothing; only God’s tender mercies could make a difference, and did.
Mary, however, became pregnant under different circumstances. No man was involved–in fact, her only objection to the angel was “no man has touched me.” God Himself would be the father of her Son. This is the ultimate miracle, the Incarnation, the condescension of the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity taking on weak human nature. In the world of Hannah and Elizabeth, God showed His mercy to individuals by giving them each a child. In the world of the New Covenant and the Virgin Mary, God showed His mercy to an entire people by becoming their child.
Mary, then, even in this chapter in Luke, is seen to be, the Mother of the whole Christ, in some way our mother, too. In John’s Gospel, the whole Church then takes the place of her Son when, on Calvary, Jesus says to her “Woman, behold your son”; and to John, who symbolizes every disciple, “Son, behold your mother.”
During this Christmas season, we all want a gift one cannot buy in a store or order from Amazon. We want to get closer to God, who will be in the next life our ultimate happiness. What we want is true Joy, more Joy than even a new air rifle can give to a nine-year-old boy. It makes sense that we should follow Mary’s prophetic declaration, “all generations will call me blessed”, by praying her prayer, the Magnificat, or any other prayer that commemorates the immense gift of God to man, through the woman Mary. She and Joseph named the child Jesus, because He is the Way toward ultimate union with God, what every human heart yearns for. We attain joy even in sorrow when we turn our lives over to Jesus as our King. With Mary, we attain our true dignity by saying daily to God: behold the servant of the Lord, be it done to me according to your word.
